West 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 $912 million in West Virginia in 2006 to serve about 182,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 32,555 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in West Virginia.  VA provided 4,778 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 10,120 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $297 million.  West Virginia veterans held nearly 9,000 VA life insurance policies worth $97 million.  In 2006, 224 were interred in West Virginia’s 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 West Virginia, VA operates medical centers at Beckley, Clarksburg, Huntington and Martinsburg.  In 2006, the Martinsburg medical center had 336,814 outpatient visits and 4,726 inpatient admissions.  Beckley had 145,787 outpatient visits and 1,571 admissions.  Huntington had 293,359 outpatient visits and 4,459 inpatient admissions.  Clarksburg had 207,669 outpatient visits and 3,820 inpatient admissions.  Clarksburg also admitted 191 to its nursing home.

A full range of medical services is provided to West Virginia’s veterans, including acute medical, surgical, psychiatric and nursing home care.  Specialty units at most medical centers offer veterans rehabilitative medicine, prosthetics and sensory aids, spinal cord injury care, women's health clinics, mental health and substance abuse clinics, urology and post-traumatic stress disorder counseling.

Additionally, outpatient clinics throughout the state serve veterans in rural areas such as Tucker, Wood, and Braxton counties, and at Charleston, Franklin, Williamson, and Petersburg.

The Martinsburg medical center provides inpatient psychiatric care and a residential therapeutic program for veterans who completed inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder treatment.  Martinsburg also offers a center for addiction treatment and a brain injury rehabilitation unit.  In addition to general medical care, the Beckley, Huntington and Martinsburg medical centers use telepathology, telemedicine and telepsychiatry services to provide care to veterans closer to home.  Clarksburg uses telepsychiatry at its outpatient clinics in Wood and Tucker counties.  Martinsburg offers telepsychiatry at the outpatient clinic in Cumberland, Md.

Each of the medical facilities is affiliated with at least one major university, including West Virginia University and Medical School, Mountain State University, Bluefield State College, Radford University, Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, and the Pikeville, Ky., School of Osteopathic Medicine and The George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.  West Virginia VA provides training for hundreds of medical students each year in nursing, dentistry, dietetics, audiology and speech pathology, medical technology, radiation technology, pharmacy, podiatry, psychiatry and social work.  Through West Virginia's Rural Health Education Consortium, medical and dental students, along with pharmacy and physician assistant students, rotate annually through the Martinsburg medical center.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense are working together to seamlessly transfer the health care of returning service members from military treatment facilities to VA health care facilities.  The purpose of this initiative is to assist service members who were injured or became ill during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).  Although this initiative pertains primarily to OIF and OEF, transition to VA health care is available for service members returning from other assignments.

• 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 West Virginia, more than 3,300 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 Beckley, Charleston, Huntington, Logan, Martinsburg, Morgantown, Princeton and Wheeling.  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, the number of veterans over age 65 who received VA health care in Martinsburg was 15,789; in Beckley, 5,129; in Huntington, 11,901; and in Clarksburg, 8,351.

Through its VA-operated nursing home care units and a network of state veterans' homes and contracted nursing homes, VA has made significant strides in addressing the needs of elderly West Virginia veterans.  Beckley medical center provides two extended care and rehabilitation units that offer short-term rehabilitation, complex care, respite care, end of life care and nursing home care.  Beckley also provides intermediate care, contract nursing home care, and homemaker and home health aid.

The Martinsburg medical center provides intermediate care, palliative care, nursing home care (both VA-managed and contract), a geriatric clinic, adult day care, homemaker and home health aide and respite care, care coordination and telehealth, and training for physician assistants and medical residents.  The Clarksburg VA medical center has a 27-bed extended care unit.  The West Virginia State Veterans Nursing Home, located next to the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, is a state of the art facility and the first all-veterans nursing home in West Virginia.

Besides inpatient care, VA provides a wide range of geriatric health-care services on an outpatient basis, including home-based primary care, geriatric clinics, adult day care, homemaker and home health aid, and home-based hospice programs.  Contract nursing home care is also available.  The Huntington medical center provides medical care for the state's veterans home in Barboursville.

• 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's research initiatives in West Virginia cover health issues that are important to the tri-state area of West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.  Research issues include preventive health care, geriatric studies and delivery of health care in rural Appalachia.  Research initiatives at the Clarksburg medical center include prostate cancer, hypertension, women's health issues and gastro-intestinal studies.

The Martinsburg medical center participates in VA collaborative research projects on a national and local level.  Research studies include atherosclerosis risk in communities, improved psychiatric patient outcomes, and mental health quality of care.  The Huntington medical center supports 12 research laboratories, a radioactive procedure lab, and an Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC)-accredited animal research facility. Huntington’s research program has active human, animal, and in vitro research protocols with participating VA and Marshall University investigators.  The program is overseen by the Research and Development Committee with an affiliate Institutional Review Board (Marshall University IRB #1) and the supporting subcommittees: Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Safety/Biosafety Subcommittee, and Space Subcommittee.

• 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 Huntington Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in West Virginia who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Huntington Regional Office processed 5,728 disability compensation claims, including 1,559 veterans applying for the first time and 4,169 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 700 West 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 assist homeless veterans in West Virginia are extensive and reach all areas of the state.  VA domiciliary staffs make sure veterans receive a supportive, therapeutic residential rehabilitation program that addresses the multi-faceted needs of the homeless by providing comprehensive clinical and vocational services.  Outplacement and aftercare are also offered.  The Martinsburg, Huntington, Beckley and Clarksburg medical centers have homeless outreach social workers who routinely screen and counsel homeless veterans.  During the past several years, West Virginia facilities have been a significant partner with their communities in hosting veterans' stand downs, providing medical care, clothes, sleeping bags and VA counseling.

• 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 Grafton, West Virginia.  West Virginia National Cemetery had 223 burials in 2006.  Grafton National Cemetery, which buries only eligible family members, had one burial.  VA provided 3,850 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in West Virginia and 1,735 Presidential Memorial Certificates to West Virginia survivors of veterans.

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