Staffing at Vet Centers lagging

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070420/1a_lede20_dom.art.htm

Staffing at Vet Centers lagging
Iraq, Afghan wars increase clinic use

By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The number of returning Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans visiting Department of Veterans Affairs walk-in clinics has more than doubled since 2004, while the clinics' staff has increased by less than 10%, agency records show.

The clinics, known as Vet Centers, are meant to make it easier for combat veterans to receive help. Last year, 21,681 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans visited the centers, up from 8,965 in 2004. The number of clinic staff members rose from 992 to 1,063 during the same period, according to the VA records.

A VA survey of clinic team leaders that the agency provided to USA TODAY on Thursday shows that 114 of the 209 Vet Centers need at least one additional psychologist or therapist to help with the influx of veterans. The VA is only slated to add 61 new staff.

Al Batres, the national director of Vet Center operations, says he will fill those additional slots over time. In addition, he says he has the budget to open 23 new centers across the country by September 2008, the end of the next budget year. He says the new centers will help serve the growing number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

"My task is to try to direct the right kind of services at the right time to the right place," Batres said.

The VA has consistently underestimated the needs of many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, says Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

more...

in response to the huge needs of all the returning Vietnam vets.