VA reps pass word on benefits

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Joe Davidson
  • 452nd AMW Public Affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  Counselors from the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System and the Corona Vet Center set up at the March Air Reserve Base dining facility to provide reservists and eligible veterans with information about their entitlement to VA health care and other benefits. 

Although they focused mostly on veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, veterans and service members who haven't deployed also benefited. 

"We are here to make sure that all of the Airmen on station are aware of their health care benefits and other VA benefits," said Don Sutton, OIF/OEF Transition Patient Advocate for the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System. 

The visit is part of a six-month pilot program for the "A" UTA (drill weekend) that began in May to make it convenient for service members to sign up into a database that will give them access to health care and veterans benefits, according to Deborah Ross, a behavioral health support coordinator at March ARB. 

"If you live in Arizona or somewhere else, they will take your information and forward that to a vet center in your zip code," said Ross. "So you're signing up for where you live, and they could probably sign you up for here, too. 

"One of the great things about vet centers is they've got more flexible hours and they can see families," she said. "If it's a major veterans medical center, they can only see the military member." 

Ross added that vet centers also provide short-term counseling to unmarried service members with a live-in girlfriend or boyfriend. 

The VA Loma Linda Healthcare System provides service members with assistance with advocacy issues, individual and group therapy, resource and referral information and can help coordinate special health care needs. Vocational rehabilitation services are also available. Vet centers affiliated with the VA Loma Linda Health Care System can provide readjustment counseling as needed. 

The counselors' next visit is Saturday of the September drill weekend. Their last scheduled visit for the six-month pilot is in October, but if the program proves effective, visits will continue and extend to the "B" UTAs, according to Ross.