Georgia
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 $2.1 billion in Georgia in 2006 to serve more than 757,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 132,511 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Georgia.  VA provided 18,309 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 108,561 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $2.6 billion.  Georgia veterans held more than 35,000 VA life insurance policies valued at nearly $400 million.  In 2006, 27 veterans were interred at Marietta National Cemetery and 491 at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton.

• 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 Georgia had nearly 12,000 inpatient admissions and provided more than 1.1 million outpatient visits.  VA operates major medical centers in Atlanta, Dublin and Augusta (a two-division facility: downtown and uptown).  Additionally, nine community-based outpatient clinics are located throughout the state and provide veterans with access to medical care close to where they live.  Georgia VA offers programs covering a vast array of medical care such as surgery, cardiology, neurology, spinal cord injury, stroke and blind rehabilitation, psychiatry and extensive outpatient care.

The Atlanta medical center is the regional supplier of prosthetics and mechanical devices such as artificial limbs.  Since the initiation of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, the Atlanta VA Medical Center has provided care to more than 2,500 active duty soldiers and newly returning combat veterans.  In partnership with the Department of Defense, the Atlanta VA conducts extensive outreach to active duty soldiers and provides separation physicals and pre-deployment exams.  The Atlanta VA provides a full range of oncological services and continues to function as a region-wide referral center for other VA medical centers.

Special programs at the Augusta medical center include a 15-bed Blind Rehabilitation Center at the uptown division and a 60-bed spinal cord injury unit at the downtown division.  While the uptown division offers primary care, specialized programs in alcohol treatment, post-traumatic stress disorder, and stroke and blind rehabilitation, the downtown division provides acute and specialty care.  In 2004, the Augusta VA Medical Center opened the first and only medical rehabilitation unit in the VA system for active duty military personnel. The U.S. Army Southeast Regional Medical Command/VA Southeast Network Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit continues to provide inpatient and outpatient medical rehabilitation services for active duty military personnel.  The inpatient unit provides services to those with more complex medical and rehabilitation problems, including upper and lower extremity amputations, traumatic brain injury, complex orthopedic problems, and burns.  Recreation therapists provide a comprehensive therapeutic and leisure skills recreation program. These rehabilitation units complement our spinal cord injury unit, which also provides care for active duty personnel.

The medical center in Dublin has a range of services, including acute care, primary care, geriatrics and extended care, as well as mental health and rehabilitation services.

All of the medical centers are affiliated with local universities, training more than 2,500 people last year in a variety of health care positions, with more than 600 physician-residents.

In 2004, the Augusta VA medical center opened two active duty rehab care units.  The inpatient unit provides comprehensive rehabilitation services to active military personnel with more complex medical and psychological problems, including upper and lower extremity amputations, traumatic brain injury, complex orthopedic problems, burns and PTSD.

The outpatient rehabilitation unit also provides services for active duty military personnel with orthopedic problems who do not require inpatient treatment.  The Augusta medical center also serves as the VA southeast network point of contact with the Department of Defense to triage active duty personnel into the appropriate southeastern VA facility based on the medical needs of the service member.

• 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 Georgia, more than 3,800 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 in Atlanta and Savannah.  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.

Nearly 61,000 Georgians age 65 and older received medical care last year from VA facilities.  Each of the medical centers at Atlanta, Augusta and Dublin support nursing home units for elderly veterans.  Programs that allow elderly veterans to remain in their homes and delay institutionalized care, such as adult day care and home based primary care and community services, augment these units.  Additionally, VA funds numerous research projects associated with aging.  A 132-bed restorative and nursing home care unit is located at the uptown Augusta medical center.  The Atlanta medical center operates a 100-bed nursing home, in addition to research programs on low vision and disequilibrium in the elderly (nocturia, which can cause accidental falls and sleep disruption), computer-controlled wheelchair motors, Alzheimer’s disease and other geriatric research.  In Dublin, there are 161 beds on five nursing home units dedicated to providing nursing home care for Georgia’s veterans.  Georgia also operates two state veterans homes in Milledgeville and Augusta, which VA augments through per diem payments for residents.

• 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 funds more than 400 research projects in Georgia, primarily conducted through the Atlanta medical center, which is one of the top 10 funded VA medical centers in the nation.  Atlanta's research program also includes one of VA's national rehabilitation research and development centers.  Atlanta’s research projects involve more than 140 principal investigators and cover a broad range of subjects, including bacterial infection, diabetes, development of new anti-HIV and  HBV (hepatitis) agents, engineering and environmental design of facilities, low vision devices and aids, bone growth and remodeling, hormone action, hypertension, lung development and disease, genetics of cancer, and drug addiction and mental health disorders.  The center’s budget for research exceeds $27 million from VA and non-VA sources.  The Augusta medical center runs 113 active research projects with a budget of $2.8 million.  Areas of major interest include stroke, urology, oncology studies, neuroscience studies, and schizophrenia, in addition to a host of other targeted clinical and laboratory study areas.

• 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 Atlanta Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Georgia who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Atlanta Regional Office processed 20,005 disability compensation claims, including 5,750 veterans applying for the first time and 14,255 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 2,900 Georgia 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 homeless programs in Georgia are based at all the VA medical centers.  These programs have a practical, comprehensive approach that combines substance abuse treatment and sober housing with immediate job placement with the VA and in the community.

The Dublin medical center operates a 40-bed domiciliary-based Homeless Veterans Program, as well as an active program for substance abuse and vocational rehabilitation.  Of the veterans served in the program, 75 percent were employed by the time the program was completed.

Augusta continues to expand its service to the homeless through the services provided by the Health Care for Homeless Veterans Program and the Domiciliary Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program.  Volunteers throughout the state, particularly from veterans’ service organizations, augment the Georgia homeless program.

The Atlanta medical center has the largest homeless population to serve in the state.  Its homeless program consists of an outreach component, a women’s homeless program, and an active Compensated Work Therapy program, where veterans are provided employment opportunities, along with extensive transitional counseling, training and support services.  It conducts biannual standdowns to improve both medical service to veterans and linkages to community organizations.  Atlanta clinicians are also actively involved in research and national planning committees 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 2.7 million gravesites at 124 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 Georgia.  The Marietta National Cemetery buries only eligible family members and had 27 burials in 2006.  One of VA’s newest cemeteries is about 35 miles north of Atlanta, in Canton, where 491 were buried in 2006.  A state veterans cemetery at Milledgeville constructed with a VA grant had 169 interments in 2006.  VA provided 7,705 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Georgia and sent 7,268 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Georgia survivors of veterans.