Connecticut
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.  About 97,000 veterans and family members were buried in VA’s national cemeteries and 335,000 headstones and markers were provided for veterans’ graves worldwide.

In 2006, VA spent nearly $610 million in Connecticut to serve about 252,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 25,302 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Connecticut.  VA provided 2,884 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 10,903 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $374 million.  Connecticut veterans held more than 24,000 VA life insurance policies valued at more than $271 million.

• Health Care:  One of the most visible of all VA benefits is health care.  VA has 153 hospitals, 882 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 207 Vet Centers, 136 nursing homes, 45 residential rehabilitation treatment programs and 92 comprehensive home care programs.  Due to technology and national and VA health care trends, 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.

In fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Connecticut had 4,766 inpatient admissions and provided 555,603 outpatient visits.  The VA Connecticut Healthcare System operates medical centers in West Haven and Newington.  To better provide access to care for veterans, especially those in rural areas, VA also operates community-based primary care clinics in Danbury, New London, Stamford, Waterbury, Windham and Winsted.  VA has major affiliations with the Yale University School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut Schools of Medicine and Dentistry.

• 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 Connecticut, more than 2,100 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror have sought VA health care.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Hartford, New Haven and Norwich.  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.

A wide range of geriatric, rehabilitation and extended-care services are available to Connecticut veterans.  Programs continue to expand to meet the growing needs of this elderly population.  For example, the development of the geropsychiatry clinic with home-based case management services was implemented to serve elderly veterans with serious mental illnesses.  VA Connecticut also has carefully constructed a continuum of care for frail elderly patients, which includes inpatient, clinic, day hospital and home care components.  The West Haven campus provides inpatient rehabilitation, complex sub-acute medical management, and complex wound care, hospice and respite care.  The day hospital fills many of the same roles for patients who can be at home between frequent or daily visits.  The home care team serves patients whose needs are not met through Medicare or Medicaid-financed care and who either are homebound or have complex medical needs that are best met at home.  Patients move freely between these levels and sites of care as their needs dictate.

• 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.

VA Connecticut Healthcare System investigators are involved in 400 research projects in medicine, psychiatry, neurology, surgery, dermatology and radiology.  More than 130 principal investigators work on these projects, most of which are funded following national peer review.  The majority of the investigators are clinicians on the medical staff.  Total research funding from VA and non-VA sources for 2006 was approximately $41.5 million.  In addition to individual awards, research at the West Haven campus is funded by several specialized grants.  In psychiatry, the centers focus on research for alcoholism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and dual diagnosis (psychosis and substance abuse).  In neurology, a center focused on spinal cord disease is concerned with rehabilitation of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis and other spinal cord diseases.

• 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 Hartford Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Connecticut who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Hartford Regional Office processed 3,370 disability compensation claims, including 1,002 veterans applying for the first time and 2,368 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 900 Connecticut veterans participated in VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program in 2006.

• Homeless:  Nearly 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.  More than 15,000 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.

VA Connecticut homeless programs are based in West Haven at the Errera Community Care Center.  Working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Errera Community Care Center provides a program designed to provide the most needy homeless veterans with treatment, housing and case management.  The program's goals are to assist homeless veterans in finding quality housing, encourage ongoing psychiatric or substance abuse treatment, provide community case management services and facilitate positive lifestyle changes.

• 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 2.7 million gravesites at 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldier’s lots and monument sites.  In 2006, nearly 97,000 veterans were buried in VA's national cemeteries.  Additionally, VA provided more than 335,000 headstones and markers and 405,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates to the loved ones of deceased veterans.  VA-assisted state veterans cemeteries provided more than 22,000 interments.

There are no national cemeteries in Connecticut.  The state veterans cemetery in Middletown, which received a VA grant, had 328 burials in 2006.  The state also has two veterans cemeteries in Darien and Rocky Hill that received no federal development funds.  VA provided 3,730 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Connecticut.  Presidential Memorial Certificates were sent to 3,068 Connecticut survivors of veterans in 2006.

#   #   #