Rhode Island
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.

In 2006, VA spent nearly $285 million in Rhode Island to serve more than 86,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 12,559 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Rhode Island.  VA provided 1,149 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 3,178 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $119 million.  Rhode Island veterans held more than 7,000 VA life insurance policies worth $71 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.

In fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Rhode Island had 3,065 inpatient admissions and provided 277,200 outpatient visits.  In Rhode Island, VA operates a major medical center in Providence.  To provide better access to care for veterans closer to where they live, VA operates community-based outpatient clinics in Middletown, R.I., New Bedford, Mass., and Hyannis, Mass.  The Providence medical center also contracts with hospitals on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island to provide care for veterans.

• 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 Rhode Island, more than 1,500 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 including one in Warwick.  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 2006, more than 17,000 Rhode Island veterans aged 65 years old and older were treated by VA facilities in the state.  Programs like VA’s home-based primary care and use of contract nursing homes helped Providence offer care to elderly veterans.  Hundreds of veterans received skilled nursing visits in their homes.  These programs allow veterans to remain in their homes and communities and avoid institutionalization.

• 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.

The Providence VA Medical Center's research facilities allow nationally and internationally recognized investigators to dedicate themselves to basic and clinical research projects.  At the Providence VA Medical Center, research projects received more than $3.1 million in VA funding.  The projects cover a broad spectrum of ongoing biomedical and behavioral science studies including dermatology, gastroenterology, heart and lung diseases, hypertension and mental health and substance abuse disorders.  Each year, VA employees and patients make a valuable contribution to improving health care for veterans¬ and ultimately all Americans¬ by advancing the nation’s knowledge of disease and disability.

• 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 Providence Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Rhode Island who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Providence Regional Office processed 3,265 disability compensation claims, including 904 veterans applying for the first time and 2,361 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 400 Rhode Island 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 Providence VA Medical Center operates a homeless program at the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol.  The homeless program located at the State Home manages a transitional residential unit with an emphasis on case management services, substance abuse treatment, compensated work therapy and aftercare planning.  In addition, Providence operates a community-based outreach program that links homeless veterans to the VA medical center, housing services, legal aid and social services.  More than 65 percent of all the homeless veterans who enter this residential program locate permanent housing at their time of discharge.

The VA medical center’s homeless team is also active with RI Operation Stand Down, several local homeless coalitions and the Rhode Island Department of Labor.

• 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.

Rhode Island has no national cemeteries.  Its state veterans cemetery in Exeter, which has received several major expansion and improvement grants from VA, had 1,203 burials in 2006.  VA provided nearly 2,000 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Rhode Island and provided more than 3,100 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Rhode Island survivors of veterans.