Is the VA Meeting Needs of Women Veterans? The answer is...no.

by Danine Spencer · 2009-07-20 12:35:00 UTC
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When we say the word "veteran", we think of elderly men marching in the Memorial Day parade. With the exception of former POW Jessica Lynch, we don't usually think of young women as veterans, but with the progression of war in the Middle East - it's about time that we should.

In 1988, four percent of veterans were women. Today, eight percent of veterans are women, which makes them the fastest growing segment of veterans. While the average age of male veterans is 61, the average age of female veterans is 48.  Women veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are even younger. Almost all women veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are under 40 and 58% are between the ages of 20-29.

These women are eligible for a wide variety of services from the Veterans' Administration (VA). Unfortunately, many are unaware of these benefits or have experienced barriers in trying to access the benefits they've earned.

Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the status of women veterans in the VA health care system. The report found that the VA is often failing to meet the needs of its women veterans, especially in meeting women's privacy needs, making VA facilities women-friendly and fully staffing VA clinics and hospitals with appropriately trained women's health providers. (The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America website has a great write-up of the report here.)

In conjunction with the report, the Senate Veteran Affairs committee held a hearing last week on Women Veterans: Bridging the Gaps in Care. After reading the report, the committee chairman, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) had one basic question: "Is VA meeting the needs of women veterans?"

According to testimony from government officials and women veterans, the answer is a resounding "Not yet."

Dr. Patricia Hayes, who is in charge of coordinating women veterans' health care at the VA, told the committee the VA is in the process of implementing a five-year plan to becoming a "one-stop shop" for comprehensive primary care for women veterans. This will include

  • Hiring and training staff on women's health, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Military Sexual Trauma (MST)

  • Allocating or constructing new spaces for women's health services

  • Implementing privacy procedures

  • Expanding outreach so women veterans know about the VA services they are entitled to

The second panel included five women veterans who shared their experiences in trying access their VA benefits. They spoke about the vital need for child care at VA facilities, as well the importance of making VA clinics and hospitals more child-friendly. They said the VA must increase its outreach to women veterans to let them know about services, preferably before service members are discharged from active duty. Panel members said they needed knowledgeable, supportive women's health providers who understand women's unique needs with PTSD and MST.

Most importantly, every single woman veteran said it is crucial to raise awareness that women do serve in combat and are veterans. They said that women with PTSD are often asked, "How can you have trauma when you can't serve in combat?" Yet women do see combat. (See Ms. Chase and Ms. Williams' testimony)

The panel said it is important to raise awareness about women veterans in the VA and the public at-large.

I'd like to do my part.

If you are a woman veteran and would like to share your story, please do so by posting a comment to this blog post, sending me a message  on Change.org or emailing me at danine[at]danine[dot]net. I will compile the stories for a possible future blog post. If you message or email me, please let me know how much/little identifying information I may use.

We don't say thank you enough to our veterans, especially to our women veterans.  As Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) told the panel last week, "Thank you for your service to your country. I really appreciate what you have done."

Resources:

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) http://iava.org/

Swords to Plowshares http://swords-to-plowshares.org/

Disabled American Veterans http://www.dav.org/

Danine Spencer
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