Virginia
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 $1.9 billion in Virginia in 2006 to offer services to about 738,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 130,412 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Virginia.  VA provided 19,791 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 162,743 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $5.7 billion.  Virginia veterans held more than 42,000 VA life insurance policies worth more than $502 million.  In 2006, 1,502 interments were conducted at Virginia’s 15 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 Virginia, VA operates major medical centers in Hampton, Richmond and Salem.  Combined, the VA medical centers in Virginia handled nearly 929,000 outpatient visits and had 14,545 inpatient admissions in 2006.  The three Virginia medical centers, like the nation's health care industry, have transitioned to outpatient care instead of the inpatient setting.  A full range of medical services is provided, including acute medical, surgical, psychiatric, nursing home care and domiciliary care.  The Richmond VA medical center’s spinal cord injury program and traumatic brain injury program serve as regional referral centers.  Richmond’s diabetes and geriatric programs are designated VA Centers of Excellence.  Ambulatory care clinics are located in each of the medical centers and community-based outpatient clinics are operating in Alexandria, Danville, Fredericksburg, Harrisonburg, Martinsville, Stephens City and Virginia Beach.  Outpatient clinics in Saltville and Tazewell provide health care in a more rural setting.  VA also has mental health satellite clinics at Covington, Hillsville, Lynchburg, Marion,  Pulaski and Stuarts Draft.

Virginia VA facilities have affiliations with Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Medical College of Virginia, University of Virginia and the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, as well as with numerous dental, nursing and allied health schools.

• 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 Virginia, more than 3,300 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror have sought VA health care.  At the Richmond VA Medical Center, doctors have treated 1,262 returning veterans; in Salem, 730; at the Hampton VA Medical Center, 1,320.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Alexandria, Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke.  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.

VA provided medical care to more than 36,000 Virginia veterans aged 65 and over last year.  A wide range of skilled nursing home, extended care and rehabilitation services are available at the VA medical centers (VAMCs) throughout the state, including home-based primary care, palliative and respite care.  Long-term and extended care programs in Virginia VAMCs continue to expand to meet the growing population.  Each program is geared towards assisting the veteran in reaching his or her optimum level of functioning.  The Hampton VA medical center has an approved geropsychiatry fellowship training position with Eastern Virginia Medical School.  The Richmond VAMC’s nursing home was the first in the country to be designated as an Eden Alternative facility.  The Eden facility seeks to enhance the quality of life for residents by creating a more home-like environment in the nursing home setting.  The Salem VAMC offers many geriatric programs and serves as home to the State Veterans Home for Virginia.  Salem also has a community partnership for adult day health care services for veterans on its campus.

• 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.

With nearly $8 million in VA and non-VA funding in 2006, VA’s research efforts in Virginia supported more than 300 research projects.  Much of the state’s VA research projects are conducted at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond.  More than 120 principal investigators are committed to Virginia’s research projects, which cover a broad range of subjects.  Richmond is also the site of one of six national Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Clinical Centers focusing on research to help treat Parkinson’s disease.  The Salem VA Medical Center has 16 investigators conducting 52 active research projects.  The facility’s research includes studies in obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, kidney disease, asthma, pneumonia, and PTSD among others.  Hampton VA had 22 research projects underway last year.  Virginia’s research program supports the advancement of the health and care of veterans and the community at large by gaining new knowledge of techniques and products that lead to improved prevention, diagnosis, treatment and disease management.

• 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 Roanoke Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Virginia who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Roanoke Regional Office processed 20,310 disability compensation claims, including 7,235 veterans applying for the first time and 13,075 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 2,600 Virginia 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.

Programs to help the homeless are a primary concern for Virginia’s VA medical centers.  Homeless veterans throughout the state are assisted through a range of services, generally based upon community outreach and Compensated Work Therapy programs.  The Hampton medical center is nationally known for its 169-bed domiciliary designed to meet the therapeutic and transitional needs of homeless veterans in the Tidewater community.  Richmond’s transitional rehabilitation program is a 20-bed unit housed on the medical center’s campus.  Richmond and Hampton VAMCs have designated coordinators to work with homeless veterans to develop programs to meet their needs.  The medical centers have been awarded grants to expand the case management staff, specifically for homeless veterans within Virginia.  Stand downs are also hosted throughout the state on a regular basis.  There are two Oxford Houses located in Hampton and Richmond area, for substance abuse recovery.

• 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 15 national cemeteries in Virginia.  The national cemetery in Culpeper had 211 burials in 2006 and Quantico National Cemetery in Triangle had 1,169.  Four national cemeteries bury eligible family members and cremation remains.  The cemetery in Alexandria had eight burials; the Richmond National Cemetery had six.  The Ft. Harrison and Glendale national cemeteries also are in Richmond.  Ft. Harrison had five burials; Glendale had one.  Other national cemeteries in Virginia bury only family members.  They are: Hampton, with 81 interments in 2006; Winchester, with 5; and City Point, in Hopewell, with 8. Seven Pines, in Sandston, had two burials; Cold Harbor, in Mechanicsville, had one.  Staunton; Balls Bluff, in Leesburg; and Hampton VA Medical Center national cemeteries all had no burials last year.  A state veterans cemetery in Amelia, which received a VA grant, had 230 burials in 2006; the state cemetery in Suffolk had 478.  In 2006, VA provided 17,863 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Virginia and sent 4,895 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Virginia survivors of veterans.

#   #   #