Maine
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 $518 million in Maine in 2006, to serve nearly 140,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 26,068 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Maine.  VA provided 2,153 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 10,120 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $315 million.  Maine veterans held more than 9,000 VA life insurance policies worth $94 million.

• 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.

Inpatient admissions to VA health care facilities in Maine in 2006 totaled 1,696 while outpatient visits reached 325,718.  In Maine, VA operates a major medical center in Togus, six miles east of Augusta.  Opened in 1866, Togus was the first national home for disabled volunteer soldiers.  Today, Maine’s only VA medical center plays a major role in the community and state, providing medical, surgical, psychiatric and nursing home care.  To provide better access to care for veterans, especially those living in rural areas, VA operates community-based outpatient clinics in Bangor, Calais, Caribou, Rumford and Saco.  A new part-time clinic in Lincoln opened in 2007.  There is also a Mental Health Clinic located in Portland.

• 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 Maine, more than 1,400 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terrorism have sought VA health care.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Bangor, Caribou, Lewiston, Portland and Springvale.  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 Maine, 17,474 people 65 years and older received medical care from VA in 2006.  A wide range of geriatric, rehabilitation and extended care services are available and programs continue to expand to meet the growing needs of this elderly population.  The Togus Medical Center offers elderly veterans geriatric primary care, geriatric and gero-psychiatric consultations, geriatric evaluation, nursing home and dementia care, and palliative and respite care.  VA also provides some contract nursing home care, homemaker and home health program and community residential care.  The primary focus is to assist veterans to reach their optimum level of functioning.

Maine operates six state veterans homes supported by VA funds.  They are located in Augusta (120-bed skilled care and 30-bed residential care); Bangor (120-bed skilled care); Caribou (40-bed skilled care and 30-bed residential care); Scarborough (120-bed skilled care and 30-bed residential care); South Paris (62-bed skilled care and 30-bed residential care) and Machias (30-bed residential care).

• 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.

Togus is in the process of reestablishing a research 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 Togus VA Medical and Regional Office Center serves veterans and their survivors in Maine who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Togus VAMROC processed 5,070 disability compensation claims, including 1,433 veterans applying for the first time and 3,637 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 800 Maine 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.

VA Maine works with local veteran groups and agencies to provide services for homeless veterans.  Stand downs have been held at Bangor, Lewiston, Portland and Togus.  Stand downs provide medical and dental screening, food, clothing, toiletries, job services, housing assistance, spiritual and psychological counseling, introduction of various local, state and federal services, evaluation of VA benefits and identification of homeless shelters throughout the state.  They are typically held in urban centers throughout Maine.  The Togus medical center has a full-time homeless coordinator in the community to work directly with 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.

The national cemetery in Togus is closed for new burials.  The Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Augusta is closed for new gravesites but had 192 burials of family members in 2006 and the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery II, also in Augusta and established with a VA grant, had 448 burials. A third state cemetery in Caribou, also built with a VA grant, had 42 burials in 2006.  VA provided 2,479 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Maine and sent 1,744 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Maine survivors of veterans.