Veterans encouraged to attend workshop
Steel City Branch 253 of the Fleet Reserve Association will host a veterans health-care workshop in conjunction with AMVETS Post 103 at 1 p.m. Thursday at AMVETS Post 103 in Hopwood. The workshop is open to all veterans. While its main purpose is to educate veterans on what they need to know about federal benefits for themselves and their dependents, the workshop also is designed to convince the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that Fayette County veterans have a need for a VA outpatient clinic in Uniontown, according to James R. Smith of the Fleet Reserve Association.
During the workshop, veterans can ask questions about all health services, including the medication benefits.
“We encourage any veteran who has never used the VA or has not used the VA in the last two years to take advantage of this workshop in making VA care more accessible in Fayette County,” Smith said.
The guest speakers will be John Querio and Marilyn Tarver from the Office of Southwestern Pennsylvania Veterans Center, Pittsburgh. They will speak on the VA’s plans for veterans’ future health-care needs.
The VA is transforming its health-care system to continue to bring health care for veterans into the 21st century. Much of VA’s medical structure was built decades ago, when the focus was on inpatient care, Smith said. VA has been shifting from a hospital-based system, and today, more than 80 percent of the treatment VA provides is outpatient care.
“VA needs to address the changes where veterans are living and their medical needs,,” Smith said.
Fayette County has more than 17,000 veterans, and only 1,169 are registered with the VA, Smith said.
About 230 Fayette County veterans reside in personal care homes and nursing homes or are homebound, and most of these veterans cannot make the hour-and-a-half to two-hour trip to Pittsburgh, so the county needs a VA outpatient clinic, Smith said.
Smith encouraged the county’s veterans to attend the workshop and make their wishes known. Those attending can pick up VA registration applications, and personnel will be available to assist the applicants. For more information, call Smith at 724-437-5218.