What's the Sponsor's Social?

The Women's Veterans Panel at the Washington Conference. So I have promised Mothax a response to the woman veteran’s forum at the Washington Conference since, well, the Washington Conference. But hey, I’m a grad student and have a 30-page research paper due so sorry this is so late – but you can still give him a hard time for it. This was the first year the Washington Conference featured a forum on issues facing women veterans in the VA and if I may say so, it was highly informative and, in my opinion, a success. For those of you who may not know, women are the fastest growing population within the VA. They currently make up about 10 percent of the VHA population. Most of this population is of child-bearing age, which means there are new health issues such as prenatal care, advanced gynecological and infertility treatment issues that in years past were not considered by the VA and now it must tackle as this population grows. Sitting on the panel of esteemed women were: • A wealth of knowledge, Laura Herrera, M.D., MPH, director of Comprehensive Women’s Health at the VA • Antonette Zeiss, Ph.D, deputy chief consultant with the VA office of mental health services • Patricia Alson Harris, Founder, or as I would say, visionary of Women Veteran Support Services, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to providing services tailored to the needs of women veterans so they and their families receive information and resources to obtain state, federal and local entitlements, that they might not otherwise receive • If you have not heard of SWAN – Service Women’s Action Network – you need to look up these courageous women who honored us with their presence by sending Marlisa Grogan, intake specialist. SWAN is a veteran’s service organization advocating for woman veterans. SWAN has told the Committee about women in combat and MST by sharing their personal stories and stories of other women veterans, but they also celebrate women and our ability to overcome adversity • One of my favorite Marines and newest members of The American Legion, Betty Moseley Brown, Ed. D., associate director of the VA’s Center for Women Veterans. The Center for Women Veterans monitors and coordinates VA's administration of health care and benefits services and programs for women Veteran’s. • Finally, combat veteran – yes, I said COMBAT -- Genevieve Chase, founder and executive director of American Women Veterans, completed the panel. American Woman Veterans is an organization of women veterans aiming to educate the masses about the contributions women make in the military. Ms. Chase also recently joined The Legion. Whew! As you can see from it was quite an impressive panel The Legion put together for our benefit. It’s not simply enough for these women to want what is best for women veteran’s, they are passionate about making it quality and equitable care and compensation a reality. So after brief introductions, we jumped right into question and answers, after all its not everyday these women are in one place willing to be bombarded with questions from Legionnaires. Many questions focused on the idea of a separate Woman’s Health Clinic for women veterans. Dr. Herrera told us that women in many VAMC’s started seeing one doctor for both their primary care and basic gender-specific health needs and women were rating their quality of health in surveys as high. When pressed, Dr. Herrera admitted that gender specific care was not specifically addressed but overall care satisfaction was higher at the VA than at private hospitals. A Legionnaire asked if future surveys could focus on quality of women’s health care at VAMCs, especially regarding privacy. This Legionnaire said privacy seemed to be a big problem in her Women Health Clinic. Dr. Herrera and Dr. Moseley Brown both stated they had heard similar complaints. Dr. Herrera said there were reports of privacy issues due to the size of the exam room. Dr. Herrera explained the exam table for a women’s health annual exam is larger than a normal exam table. Since the facilities are old, the exam rooms were not built to accommodate the large exam tables. This has led to the tables pointed towards the door since they simply don’t fit. She continued to say that many VAMCs have projects underway to build new Woman Health Clinics. Dr. Moseley Brown followed up with reminding women veterans to use their women veteran’s coordinators in each VAMC to help mitigate problems. The first conversation spurred several questions: First, if an internist or physicians assistant was treating a woman for basic gender-specific needs, how would they recognize when a woman needed to see a OB/GYN and is the VA working to get more OB/GYNs available on VAMC campuses? Dr. Herrera stated that an internist should be able to do general PAP smears and such and they receive regular training to stay up-to-date on women’s health needs, but the VA is working to get more OB/GYNs. The problem is there has to be enough demand so the OB/GYN can stay current on his/her certification, so until that happens the physician may only be available a couple days a week in the Woman’s Health Clinic. Until then, women will still be referred out on fee basis for advanced gynecological care not offered at their VAMC. The second question was about the awareness of VA staff about the contributions of women in the military. Everyone jumped in on this one – I told you they were a passionate bunch. Dr. Moseley Brown asked the women in the crowd how many times they go to the VA and are asked for the sponsor’s last four. The panel was greeted with a series of nods from the women in the crowd – me included. She and the Center for Women Veterans is launching “Her Story, writing women back into history” this month in honor of Women’s History Month through out the VA and will continue the campaign through Veterans Day. Ms. Grogan also spoke about the challenges she sees with women veterans she helps at SWAN. From filing claims to reports about care at the VA, there seemed to be a misconnect from the lack knowledge about what women veterans are going through, what issues are inherently theirs and how to educate the male-dominated population within the VA. Ms. Chase agreed and shared some of her combat experiences. She stated that often men want her to prove she was in combat or compare their combat experiences to hers. What the VA may not understand yet, she said, is that men and women cope with seeing traumatic events very differently. She recalled how after a patrol, the guys in her unit would start a camp fire and every night talk, but she would not – simply because she had no other women with whom to talk. The men in her unit would talk about anything … she waited until she came home and found other women who had similar experiences – then she started her group. Her point drove home another issue facing women … separate group therapy for both combat veterans and military sexual trauma victims. Women prefer to talk to women about traumatic events. It’s the way we are built. So many valuable things came out of the forum that I would surely clog up the BurnPit if I wrote it all down, but I wish everyone had an opportunity to meet these incredible women fighting for women like me. My favorite question of the day was this: What can the Legion do to help? It was not directed at any particular member of the panel but I am interested in your thoughts. Other questions (to include from other parts of the day) were: Are there plans to rewrite the gynecological rating table? Is there training on woman’s issues available for DSO on the local level? On one final note, I had the opportunity to attend one of the Her Story celebrations the other day where VA Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Tammy Duckworth spoke. She said (and I am paraphrasing) she was able to achieve what she had in the military by standing on the shoulders of the men and women of those before her. She includes the men because it was the senior ranking (enlisted and officer) men in her unit who mentored her, because there were no women to do so. For many women veterans this was true. Her point was that in many cases, men looked out for us in the military by teaching us. With respect to the Honorable Ms. Duckworth, I would like to take her words a step further: if women want to achieve equality of care, which we need, we must include men in the conversation. You taught us in the military; you were our brothers, buddies and mentors, so now share your opinions. What are your thoughts to the questions asked of the panel and their responses? What questions did we forget? Even if we disagree, you help us think of the issue in other ways. Debate is always healthy.