By STEVE KNIGHT/The Lufkin News | Posted: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 2:00 pm
The Charles Wilson Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic is sponsoring a “Women are Veterans, Too!” Expo from 1-4 p.m. on Oct. 14 at 2206 N. John Redditt Drive in Lufkin.
The event is free and open to all women veterans living in East Texas.
Women veterans may bring their DD Form 214 Military Service Record to the event for immediate enrollment in the VA Health Care System.
Free information about VA health care entitlements will be available. Subject matter experts will be on hand to discuss topics including post-deployment, military sexual trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and women veteran liaison assistance.
“We have a women veterans’ health group, and the focus of this is on women veterans. The women veterans are entitled to the same VA care as the male veterans,” said Beverly Roach, licensed clinical social worker with the Charles Wilson VA Outpatient Clinic. “Our focus is getting the news out there what they are eligible for. We’ll assist them in signing up for VA benefits. We’ll have information about the benefits that are available for them.”
The expo is a new initiative coordinated by the Charles Wilson VA Outpatient Clinic to bring women veterans from all eras together with information about the wide range of programs and services.
Bobbi Gruner, public information officer at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, said with the increased number of females that served in the military, many are not aware of the benefits they are entitled to.
“Many of the returning veterans in the current conflicts are younger. Their concentration is on jobs and family and they’re thinking, ‘Well, the VA — maybe I’ll take care of that when I’m older,’ but we want to get them to enroll now. We want to make sure they understand their benefits,” Gruner said. “We’re trying to do more outreach to all returning veterans, and the female veterans are often overlooked. Many people don’t think of females as veterans. Until they come to us, we don’t know how many are out there.”
Females comprise 7.5 percent of the total veteran population, and more than 230,000 women veterans have served in the Middle East since 2001. More than 650 have been wounded and 120 have died, according to the Department of Defense.
For more information, contact Roach at 671-4349 or Marilyn Davis at 671-4310.
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