VA Adds 20 New Vet Centers

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VA Has Added 20 New Vet Centers
Peake: Expansion Comes a Year Early to Help Combat Vets
PHILADELPHIA (February 27, 2008) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr.
James B. Peake today said an expansion by the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) of its Vet Centers, which provide readjustment counseling
and outreach services to returning combat veterans, is well ahead of
schedule.

In February 2007, VA announced it would open 23 new centers during the
next two years. Fifteen of those centers are already operational, and
five others are seeing patients in temporary facilities while finalizing
their leases. The other three facilities will begin operations later
this year.

"Building on our past successes, 2008 will see a permanent increase in
the number of Vet Centers, as we bring the remaining facilities on line
to reach a record 232 Vet Centers by the end of the year," Peake said.

"To support this expansion and augment the staff at 61 existing Vet
Centers, this year we are channeling a 44 percent increase in funding to
the Readjustment Counseling Service, which operates the Vet Centers --
nearly $50 million more than last year's budget," he added.

The community-based Vet Centers are a key component of VA's mental
health program, providing veterans with mental health screening and
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) counseling, along with help for
family members dealing with bereavement and loved ones with PTSD.

The 15 new Vet Centers that are open in permanent locations are in
Binghamton, N.Y.; Middletown, N.Y.; Watertown, N.Y.; Hyannis, Conn.;
DuBois, Pa.; Gainesville, Fla.; Melbourne, Fla.; Macon, Ga.; Manhattan,
Kansas; Escanaba, Mich.; Saginaw, Mich.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Baton
Rouge, La., Killeen, Texas; and Las Cruces, N.M.

Five additional Vet Centers are providing services in temporary space
while they finalize their leases: They are in Toledo, Ohio; Ft. Myers,
Fla.; Montgomery, Ala.; Everett, Wash.; and Modesto, Calif.

The final three locations where Vet Centers will open for clients later
this year are in Berlin, N.H., Nassau County, N.Y., and Fayetteville,
Ark.

Vet Centers provide counseling on employment, plus services on family
issues, education and outreach, to combat veterans and their families.
Vet Centers are staffed by small teams of professional counselors,
outreach specialists and other specialists, many of whom are combat
veterans themselves.

VA's Vet Centers have hired 100 combat veterans back from Iraq and
Afghanistan as outreach specialists, often placing them near military
processing stations, to brief servicemen and women leaving the military
about VA benefits.

These outreach specialists meet with returning veterans, work through
family assistance centers and visit military installations to carry the
message that VA will be there for the troops and family members after
discharge.