I'm Jose Llamas, and I work in the Office of Veterans
Experience with VA, and I'm also a Marine Corps veteran.
Today, we are joined by Jennifer Perez,
the national director for post-9/11 transition
and case management.
Jennifer, thank you for joining us today.
-Thank you for having me.
It's a pleasure to be able to be here to talk about our program.
-Of course.
For the next 15 minutes, Jennifer and I are going
to be talking about resources for veterans and their families.
Let's get started.
Jennifer, do you think VA is ready to meet the healthcare
needs of post-9/11 veterans?
-I would say a resounding yes.
While we may have been, years ago,
known as your grandfather's VA,
or people knew VA to have the various --
what they saw in the media or such, this is a different VA,
and we're 20 years from our tragic events of 9/11,
and we have a number of programs,
and essentially, the entire VA has transformed itself
to meet the needs of the new generation of veterans
and what we call our post-9/11-era veterans,
and having those services everywhere from the very severe
to meeting the needs of those very severe injuries
and catastrophic conditions with blast injuries and TBIs,
as well as what we often call in our programs
is the walking wounded
or not even seeing wounds in terms of mental health,
but the VA has transformed every area of the organization,
including its benefits organization and administration,
to be able to really be and have --
meet the needs of our post-9/11 veterans
and their families and caregivers.
-Oh, I agree with you. You're spot-on.
It's definitely not your grandfather's VA anymore.
What do you want veterans to know about support available
through the Post-9/11
Transition and Case Management Office?
-Well, I want veterans to know that,
in addition to all of the programs across the VA
that VA has engaged and integrated into this system,
we have also focused an entire programming
on post-9/11-era veterans,
service members as well and their families and caregivers,
and what I mean by that is, years ago,
very early on, we embedded --
We began to embed what we call VA Liaisons for Healthcare
in our DOD installation, and the purpose for that was
so that service members in transition
who, let's be honest,
were likely not planning to transition at that time,
and probably had a mind to spend their career in the military.
We have VA people embedded
in our military treatment facilities
around the country, and their sole mission
is to facilitate and coordinate the transition of healthcare
for those service members into VA
where there is no looking for someone to call.
There is no, "What VA do I even go to?"
There is no, "The VA is down in the city,
and I don't want to drive that far,
and the traffic is terrible," because there might be
a community-based outpatient clinic
that is right there in their communities
that can meet their healthcare needs,
and that is what these VA liaisons do.
They meet with the military treatment teams,
and they facilitate whatever that care is.
They don't dictate the plan.
They help carry out the military plan into the VA
and then coordinate directly with our programs
that are now the Post-9/11 Military 2VA team.
We call them Post-9/11 M2VA teams,
but I do want to know -- I want to mention,
for those veterans we have out there
that have separated years ago, you also know these teams
as perhaps the Seamless Transition team,
the OIF team, the OIF/OEF team, the OIF/OEF/OND teams
or maybe the Transition Care Management team,
but let me say something about that real quick.
It is -- We made those changes for names
because we wanted veterans to know
and our service members to know,
"What do we do in transition? Who do we do it for?"
and we feel like this really communicates to our community
that our entire program is focused
on providing case management, care coordination
and meeting those needs for service members in transition,
as well as our veterans because I do want to say
that service members in transition
may have very different needs
than a veteran a year or two out,
and that's why we have these care
and case management teams in our VA Medical Centers.
Every VA Medical Center has a Post-9/11
Military 2VA case management team,
and their sole focus as experts in this --
in the needs of this population, that's what they do.
They help with housing.
They help with family resources, employment, care coordination,
and they stay with you
until you don't need that level of case management
or care coordination assistance anymore.
-Wow.
What a great resource you guys have created for our veterans
and those transitioning from the military.
That's amazing.
So how is VA providing ongoing support to post-9/11 veterans,
families and caregivers, what you just mentioned?
-So as we have --
and this is, again, different for our --
this new generation of veterans.
What we found when our service members returned home,
often catastrophically injured in the first years of the war,
we found that caregivers were really bearing the brunt
of a lot of the care needs in the home,
and younger service members who had young families
and wanted to be part of their children's lives,
wanted to be in the family home,
wanted to participate, may have an injury,
but there is such incredible advancements
in every area of healthcare and community and technology.
We wanted to find a way to make sure
that our caregivers were right there
but also have the support that they need.
That caregiving is very difficult,
and I can say for myself.
I was an unexpected caregiver for my husband for a year,
and it is really difficult,
and I think it's easy to overlook those hidden heroes.
And so the VA has a caregiver support program
that not only provides a stipend that,
you know, that -- for certain eligible veterans
but also has a number of support for caregivers of all eras
and focuses on supporting that caregiver
and making it about them for a little bit.
They also, I want to mention,
integrate caregivers into the caregiving --
excuse me -- the treatment team,
meaning that VA has recognized
that it's important for caregivers
to be part of the treatment team
and, of course, the treatment plan
because it's the caregiver that's going to be helping
the 24 hours a day to implement that plan if you will
and make sure that those service members and veterans
have the care and support they need at home in order to resume
or get to a part of both physical and mental wellness
to be able to move through and to contribute
and be part of their family and community.
-Wow. That is incredible,
and we know that our caregivers give so much of themselves
to their loved ones and our veterans.
What a great program that you guys have available for them.
So that leads me into my next question.
How does your office outreach
to those transitioning service members and veterans?
-And I appreciate that question
because I think this piece often gets overlooked.
As a healthcare organization and a benefit piece,
I think VA also is often thought of as folks
that provide compensation monetarily
and some other different compensations
for illnesses and injuries,
and then we're also thought of as healthcare-focused,
but what I want every veteran to know,
and those of you in transition,
is our Post-9/11 Military 2VA teams
are really focused on outreach
and that early intervention and engagement.
It is so important for us to engage,
as mentioned by the VA liaisons I said earlier
and that facilitation of healthcare,
but with our facility teams, they know the community.
They know the faith-based people.
They know the community organizations.
They know that their communities are dying to welcome
our service members home and help however they can,
and they reach out in the Yellow Ribbon events
and the Individual Ready Reserve events that the military holds,
but they also do a lot of things locally,
Welcome Home events, and if a veteran hasn't heard
of a Welcome Home event,
and you're thinking that you returned 10 years ago,
so you're not welcoming home,
we really want you to come to the Welcome Home events
because it's really an event that is often
at a very family-friendly venue in that particular community.
I've heard of them being at racetracks.
I've heard of them being at zoos.
I've heard of them being at amusement parks and on and on.
So they're meant to be very family-friendly
and have a number of resources, not just how to connect with us,
which we do believe is important because we do have the expertise
to sort of pull everything together,
but to connect with other screenings that you might have,
VSOs and Vet Centers and a number of folks
that are just there and able to get connected,
and I will say, if you haven't been engaged with VA,
this is your chance also to get registered or enrolled,
depending on where you are in your transition,
and really get connected with the VA.
It is never too late to come to us
and to let us engage with you.
-You're absolutely right. It is never too late,
and it's really about the families, right,
really helping to help the veteran transition
back into the civilian life.
That's awesome.
My last question for you today is,
what has your office been doing to assist veterans
impacted by the events of Afghanistan withdrawal
and the end of the war?
Can you speak to that?
-Of course.
I think not only are our teams but our entire nation
shares in our sensitivity
to the impacts that not only do the end of the wars
have but some of the recent events in Afghanistan.
We are keenly aware of the fact that we have service members
that may have served 20 years ago
and may have served and left 1 month ago
and may still be serving,
and our Post-9/11 Military 2VA teams,
that's what they're there for is they have that expertise,
and we are extremely sensitive to the impact in that
not only do we know that this may bring up things
that they haven't thought of in a while
and just thoughts and memories and visual -- visualizing,
especially with so many news reports [speaks indistinctly]
We are keenly aware of that,
and our teams are there and ready to jump in.
Even if you have left our teams and gone, you know,
and really resumed your life in the community,
we are available to reengage at any time,
and I also want to mention that we're very sensitive
to the fact that a lot of our service members and veterans
have Afghani partners that they are looking out for,
that they are remembering,
that helped them or were part of their team,
and we are engaging with our veterans
and their families as this unfolds going forward.
-Thank you so much for sharing that.
Well, this concludes today's Vet Resources Check-In.
Thank you, Jennifer, for the great information
and for everything that you and your team
are doing for veterans and caregivers
all across the country.
If you're not signed up for Vet Resources' newsletter,
I would definitely encourage you to sign up today
at www.va.gov/vetresources.
That way, you can receive all the weekly information
that we share to all the veterans
every week about organizations
nationally and locally where you may live.
So thanks for joining us today, and have a great day.