Arizona
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.

VA spent more than $1.5 billion in Arizona in 2006 to offer services to nearly 551,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 77,650 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Arizona.  VA provided 25,087 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 61,986 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $2.1 billion.  Arizona veterans held more than 35,000 VA life insurance policies valued at nearly $390 million.  In 2006, 3,012 interments were conducted in Phoenix and Prescott national cemeteries.

• 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 Arizona, VA operates major medical centers in Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson.  In fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Arizona had 18,339 inpatient admissions.  At all three medical centers inpatient bed count dropped from a total daily average of 1,176 in 1995 to 637 in fiscal year 2006, while outpatient visits increased in the same years from 558,673 to 1,310,354.  To provide better access to care for veterans, especially those living in rural areas, VA opened 16 community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) between 1998 and 2006 in Yuma, Show Low, Bellemont, Kingman, Safford, Casa Grande, Sun City, Globe, Mesa, Ft. Huachuca, Lake Havasu City, Green Valley, Payson, Buckeye, Cottonwood and Anthem. 

• 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 Arizona, more than 2,800 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 Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson – and counseling outstations in Chinle and Keams Canyon. 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.

In Arizona, 50,439 veterans aged 65 and over received medical care from VA in 2006.  A wide range of geriatric services, rehabilitation, and extended care services are available and programs continue to expand to meet the growing needs of this elderly population.  For example, Arizona medical centers offer elderly veterans physical rehabilitation, interim care, neurogeriatric, hospice and respite care, nursing home and dementia care, home-based primary care, geriatric evaluation and management, and blind rehabilitation.

 

The primary focus of all three medical centers is to assist veterans to reach their optimum level of functioning.  VA medical centers in Arizona have placed a special emphasis on end-of-life care.  The associate chief of staff for geriatrics and extended care in Phoenix, Dr. Paul Rousseau, has been cited by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor for his work in easing the pain of dying patients.

• 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 medical centers in Arizona are involved in 288 active research projects with approximately 100 investigators.  Special areas include diabetes, colon cancer, geriatric rehabilitation, treatment of bone cancer, Gulf War illnesses and multiple-chemical sensitivity, the biochemistry of depression, treatment for heart failure, and pulmonary diseases such as asthma and emphysema. 

In fiscal year 2006, Tucson had 165 research projects and $4.9 million in total research funding from VA, the National Institutes of Health, other peer reviewed tests, private industry and others.  Phoenix had 123 active research projects and $6.2 million in research funding.  The Tucson VA Medical Center, in collaboration with the University of Arizona, operates a Center of Excellence for Valley Fever, the only one of its kind in the nation, where researchers are developing a vaccine with promising potential to prevent Valley Fever.  One of the nation’s leading diabetologists, Dr. William Duckworth, is on the staff in Phoenix and was published nationally on a discovery that offers promise in treating diseases associated with muscle loss in patients with diabetes. 

A new initiative, the Molecular Diagnosis and Research Laboratories, was recently implemented at the Tucson VA medical center.  The laboratories are one of the first integrated clinical and research facilities for molecular diagnostics in Arizona and provide the state’s only training program in this clinical specialty.  These laboratories make it possible for physicians and research scientists to apply the latest technology to patient care.  Tucson’s Department of Pathology was selected as the premier site for analysis and storage of research specimens for the national VA biorepository program.

• 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 Phoenix Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Arizona who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Phoenix Regional Office processed 13,103 disability compensation claims, including 4,048 veterans applying for the first time and 9,055 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 2,700 Arizona 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.

The Arizona VA homeless program has helped thousands of veterans in a variety of ways.  Assistance often starts with outreach into the local community and involves going out to homeless camps in the desert, parks, forested areas, soup kitchens and shelters.  Local veterans service organizations and volunteers provide invaluable support to homeless programs, including help with the outreach effort.  Numerous stand-downs have been held to assist the homeless.  These stand-downs provided medical screening, food, clothing, dental care, job services, spiritual counseling, referrals for substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, eyeglasses and legal advice to the homeless. 

 

Tucson VA is in a community partnership with three grant and per diem programs that house 81 veterans, and the Tucson city court dedicates one afternoon per month to help homeless veterans with their legal issues. It is believed to be one of the few programs of its type in the nation.  The Bob Stump VA Medical Center in Prescott maintains a homeless program in its residential rehabilitation treatment program.

• 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.

VA has two national cemeteries in Arizona.  In 2006, the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix had 3,009 burials and the Prescott National Cemetery, which buries only eligible family members, had three.  The Southern Arizona Veterans (state) cemetery in Sierra Vista near Fort Huachuca had 327 interments in 2006.  VA provided 4,160 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Arizona.  Presidential Memorial Certificates were sent to 4,034 survivors of veterans.

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