Arkansas
and the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

• General:  The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers a wide variety of programs and services for the nation’s 24.3 million veterans.  In 2006, about 5.3 million people were treated in VA health care facilities, 3.6 million veterans and survivors received VA disability compensation or pensions, nearly 600,000 used GI Bill education benefits and more than 2.4 million owned homes purchased with GI Bill home loan benefits originally valued at $236 billion.  More than 100,000 veterans and family members were buried in VA’s national cemeteries and nearly 360,000 headstones and markers were provided for veterans’ graves worldwide.

VA spent more than $1.1 billion in Arkansas in 2006 to serve nearly 263,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 49,332 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Arkansas.  VA provided 5,580 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 29,435 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $835 million.  Arkansas veterans held more than 13,000 VA life insurance policies valued at nearly $148 million. In 2006, 698 were interred in Arkansas' three national cemeteries.

• Health Care:  One of the most visible of all VA benefits is health care.  VA has 153 hospitals, 895 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 209 Vet Centers, 135 nursing homes, 47 residential rehabilitation treatment programs and 92 comprehensive home care programs.  To improve patients’ ability to access care, VA has changed from a hospital-based system to a primarily outpatient-focused system over the past decade.  Veterans will make 55 million outpatient visits to VA health care facilities this year.

VA operates major medical centers in Little Rock and Fayetteville.  In fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Arkansas had 13,147 inpatient admissions and provided 978,073 outpatient visits.

The Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System’s (CAVHS) two anchor hospitals, the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock and the Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center in North Little Rock, offer a broad spectrum of inpatient and outpatient health care.  These services include disease prevention, primary care, complex medical and surgical procedures and extended rehabilitative care.  For more than 80 years, CAVHS has been widely recognized for excellence in health care, education and research.  CAVHS also operates community-based outpatient clinics in Mountain Home, El Dorado, Hot Springs, and Mena.  In addition to ambulatory surgical procedures, primary care clinics also focus on the special needs of veterans, including diabetes and geriatrics.

Growth of the patient workload is projected to increase for the foreseeable future; in 2006, CAVHS outpatient visits numbered 592,079.  CAVHS also supports a counseling center, residential rehabilitation treatment program and a comprehensive homeless center.  CAVHS’ Home Health Care Service, based in Little Rock with a satellite program in Hot Springs, offers services ranging from basic primary care to extended rehabilitative care for veterans unable to travel to a VA facility.

The Fayetteville medical center, located in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in northwest Arkansas, has a 70-year tradition of emphasizing customer service. The facility is a national leader in patient satisfaction with a staff dedicated to providing optimum quality health care services to the veterans in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.  The medical center is experiencing tremendous growth, with 385,994 outpatient visits in 2006 compared to 257,538 in 2003.  Fayetteville operates outpatient clinics in Harrison and Ft. Smith, Ark., and Mt. Vernon, Mo.  This VA-staffed clinic provides primary outpatient care to veterans in southwest Missouri, with inpatient care referred to Fayetteville.  Additional community-based outpatient clinics are in Jonesboro, Paragould and Texarkana.

• Post-Conflict Care:  VA has launched special efforts to provide a "seamless transition" for those returning from service in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF).  Each VA medical facility and benefits regional office has a point of contact to coordinate activities locally to help meet the needs of these returning combat service members and veterans.  In addition, VA increased the staffing of benefits counselors at key military hospitals where severely wounded service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are frequently sent.  Once home, recent Iraq and Afghan veterans have ready access to VA health care, which is free of charge for two years following separation for any health problem possibly related to wartime service.  Some 205,000 veterans from the Global War on Terror have sought VA health care since returning stateside, about one-third of the total number of men and women leaving military service.

In Arkansas, more than 3,700 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror sought VA health care in 2006.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers like the one in North Little Rock.  These community-based Vet Centers serve as an important resource for veterans who, once home, often seek out fellow veterans for advice or help transitioning back to civilian life.

• Geriatric Care:  Long-term care is a critical issue for America’s veterans.  Approximately 39 percent of living veterans are at least 65 years, compared with 12 percent of the general population.  The challenge to care for these 9.5 million men and women is met through a spectrum of home and community-based programs such as home-based primary care, homemaker and home health aide services, home respite and hospice and adult day care health.  VA also provides home and domiciliary care for veterans who can no longer be safely maintained in non-institutional settings.  Additionally, VA conducts nationwide research on the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and funds 21 geriatric research, education and clinical centers, each focusing on a major geriatric problem.

More than 44,000 veterans aged 65 years or older received medical care from VA facilities in Arkansas during 2006. The 152-bed nursing home care unit at CAVHS offers a variety of services to veterans in need of restorative and long-term care.  VA named CAVHS’ geriatric evaluation and management program as a Clinical Center of Excellence.  This program provides intensive residency training in geriatrics to health care providers.  CAVHS also has a Geriatric, Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) that offers extended care services, including adult day health care, respite care, home-based primary care, rehabilitation, both inpatient and outpatient comprehensive geriatric evaluation and management services, recuperative care and primary care.

The Fayetteville medical center places a concerted effort on identifying and managing the unique needs of geriatric patients.  With a large number of Fayetteville's patient population over the age of 65, the medical center emphasizes home-health referrals.  Every effort is made to keep patients in the comfort of their homes.  When necessary, placements are made to state veterans' homes, community nursing homes and VA long-term care facilities.

• Research:  To provide the highest quality of health care to the nation’s veterans, VA sponsors a world-renowned research and development program that addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing medical science today, such as aging, vision loss, women’s health, Gulf War illnesses, diabetes, bioterrorism and hepatitis. VA researchers led the way in developing the cardiac pacemaker, the CT scan, magnetic source imaging and improving artificial limbs.  More recently, injuries sustained by armed forces engaged in current deployments have further increased the long-standing emphasis on VA research on limb loss; prosthetics and tissue replacement; traumatic brain injury; spinal cord injury; and mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder.  The quality of the research and relevance to the veteran population remain the determining factors in deciding what studies to fund.

Research in Arkansas includes major projects in Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer treatments, osteoporosis, endocrinology, cardiology, exercise and aging and mental health.  The 16,600 square-foot research annex at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock was dedicated in September 2005.  CAVHS also enjoys a close working partnership with the University of Arkansas School for Medical Sciences and in 2000 was awarded a $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a General Clinical Research Center (GCRC).  The GCRC is one of 80 such facilities in the United States and one of only two located within VA medical centers.  It serves as the core clinical research facility for physicians at CAVHS and its affiliates. Studies on obesity, sleep disorders, cancer, diabetes and a host of other diseases are conducted here.

• Disabilities and Pensions:  Not all military service related issues end when people are discharged from active duty.  About 2.7 million veterans receive monthly VA disability compensation for medical conditions related to their service in uniform.  VA pensions go to about 330,000 wartime veterans with limited means.  Family members of about 527,000 veterans qualify for monthly VA payments as the survivors of disabled veterans or pension recipients.

VA's Little Rock Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Arkansas who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Little Rock Regional Office processed 9,561 disability compensation claims, including 2,606 veterans applying for the first time and 6,955 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 1,100 Arkansas veterans participated in VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program in 2006.

• Homeless:  Less than one-quarter of all homeless adults are veterans, and many more veterans who live in poverty are at risk of becoming homeless.  VA is the only federal agency that provides substantial hands-on assistance directly to the homeless.  It has the largest network of homeless assistance programs in the country.  Nearly 16,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds are available for homeless veterans throughout the country.  VA aggressively reaches out to veterans on the street, conducts clinical assessments, offers needed medical treatment, and provides long-term shelters and job training.  More than $265 million is dedicated to specialized homeless programs to assist homeless veterans, including grants and per diem payments to more than 400 public and non-profit groups.

The Comprehensive Homeless Center at Little Rock is the only VA homeless program in the state to provide both outreach and residential treatment. In addition to working with VA programs, the staff works with non-profit organizations and local, state and federal agencies to provide transitional and permanent supported housing along with job training for veterans.  The Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) program at CAVHS received the prestigious GlaxoSmithKline Circle of Excellence Award and was deemed an exemplary program in the provision of case management services by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.  In addition, the Drop-In Day Treatment Center, which houses the HCHV Program, continues to be a safe haven for homeless veterans during the day, providing health care, clothing, food and other services designed to help promote mental, physical and social stability.

The Fayetteville medical center’s HCHV program has a contract with HOUSE, Inc., of Joplin, Mo., to house homeless veterans. The facility provides room, board, substance dependence group therapy, employment assistance and transportation along with educational opportunities for homeless veterans. 

• Memorial Affairs:  Most men and women who have been in the military are eligible for burial in a national cemetery, as are their dependent children and usually their spouses.  VA manages the country’s network of national cemeteries with more than 2.9 million gravesites at 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldier’s lots and monument sites.  In 2007, more than 100,000 veterans and dependents were buried in VA's national cemeteries.  Additionally, VA provided more than 359,000 headstones and markers and 423,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates to the loved ones of deceased veterans.  VA-assisted state veterans cemeteries provided more than 23,000 interments.

Arkansas has three national cemeteries.  In 2006, the Fayetteville National Cemetery had 225 burials; the Ft. Smith National Cemetery had 375; and the Little Rock National Cemetery had 98.  The Little Rock cemetery is closed to burials except for family members of those already interred.  The Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock, built with a VA grant, conducted 427 interments.  VA provided 4,723 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Arkansas and sent 3,486 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Arkansas survivors of veterans.