 Thank you for being here this afternoon I am Assistant National Legislative Director Marquis Bearfield and it is my pleasure to introduce our next speaker Good friend of DAV Mr. Mike Fisher the Chief Officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs Readjustment Counseling Service better known as the Vet Center program Since 2016 Mike has led an important program or led this important program and provides oversight for the VA 300 vet centers Located throughout the United States including the District of Columbia Puerto Rico the US Virgin Islands Guam American Samoa as well as a fleet of over 83 mobile vet centers and the vet center call center Mike began his career with the VA as an outreach specialist at the Baltimore Vet Center Prior to his career to his VA career He served more than 10 years with the Pennsylvania National Guard and was deployed to Iraq as an infantry non-commissioned officer in 2005 Following his combat deployment. He was medically discharged from the military Mr. Fisher holds a master of social work from the Catholic University of America Earlier this year. Mr. Fisher was selected and awarded a DAV special recognition award Which recognized him as a trusted source and someone who regularly consults with the DAV and other veteran service Organizations on the status and needs of the vet center programs around the country He has also worked with VSOs to help improve Legislation to strengthen the vet center program and continuously demonstrates his commitment to veterans and family members Who who have served and in these facilities on a daily basis? By the way, if you haven't noticed while you were here at convention one of the mobile vet centers is here and Is available for you to come and talk to the readjustment counselors that are providing services that are needed Let's give a warm DAV welcome to mr. Mike Fisher the chief officer of VA's readjustment counseling services Thank you. Thank you. Hello everyone All right, so first I want to do I want to start and thank The national commander Andy Marshall the national adjutant mark Burgess national legislative director Joy Elam and The executive director Randy Reese for allowing us the opportunity to come and talk to you today a little bit about vet centers I'm gonna move around a little bit One of the so for those of you aren't familiar with vet centers We are a organization in the veterans health administration that provides counseling to eligible active duty service members veterans But we're a little unique in other places in VA and we're gonna talk a little bit about that uniqueness now One of the things I always start off with in talking when I when I give these kind of presentations And it's something about my bio that I that it's not written and that is I am here today Because a vet center counselor wouldn't let me shut his barracks room door on him until I actually went and talked to him In my time when all I wanted to do was say no he helped me say yes And I submit to you that is what we do at vet centers every day We help people say yes whenever they're when every fiber of their being wants to say no Now I'm gonna use a non-social working term and that is we are aggressive when we do that And what I mean by aggressive. I don't think it's enough to say here's a phone number call when you're ready Because I think when we do that we've given that person a reason to say no Rather here's our phone number, but we're gonna call you we're gonna be there for you in some cases We're gonna force you to come and talk to us, you know That was the best thing that I've ever done and that's usually what we hear after After that statement they forced me and it was the best thing I've ever done So as you can see on the slides, we're gonna talk a little bit of today about what how we provide services Our approach then we're gonna finish the day talking about and actually hearing from some of the veterans and service members They get services at vet centers and the reason we're gonna do this is twofold I'm gonna use this as an outreach event because I'm sure someone in this audience might be interested in Going to talk to somebody The other side of that is we're gonna ask for your help to get the word out about that centers To get to our local vet centers and partner and connect with them on outreach events or other opportunities where we can get Veterans and service members engaged into services Sound good All right, so history about our organization we were created in 1979 because the VA with a lot of help from Congress and actually see some familiar faces here Helped VA recognize that the Vietnam combat veteran was not coming into VA for services In fact through a course of studies called the readjustment studies They found that trust quality of services might been some of the reasons why those individuals who served in Vietnam We're not coming into VA now I know there's probably people in this room right now that have experienced that or maybe know someone that experienced that first hand Well either way they created vet centers Separate from VA medical centers staffed by fellow Vietnam combat veterans In fact, this was the beginning of the peer-to-peer model in VA I'm actually the typical vet center employees serve first Then was able to get back and continue that mission after I got my degrees So our role was to go out and find everyone who served in Vietnam and make them comfortable with the idea of using VA VA services we were designed to do that by providing direct services or counseling Outreach and then care coordination or referral now the interesting thing in the beginning is that we were never meant to last more than a year or two In fact the thinking at the time was that we would go out find everyone who served in Vietnam and everything would become amazing Well, we know that's not how the world works Especially with populations that are looking for reasons to say no. I know that's what it was for me So rather our focus is going out and creating relationships and then from those relationships one individual is comfortable Let's get them out to other places Our mission statement on the slide one of the most important words in that mission statement is the idea of community And this is something we actually borrowed from Native American tradition, which says it is your community that sends you to war It is then your community's responsibility to welcome you home and to begin to give your experience meaning And for us our goal is to help find whatever experience you're looking for it could be access to benefits It could also be dealing with a year of hell and try to make heads or tails of what happened or what's going on And that's the and then also we see our role is rallying the entire community together To welcome home those who serve and that's the community partnership component of what we do And we're going to talk a little bit about that today because that's really where we're going to have some asks for everyone in the audience Our eligibility is a little bit different than other places in VA For us it does not matter where you are in your journey if you're an active duty service member if you're a veteran if you're a member of the National Guard or reserve if You serve in a dangerous place if you experience a certain kind of trauma like military sexual trauma You can come into a vet center now and for the rest of your life Our eligibility is really about Service in a dangerous place or experiencing those certain kinds of trauma now We're not going to go through each one of our eligibility's in fact there'll be a QR code at the end of the presentation and you can get your cell phone out and it'll take you to our Website where you can take a look at all of those things What I do want to talk about is something that we do and that is Anyone who walks into a vet center will not be turned away If you truly aren't eligible for our services our role is to help find places where we can make that referral to There's a couple of reasons why we do that. The first reason is because we don't want someone to leave in crisis The other reason is that we're looking for ways to qualify an individual not disqualify them You know, I think in life like in counseling. We're all trying to get two questions answered Do you care about me and can I trust you? It's why when many of the veterans and service members come into vet centers, the first thing they talk about is benefits Because what we really see from the benefits question is I don't know if you care about me I don't know if I can trust you yet counselor I don't know if I'm into this idea of talking to somebody so we're gonna throw you a softball And if you do a good job with that I will let you into things or I might let you into things that I'm not willing to wear or I'm not willing to talk about or I don't wear on my sleeve like military sexual trauma or Maybe I don't consider myself a combat veteran because I never left the wire So our focus is helping qualify find ways to qualify individual not disqualify them The other thing that makes us unique is that you don't have to enroll in VHA health care Though we want to help you do that you also we don't require a service connection. We don't means test we and This goes all back to that being that safe place to begin that journey We also provide services regardless of discharge status that includes dishonorable discharges Now this is another place where we'll need help and that is our role in dishonorable discharges to help connect Individuals to begin the discharge upgrade process and we need veteran service organizations or partner with veteran service organizations to start to help with that Our approach Now if any of you are familiar with vet centers You might see some different language on the slides some different graphics This is actually a large effort that we've taken on over the past couple of years to rebrand us and By rebranding what we did was we went out and Talked to veterans and talked to service members and talked about what language means is important to you Why is that important to you and that's where we came up with what you see on the slides here and really getting into this idea of connection camaraderie and community and that really is the focus of our of our locations our vet centers connection We're able to create veteran to veteran connections And that's part because a large percentage of our staff are veterans about 70% right now with the majority being combat veterans It's an idea of you don't have to explain to me what an IED is I know firsthand what an IED is who were able to make that instant connection We're also in this idea of connection It's able to to meet that veteran that service member wherever they are in their journey Putting them in the driver seat of their care Our focus is really about helping you set a goal Create a support structure around yourselves to accomplish the goal and then when you accomplish that set another goal And it's this idea of doing that over the lifelong process of doing that over and over again The idea of camaraderie Really what this is it's about creating that support structure around yourself to accomplish goals We might be able to do that through the family services we provide and when we say family services It really is meant to whatever the goals of that veteran service member are to help them through those goals We take a very wide definition of what family is it's up to that veteran that service member to define that the other side of that is As we create that camaraderie what we're really looking at doing is getting that veteran that service member engaged in other kind of Services whether that is at the VA as a whole whether that is within the vet center itself to other Other groups or those kind of things we do and that's where we get into this idea of community And that is bringing everyone together and shared experiences We're also known for Reducing barriers to care whether that is non-traditional hours whether that is virtual services something that the pandemic has helped us with Also confidentiality, and this is something that we're really proud of the only people who know you're coming into a vet center The people you tell the people you allow to know through a sign release of information Or if there's a serious attempt to harm yourself for somebody else we will break confidentiality for that Also, we're known for community partnership And the idea is that we want to understand whatever the needs of our that community and be able to meet those needs That could mean bringing a veteran service organization into the vet center to have office hours to help out with claims issues It could be having a lawyer come in and do pro bono work It could be partnering with an equine therapist But we want to become that one-stop shop for whatever the readjustment needs are in that particular community We're going to talk a little bit about expansion of services in a little bit And this is where I want to get into where we're going to need your help I want to start doing that by talking and and showing you some examples of where we were able to partner with you Whether that is out of our Shreve point a Shreve port that center Annapolis or even in Santa Fe Our partnerships with the community are what allow us to do what we do whether that is an outreach event Or being able to create bidirectional referrals. That's really what this is all about for us being able to help I don't use the word use the word force, but to help people individuals come in when they're not yet ready to say yes We've talked a bunch about the what we do we do individual group marriage family counseling, but we take a different approach to that We're not a medical model. We don't diagnose. We don't focus on diagnosis rather. We focus on the symptoms associated with that diagnosis And the reason we don't do that is because we believe there's a stigma there could be a potential stigma with diagnosis We don't have to worry about those kind of things It really is about helping that veteran that service member set whatever goal they might have Create that support structure and then allow them to accomplish that goal We also take you know some circles in VA call it non traditional modalities These are things that we do every day whether that's gardening groups outdoor activities It could be mindfulness or yoga It really is ways to keep that veteran that service member engaged in services You know when we talk about suicide reduction That is one of the best ways to reduce suicide is to keep individuals engaged in services to create a therapeutic Relationship where if I'm having a bad day I trust that I can tell somebody I'm having a bad day and then they're gonna do something with that So our services are provided at 300 locations across the country In addition to that what we have what we call that center outstations and that center community access points an Outstation is where we assign at least one counselor into a distant community Maybe like st. Thomas or st. Croix on the US Virgin Islands We also have community access points where we borrow space In a location that's distant from one of our locations and provide services anywhere from once a month to a couple of times a week This is a place where we can ask where we're gonna ask for some help We have about a thousand community access points right now across the country We have not been able to provide services at some of them because of the pandemic and as we move from that We're gonna start going back to those locations But there might be opportunities if we can come to your locations to be able to connect with veterans and service members And provide direct services to them. This is actually how we're going to expand as an organization We actually start with a community access point as more veterans start coming in and we'll create an outstation there Then ultimately a new vet center that we get a lot of questions about how do we get a vet center into my community? That's how we do it. We start with this local partnership and then begin to start providing services This slide here just talks about numbers what we've been able to do I think the most important thing is this the bottom two numbers We're seeing expansion right now into the members of the national guard We're seeing more and more women veterans coming in Which is something that we're really excited about Now we've talked a bunch about what we do and why we do it We're actually going to spend the rest of our time talking about from the experience of that veteran or service member And this is we're going to do that through our customer feedback Some project that we took on about a year ago Many of you who use va services have probably received a similar survey at the va medical center. Maybe at the vet center And what we're able to what we are able to know from that is that 93 of those respond would recommend a vet center or trust vet centers rather To meet their needs Something we're very excited about that number has actually held strong over this past year I think it is the testament to the work that we're doing at our local our local vet centers And as you can see down through the different numbers on this slide That veterans out there trust us to do the work We're able to schedule appointments when they need to we're in communities where where they believe we need to be And this is where I want to talk a little bit about all the stuff and bring bring everything that we've talked about together By actually talking about a veteran experience I'm going to introduce you into brian brian is a marine corps veteran multiple tours afghanistan was into some explosions Uh came home Try to engage in services He maybe lasted one or two sessions Uh sound familiar He then took some time off from getting services And in that time he quit his job. He left school. He started experiencing seizures And was just really having a very difficult time Fortunately enough he was able to connect back with a vet center about seven years later And it was a slow process. It began with connection It started off slowly with individual counseling building up that therapeutic relationship Had making sure that there was some consistency there that he was completely bought into the idea of going into counseling, which we know Is not easy It then shifted into expanding to additional services where he was able To not only participate in vet center groups but get a little outside the vet center Was able to participate in a hiking group with other veterans And then from there was able to move into participating actively with veteran service organizations He's traveling with his family now And thinking about the future I think what's very exciting about this is that the symptoms that he was Experiencing are reducing and it was because he committed into those services The next couple of slides will actually talk about the customer feedback that we're getting And the reason why we put this up here in this particular this particular This particular statement here what's important to me is I see about I what I really hear in this statement is about choice Who is that veteran? Who's that service member going to create a therapeutic relationship when they come into a vet center? They want to talk to a female They want to talk to a male a combat veteran a non combat veteran And if we don't get it right the first time we're going to try again until we do get it right And as you can see she was able to make that connection here and from that connection continue services The next slide or two We're actually going to talk about the experience from a vietnam veteran or vietnam veterans And what's what I really see here is an oops in this particular one this individual started services in 92 This individual Is just connecting into services And I think what's important here is that it doesn't matter when you come into a vet center if you come into a vet center today Tomorrow 30 years from now or the entire 30 years We're here for you and be able to connect create that community And it's not about here's 12 sessions of of some evidence-based modality. It could be that but it doesn't have to be about that It's about putting that veteran that service member in the driver seat of their care and allowing them To make to help make decisions to set goals and create support structures around yourself to accomplish those goals and then accomplish them This here is a quote from one of our recent returning afghanistan veterans And we also have one from one of our rak veterans What's important to at least me when I read these statements is that It's about connecting into services that's not easy It's about taking that that first step And this is where we have to get aggressive, especially with our recently returning veterans who are thinking about what is my life going to be I'm not ready yet to talk to somebody And then lastly here's a quote from one of our gold star mothers We do provide bereavement counseling and I think this what's very important here is this idea that We're there for families as well And that doesn't stop with the passing of a veteran or the passing of an active duty service member And actually we're going to open it up. We have a video that we'd like to show everybody If that can be queued up Betsetter saved me saved my life the first time I realized that something was wrong was At my first duty assignment to even save ptsd for an event that's not wartime was just Blowing my mind. So the first time they told me I could possibly have had ptsd and military sexual trauma. I was confused I experienced immeasurable amount of guilt I didn't want to go through the agony. I didn't want to go through the pain. I didn't want to feel hurt. I didn't want to cry If you ever want to Take control of you and these feelings that plague and torment us Then come to the vet center I found myself really struggling uh 2012 after my last deployment to afghanistan While I was in afghanistan, I had made plans things I would do and then when I returned home I just laid on the couch I finally got to the point where I realized I needed help It was like a night and day environment the differences between Being at the vet center every week just by talking to other people You get more insights into your own psyche. It's been years. I've been coming here and I've built up a lot of skills to help me cope With the way that I received help from the vet center started out with marriage counseling It got our foot in the door. It got us to see what's available The center provides us with a lot of socialization in addition to just the counseling There's a lot of activities. There's uh parties. There's barbecues There are field trips that we could sign up for and it's good to feel like we're not alone And that the people we're dealing with understand what it's like to be the military It's like coming home. It was devastating to come back in vietnam But there's nothing like walking into a vet center and being accepted For who and what you are Walking into a vet center being able to talk to a therapist that has served themselves or others that have served themselves You know, you you gain that trust Nothing is that you talk about with a therapist or with a group Is talked about outside those doors. That's between you and the person you talked with The counselors are there to help you not hurt you It's good to have those tools to be able to come back to zero instead of being at a hundred The vet center is here. It's a lifesaver It really is So we're gonna this is where we're going to wrap up today. This is our qr code So anyone who wants to check out more information about our services Please click on that. You also see our website listed here and I this goes back to the ask The ask is getting in touch with our local vet centers and seeing if there's ways we can partner Whether that is bringing a veteran service officer Into one of our locations Maybe it's finding out about some events that you have coming up where we can bring our mobile vet center If you haven't had a chance to take a look at it It's right outside or maybe just setting up a table Like is also right outside this door where we have staff and we can do a couple of things We don't have to just come in and talk about benefits We can bring counselors that if anyone wants to talk to a counselor we can do that at that point As well as maybe there's some potential for creating community access points or Helping us understand if there's pockets of veterans that just aren't getting services yet That we can go out and connect with through our outreach or direct services So i'm going to stop there and see if there's any questions Or comments or anything that we can do to be helpful. There's two microphones one on either side. Yes, sir Hello, i'm bruce no guard Arizona department junior vice and a hospital service coordinator got two quick questions. Do you guys actually write claims for vets? and submit them To the va. Sure. So the question is do we do we write claims right claim? We do not write claims rather our focus is to partner with the the subject matter experts that do that work Whether that is a veteran service officer We also have in some places have have staff from vba or the benefits administration to come in and help with that And then it's about making connections Where we might have veterans or service members that could benefit from the work that you're doing As well as you might want to refer some veterans or service members into services So our job is really to make connections and then any of the documentation that you do as far as mental Claims is that can be used as evidence in a mental claim? Yeah, absolutely. So the question has to do with the documentation that's kept at vet centers So there are records that kept it talks about the work that happens within the group sessions the The individual sessions and it's up to that veteran or service member Whatever they like to do with that many of those individuals actually use that as part of their claims And we also write treatments that uh summaries or counseling summaries that will also talk about The services of the work that that particular veteran and family have gone through Yes, sir Sam Phillips Chapter 169. Yes, Victoria, Texas veteran service officer Okay, uh, we have informally established a quasi I guess vet center And we've partnered with some other organizations peer-to-peer and so forth I'm trying to get that established the county has worked with us We feel pretty good about our system We'd like to be able to talk more about your system to see if this can be something that would benefit our veterans In the victory area. How will I get that started? Yeah, so what I'd like to do is we actually have two staff here in the front ed and jessica They're part of our communications team. We want to get your information and then we will connect you To your local vet center to those staff so they can begin discussion about you know, what we can do together Thank you. Thank you. We're gonna go over here, sir Tim butts department of Nebraska Yes, sir service officer, and I work out of the Omaha Vet Center And I want to tell my comrades that if you have a chance To partner with the local vet center. It's very very good I'm provided with everything I need In order to do my job The staff is very friendly I get a lot of referrals from the staff And when I the first month that I was there, I was there only on one day actually a half day a week and That has grown to the point where I'm there every day of the week That's the kind of volume that you will eventually get out of that You have to be patient as words circulate that you're there more people are going to come in but veterans have a good way of letting know what works and So I really encourage you to to foster some kind of relationship. It's been very beneficial for us I'm I'm seeing 60 veterans a month and That's not a small number Thank you very much for that. I think that really speaks to the value of what our partnerships can do And I think what's important to us. It's all about bi-directional referrals You know, we can't fix a broken foot at the vet center But we know who can and being able to make those connection points where an individual then feels comfortable To be able to shift over to the VA medical center. I think is very valuable. Yes, sir Terry scow from Ogden, Utah I wanted to put in a plug for your Ogden Vet Center and a particular Candace Monson We had a Vietnam vet who'd applied for PTSD turned them down I got them connected with Candace Candace did a workup We submitted that honors claim But just great work and great rapport and wanted to put that plug in for her. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely Thank you very much. I also want to thank you, sir. So Terry actually sits on our advisory committee for the readjustment of veterans It's a group that actually helps us understand what's happening out in the environment And then they make recommendations for things that we in vet center should be thinking about So thank you for participating in that and thank you for everything that you're doing in utah Oh, I'm sorry. Yes Thank you for that by the way Sorry, I'm very short. Uh, no, it's the lights on my side Shamela Kapizzi. I am the senior vice commander for Arlington, Virginia, which is chapter 10. I'm also a national service officer apprentice out of Washington, DC I think the The vet centers are really like the best kept secret and we do refer a lot of veterans out The issue is I did have a veteran come across that was filing for mental health But he did contact The local vet center and he was turned away Um and was referred to a non-profit out in town so What happened was he ended up Trying to get services. He's turned away from the vet center and then now he's getting services But they told him he's gonna have to pay an um a copay And so is when you're talking about referral Is that what you're meaning and like community base or Just defy I guess just sure sure so first. Thank you for that because there's a couple of things I wanted I want to talk about when I answer that and I'm gonna have to hit the other side of the stage to do this I'm gonna flip the slide and on that is going to be contact information for us so If you experience challenges, we want to know about them right away So we can go and then ask questions and begin to correct those things now I think we're going to need to talk offline about the specific issues to be able to get an understanding of what happened in that particular case It could be an eligibility thing or that or could be something else But what we don't want to do is if an individual is eligible turn them away So we can talk offline about that and and and be able to figure out what's going on But I think the important thing for us is about it's about service recovery It's about making sure that if we did something incorrect we want to fix it right away So thank you for bringing that up and I believe over here and then we'll come down into the center Uh tim wall's chapter one department of south coda. Yes, I just like thank you I did get my initial help at the vet center. So I wanted to that But I I just had a question I deal with taking veterans to the vet center for appointments who don't have Transportation whatnot. I just wanted if the vet center tracks like I had a particular individual if you lose somebody you know that initially makes contact and then it might be a Year or two five year deal down the road where they come back I guess in an instance. I had an individual that was Enrolled in a veteran that was enrolled in a six week self-development program and week one Gave the veteran a ride to the vet center and she's very excited positive upbeat and then kind of lost her weeks two three four And then reached out to her and she came back week five But it was you know, I wanted if the vet center tracks Or there's a way of tracking who we're losing and then when they're coming back and percentages of stuff like that Yes, and and that is something that does happen at at the local vet center And what really comes to my mind with what you're talking about and and where like where I where our counselors focus Is to is to connect with those individuals on a reoccurring basis to find out what's going on And then to welcome them back in now some people just make the decision that I don't I'm not ready yet And you know we that that's a reality But our focus and what we do at our locations is connecting with those individuals On a reoccurring basis to make sure that you know, we didn't miss something Thank you Yes, sir mark rehm chapter 11 out of a new clear water I work at one of the vet centers and Just before I started working there my counterpart They had come in and put in a new it system new new computer and new scanner and everything else And the problem is he doesn't have access to it I don't have access to it. So what what I do is I have my own printer my own computer. I do have The internet so I do my own printing my own scanning my own faxing my own emailing He has to go back and forth with the director whoever's there and if the director's busy One of the counselors and if the counselors are all busy the veterans have to wait until we figure something out Can there not be some consistency that if vet if the service officers are going to be there Then provide them with equipment they can use solely for themselves To be able to service the veterans easier because I I may only manage to do it because I bring my own equipment But it shouldn't be that complicated. I would think yeah, you know, especially when you bring up like faxing and those kind of things That's something let's take that one offline and let's take a look at that one computers Well, let's take a look at it. But I think there should be something we should be able to do with faxing and printing and things like that I mean that just makes sense. We want to be good partners Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Bob Carnegie from northwest indiana The vet center that is nearest to us falls under jesse brown and We work as the the av with some of the national guardsmen in our area those that are still active Have a terrible time wanting to go to the va For obvious reasons because if they want to be Continuing on in their careers with the national guard Quite often information can get to the national guard I've tried to encourage them that at the vet center. It's different. Can you help me? So that those soldiers know that if they come to the vet center It's a whole different program than going to the clinic. They're going to jesse brown So there's a couple of things here and actually i'm glad you brought up national guard There's been an expansion of our services to more individuals in the national guard And and if they don't meet our normal eligibility or our existing eligibility like combat zone area of hostility and those kind of things If they've experienced any kind of trauma or behavioral challenge related to their military experience or military service They can come into a vet center and I think really where our focus needs to be is how do we get you connected to your local vet center And then how do we together get connected to the national guard? Now we have relationships with the national guard where we go out to their drilling weekends and things like that But if you have a better way of us connecting then we want to make sure we're connecting those dots right But my point is they're fearful of talking Because of the connection with the clinic or the hospital This is where Where it's so important and it's something I call the 15 call rule You have to hear something 15 times for it to sink in It's why if I say it's time to make the donuts you might know I'm talking about dunkin donuts I'm going to see who regionally who knows that right? But I I think our focus when it comes to that is going out and meeting with those individuals over and over and over again Until we can build that trust so they know that yeah, we do care about we do care about whatever their concerns might be So to accomplish that the concern that you brought we're just going to have to keep engaging with those individuals Over and over again and creating those pathways into services. That's why we have outreach staff So that's given me an idea on how to go to them sometimes as opposed to the other way around exactly And so one of the things that we have at every vet center is some outreach Is outreach of some kind now I was in the infantry we have mechanized outreach Which is our mobile vet center outside? So if you get a chance take a look at that we also have straight leg outreach Which is just going out and participating in events So out their job is to go out and to make those face-to-face connections Over and over and over again. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir Yes, sir, Ronnie. Maybe department of Connecticut state commander. I'm standing before you as a as an advocate for vet centers I am a product of vet center myself I applaud each and every one of you to refer people from your state to the vet centers It's a great place to network with other individuals that serve during Your combat or non-convict period. I'll give you still what happened to me. I was able to Authenticate my case by going to a vet center because other veterans who was using that facility I had to do a statement of fact and I was able to meet a federal Soldier veteran a comrade that served with me during a during a rack and I was able to statiate my case It's a great place for um for for therapy They provide therapy workshops there So I'm just a strong advocate and I by teaching everyone that's in this building here for the 100 Convention to visit your vet center great place to be. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir And thank you for sharing your own story Anyone else? Yes, ma'am I'm jane balton i'm Whatever in tennessee anybody needs I joined the state of california and um as a veterans outreach project specialist in 1977 And got to be in the privilege of helping to lobby for the vet centers And got to go to a lot of vet center openings in the state of california Missed the pool tables We started in pool halls so But I want to say um of all the years the vet centers have been around they have always been the best kept secret And I continually go to the nashville b.a. And I'll tell my my primary care is a seabock now And I go there I go to a psychiatrist on the bay on the campus and everything Nobody knows the vet center and I don't understand why I mean I I I'm learning that there's a problem between The the people at the b.a. The psychiatrist and psychologist I've got a great psychiatrist the psychologist there can Um Moving on the vet center has the best counselors because they've been there And dan edwards was in there. He's awesome. He's helped me a lot and a lot of doing the women veterans groups the mst groups and everything and It does appear maybe there's a light that the v.a. Is going to start promoting the vet centers Um, I'm not ever looking forward to them to ever paying to send people to the vet centers but It's one of the most outstanding programs that most people don't know So first a big thank you for everything you did to help us in the 70s Now there are still a couple of vet centers with pool tables And that yes that that does exist and I think that really talks to the idea of creating community Now the other side about being the best kept secret and this is something It's a challenge. I like to pass on to everyone And that is if you know someone tell them about vet centers And that's how we become or that's how we move away from this idea of being the best kept secret It's making sure our outreach staff are going out and creating those opportunities where we can have conversations Now we're gonna have to have those conversations over and over again Especially with populations that are looking for reasons to say no I'm not ready yet to hear that my wife might be ready to hear that and she might tell me what to do Which is fine But we have to do that over and over again The other thing that we're focusing on this is at a national level something that you talked about at the end Which is connection to our va medical center partners And that is making sure that we have great relationships and really what a great relationship is it's about bidirectional referrals It's about being able to connect an individual who might have that broken footer Or could benefit from services at the va medical center. We've got places with great relationships We have some other places where we need to improve that relationship And that's that's something that we're taking on on our side as well as on the va medical center side So I actually I see our time is up and sir. We can get with you offline and be able to to talk about you Oh, actually, let's sir if you want to we'll do one more Go ahead Ray are we all on chapter 24 word texas. Thank you. Yes, sir. My question is or my comment is How's the vet center work with camp hope? Camp hope camp hope PTSD facility Yeah, that is something that we let's take off if we can take that one offline and we can see what we're doing locally And if there's something we need to do to get you connected to our local vet center because we don't know about something yet Then let's do that and we can we can make that partnership happen Okay, well, I do want to thank everyone's time today or allowing us to come in and and spend a little bit of time together Once again our contact information was up there So please check out your local vet center and thank you everybody