By RICHARD WALKER
rwalker@soundpublishing.com
When you were on active duty, you had your fellow soldier, sailor, airmen or Marine’s back, and they had yours.
Now that your EOS has passed or you’ve retired, they still do.
An army of veterans service officers, most of them veterans, are at work daily to ensure veterans’ needs are met so they can live healthy, productive lives.
A Sept. 3 meeting of veterans service officers, at the Suquamish Tribe’s Kiana Lodge, gave a glimpse of some of the work being done behind the scenes.
Specifically, this was a meeting of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and the Joint American Indian Veterans Advisory Council.
A VA representative told of “listening sessions” being held throughout the state — the latest one, as of this writing, was on Sept. 19 in Spokane — so “we can listen to our veterans” about their experiences navigating the VA health system.
VSOs and VA reps talked about what they learned at Camp Chaparral at the Yakama Nation, Aug. 14-19. Camp Chaparral is a week-long cultural immersion experience designed to improve participants’ understanding of other cultures, and what those cultures can teach us about healing.
According to the camp’s website, the Camp Chaparral experience “provides an ideal opportunity for participants to focus on the way veterans’ care or benefits are provided, not just how to provide it.”
Camp Chaparral features traditional healing methods such as talking circles and sweat lodges. This year, women veterans outnumbered men for the first time.
A VA representative said she learned how essential talking circles are, of how “cleansing and healthy” sweat lodges are.
A Chehalis Tribe VSO told of the 61 veterans served at a recent stand down, and of the outreach being conducted to make sure veterans in rural communities are included. (The fall 2014 “Stand Down for Veterans” in Kitsap is scheduled for Oct. 4, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Sheridan Park Community Center, 680 Lebo Blvd., in Bremerton.)
VSOs talked about HR 3230 — the federal Veterans’ Access to Care through Choice, Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 — that is designed to drastically improve the delivery of health care to veterans. Portions of the bill are creative and empowering. For example, Tribal veterans offices could process Native veterans for VA health care, to help speed the process. And VA would authorize and reimburse for care provided to Native veterans in Tribal health clinics, another change that would streamline and expedite the system of care due our veterans.
Another VA representative talked about efforts to reduce backlogs and speed decisions on claims. VA is having some success: The claims backlog has been reduced by 40 percent and the inventory of overall claims has been reduced by 53 percent. The average time it takes to render a decision on a claim has been reduced from six to four months.
“We’re the first to say we’re not there yet,” he said.
And so the work continues. Thank you, VSOs and VA reps, for your ongoing efforts to get the ship on a steady course.
— Richard Walker was a quartermaster aboard the USS Manitowoc (LST 1180) from 1980-84.