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Veterans care in region faulted in council report
Group recommends new facility for area
Friday, Oct. 9, 2009
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A report published by the region's political planning group has examined veterans services in Southern Maryland and found them to be severely lacking.
The report, compiled by the Veterans Regional Advisory Committee of the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland, calls for the construction of a new veterans services facility in Charlotte Hall, better transportation options and better cooperation between the federal Veterans Affairs Department, Navy officials and local hospitals and law enforcement.
The report estimates that there are 39,000 veterans in the region, comprising 11 percent of the population. Officials are also encouraging local veterans to register for veterans medical care, even if they don't need it at the moment, in order to reflect their numbers in the VA's internal records and gain more attention from Washington.
The report "clearly indicates the concerns that we had at the onset," said St. Mary's County Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D), who chairs the committee. "I don't think there were any real surprises. … Rural America is not being served well for the veterans returning from various conflicts. … It's absolutely proven that there are needs here that are not being met."
"The most important part of the report, I think, is that we need a continuum of comprehensive care in Southern Maryland," said Calvert County Commissioner Susan Shaw (R), who serves on the committee. "It is impossible to be working and be going all the way to Michigan Avenue in Washington, D.C., because you need an X-ray."
The report, based on focus groups and two days of meetings between county leaders, service providers and law enforcement, targets the region's federal VA facility, which is housed in a 4-decade-old building on the campus of the state-owned Charlotte Hall Veterans Home.
The report concludes that the facility is too old, small and limited to meet local veterans' needs. It makes a case for the federal government to award a grant to the Tri-County Council to create a new integrated veterans service center at a rented location as a pilot project to show how rural veterans should be serviced.
"Some of these folks are being put off for weeks at a time," Mattingly said of veterans seeking medical and mental health care.
The committee acknowledged that the federal Charlotte Hall facility is trying to make improvements. Mattingly noted that the facility has installed a telemedicine center, where veterans can speak to physicians in Washington, D.C., via a video link.
"I think that's a Band-Aid, but not a fix," Mattingly said.
"They're trying," Shaw said of the system. "It's a Band-Aid, but it's a good Band-Aid."
The report also calls for training for local law enforcement to help them recognize behavioral problems caused by post-traumatic stress disorder and other combat-related mental illness.
Officials believe that properly treating veterans is more effective and cheaper than imprisoning them.
"I see it as an opportunity to give officers more tools in the toolbox," said Charles County Commissioner Samuel N. Graves Jr. (D).
But in order to bring the report's recommendations to fruition, officials say that local veterans need to flex their political muscle, starting by registering for medical benefits. Shaw said that many veterans do not register for benefits until there is an emergency, and then they have to wait for weeks to get processed into the system.
"The most shocking thing [I found] is that the Department of Defense and the [VA] don't talk to each other," Graves said.
"If [local veterans] get registered, at least we can get those numbers on the books. That's why it's important to get preregistered."
Constance Walker, a retired Navy captain and president of the Southern Maryland chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, contributed to the report and also encouraged veterans to register and get politically active.
"If the citizens of Southern Maryland want accessible, quality VA or VA/community integrated health care … then we need to start pushing back to get it, hard," Walker said. She credited the Tri-County Council vets committee for its efforts, but added, "I think it's pretty clear that getting this done is going to take a powerful lobby. I can't think of a more powerful lobby than Southern Maryland's veterans, our families and other voters … who recognize that this investment by the VA … is necessary and long overdue."
