Veterans deserve better services

Our Opinion

Friday, Oct. 16, 2009

There are about 39,000 veterans in Southern Maryland, according to a recent report, and they are poorly served by the government they signed up to defend.

It's true that northern St. Mary's County hosts the Charlotte Hall Veterans Home, the only such facility in Maryland. It provides nursing home care primarily for veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

But there are few services available in the region to serve the medical and mental health needs of younger veterans, particularly those who have been fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the last eight years.

In order to lobby for better services for them, the Veterans Regional Advisory Committee of the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland is asking them to stand up and be counted. A good place to start is this weekend at the St. Mary's County Oyster Festival at the fairgrounds south of Leonardtown. The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is sponsoring a homecoming event at the festival for veterans recently returned from these war zones, and all veterans are invited to attend. There will be health screenings and advice about eligibility for benefits.

Veterans can register right there for their benefits. That's significant, because younger veterans might not know what benefits they have earned, and while they might not need the help now, they might in the future. If they wait to sign up until that need arises, they might have to wait weeks for their benefits to kick in.

And by signing up for benefits veterans might ultimately be helping their Southern Maryland comrades. Once the Veterans Affairs Department knows these veterans exist, this more accurate count will bolster the case of those who are pushing for better medical services in the region.

The existing federal VA facility on the campus of the state-owned veterans home in Charlotte Hall is too small, too old and too limited to meet the needs of Southern Maryland veterans, who make up 11 percent of the region's population. The consequence is that veterans who live here can wait for weeks when they need medical or mental health care.

This is a common problem in rural areas, and the veterans committee report makes a case for a federal grant to open a new integrated veterans service center as a pilot program for other areas.

Integration of services is another focus of the report. It calls for local police officers to be trained to recognize behavior problems associated with combat-related mental illness. It points out transportation problems for veterans seeking care in Washington, D.C., and urges local hospitals and Navy installations to be a bigger part of the support network for veterans.

Now comes the next stage — effective lobbying to bring these problems to the forefront of the region's agenda and to penetrate the consciousness of the U.S. Veterans Administration. Veterans deserve this care. Some have arrived back in Southern Maryland with visible physical limitations. We know some have wounds that are not visible. Nearly three years ago a troubled young veteran of the war in Afghanistan was killed during a standoff with police in St. Mary's County.

Veterans have already answered the call to service. Pushing for adequate care for veterans in Southern Maryland is a responsibility of the rest of us.