How the VA Is Failing Women Veterans

A while back I wrote that the VA (Veterans Affairs) seemed to be falling short on meeting the needs of women veterans, lacking proper facilities to provide the most basic of women's health care. They didn't even have the proper accommodations for privacy — I mentioned my own experience of trying to find a bathroom that would allow me space for inserting a tampon without the peering eyes of other veterans.

Back in May, President Obama signed a bill as part of S.1963 The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Care Act, which was supposed to bolster women's health care in the existing facilities. It was intended set aside funds to ensure that there were women-specific needs fulfilled, such as mental health professionals to care for women's specific situation, and women-only therapy groups. I might be thrilled if they put pads and tampons in the exam rooms and bathrooms. Thus far, all I have seen is a lot of talking and back patting about what they are going to do.

In July, TIME Magazine ran a story about June Moss, a woman who, after being discharged from the Army, had a difficult adjustment to civilian life, a story that is not uncommon among veterans, especially women who have to learn to readjust to caring for children. Moss learned that after running into financial trouble from life with PTSD, the VA has painfully few centers that are equipped to deal with homeless single mothers — she found only seven existed out 500, and one site I found listed eight — and she was fortunate to find one to attend. The numbers are down from the eleven my research turned up in December. The inaccessibility of these centers to women who need them makes me weep with contempt.

My point? The VA is stepping up, so they say. They are employing women veterans program managers at 144 hospitals nationwide, and are focusing their attention on specific areas of care, such as gynecological health and women-only therapy for sexual assault survivors. But this reactive-rather-than-proactive approach has allowed too many of the 230,000 women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 9 years to fall in the cracks (along with many of their children). Like I said before, it isn't as though women just showed up suddenly to run around and play war. We have been here for generations of war fighting. The VA and the Obama administration needs to kick it up a notch and get these services available and accessible to all veterans.

There is a forum on 28 July at The Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery to address the needs of women veterans and to highlight the VA benefits and services. The forum is called "Knowledge is Power". More information is available here at their website.

Photo Credit: U.S. Army Photostream