New Post-Deployment Clinic Opens In Houston.   The Houston Chronicle (9/9, Wise, 449K) reports, "On Tuesday the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center on Holcombe Boulevard opened a new post-deployment clinic for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." The clinic provides "a 'one-stop shop' where returning veterans...can walk in for free psychological and physical health screenings" or "meet with patient advocates and social workers or seek advice and information about VA benefits and community resources." According to the clinic's staff, "they hope the streamlined process will encourage more veterans to seek help during the often-rocky transition from the combat zone to civilian life."
Impact: Post-deployment clinic in Houston

Support Group For Families Of Vets Returning To Civilian Life Offered In Washington.   The Pullman (WA) Daily Evergreen (9/9, Horlen) reports that, in partnership with the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Program and the Spokane VA Medical Center, the WSU Psychology Clinic "will offer a free, weekly family support group beginning Sept. 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Johnson Tower, room 365," which "will focus on the transition a soldier faces while returning to civilian life." ASWSU Veterans Affairs Committee Public Affairs Officer Christopher Siders said that should "the group generates enough interest and positive feedback, another group will be put on in the spring that focuses on veterans themselves."
Impact: Family support group in Pullman, WA

VA Expected To Hire Tens Of Thousands In Coming Years.   Forbes (9/8, Adams, 920K) writes that a report released last week by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service says "a golden age of work for the government is just now dawning" due to "cyclical turnover; fresh demand in areas such as homeland security and veterans affairs, driven by the post-9/11 terrorist threat and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the financial crisis, with the stimulus spending it has spurred." The report estimates that, "by the fall of 2012...the federal government will have hired 273,000 new workers for jobs the group calls 'mission critical.'" Of these, due to the number of "soldiers returning from foreign wars, the Department of Veterans Affairs will be the most active employer, hiring 25,000 nurses and 8,500 doctors by 2012."
Impact: VA and Veteran employment

Researchers Developing Virtual Environment To Help Veterans With PTSD, TBI.   Medscape (9/8, Brauser) reported that, according to a study presented at the Military Health Research Forum 2009, "a virtual world environment (VWE) currently in development may help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) better adjust to and cope with the challenges of civilian life." Researchers from North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System at Gainesville "introduced a VWE set in a seemingly mundane supermarket scenario to assist veterans in acclimating to daily tasks such as decision-making, money management, and even conflict resolution. The veteran and therapist can log on from different locations, and avatars representing the two individuals allow them to interact within the virtual setting." Lead investigator Charles E. Levy, MD, explained that the VWE will "allow the veteran and therapist to confront and overcome barriers that block successful social reintegration."
Impact: PTSD Treatment

VA Care Lauded. In his column in the Huffington Post (9/8),  Richad Allen, editor of the VoteVets.org blog VetVoice, writes about his positive experiences with public healthcare. One aspect of this is how after his divorce, Allen realized he would lose his health insurance and "decided to explore the options the Veterans' Health Administration had to offer." He "discovered was that I am actually entitled to fairly comprehensive health care in addition to any service connected conditions I have." While Allen's "a great employer...offers a health plan," Allen writes, "I honestly haven't taken advantage of it yet because I haven't had any trouble with my health care from the VA." 

VA's House Call Program Extolled.   In a letter to the editor of the New York Times (9/9, A28, 1.06M), Jack Resnick, an internist who provides house calls to 50 homebound elderly and disabled people, writes, "Nicholas D. Kristof's column extolling the virtues of the Veterans Affairs health care system ("Health Care That Works," Sept. 3) is right on target," then adds that house calls are "another way the V.A. system has found to provide more and better care to its patients and save lots of money at the same time." Resnick asserts that the VA's Home-Based Primary Care program "is far and away the system's most popular program" and "saves a bundle of money."
Impact: Praise for VA