Recognition, services and benefits have come a long way since World War II for female vets, the fastest-growing group within the veteran population

It took more than 30 years for a select group of female pilots, America’s first female military fliers called the WASP, to gain recognition and veterans’ benefits following their service in World War II.

While much has changed since the Women Air Force Service Pilots gained benefits in the late 1970s, with programs and services mounting for female vets, many women who served remain on the outside when it comes to care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

No one understands this better than the women who run The Women Veterans Call Center. The national call center, which opened in 2013 at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, has a mission: Don’t wait for the female vets to come to you. Reach them.

Women are the fastest-growing group within the veteran population, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

“Calls go out to women across the nation who are not enrolled in VA care or who are enrolled and have not used it,” said Krista Stephenson, an Army veteran and director of the call center since its inception. The center, which is staffed entirely by woman, half of whom are veterans, now averages 12,000 “successful” outgoing calls a month. Those are calls that either reached a veteran directly or left a voice message, which is then followed by several more calls to reach the woman directly.

“We reach out to them to let them know they may be eligible for benefits and services,” Stephenson said. “A lot of women reached by phone do not consider themselves a veteran for a variety of reasons,” added Stephenson, who heads the center staffed by 23 women (with a 24th position to be filled). For some, their reason is simply because “they are a woman,” she said. Other reasons include, “I did not serve in combat,” or “I was not deployed overseas,” she said.

Taisha Wright, an Iraq war veteran and one of the call center’s 18 contact representatives who take and make calls, said she was fortunate after she got out of the Army in 2009. After serving 11 years, she had a lot of contacts from her time in the military and knew about her eligibility for VA care.

Wright quickly learned from working the call center, however, that this was far from the norm.

Of the growing population of female vets that is expected to reach 3 million in the next few years, fewer than 360,000 of them had received health care from the VA when the call center opened in the spring of 2013 -- that despite a wide array of benefits and services geared for female vets. Those include comprehensive primary care, mental health services, emergency and specialty care, gynecology services, maternity care, caregiver support, crisis support and help for homeless veterans.

Wright and all of the women working the center have been trained regarding these services and are informed about eligibility, benefits, health care and other services. They can route calls within the VA when needed and respond to crisis situations such as suicidal behavior, homelessness, sexual trauma and domestic violence.

Stephenson cited recent examples. One call came from a vet in a rural area of Alaska. It was a holiday, and the woman couldn’t reach the nearest VA to get her medication.

“She had tried to call her VA and got only a voice message, so she called the call center,” Stephenson said. The call center first tried reaching her VA’s Women Veterans Program manager, connected with the person covering that position on the holiday, and made sure the veteran got her medication.

In another case, a woman in domestic trouble called to say she was in immediate danger.

“She was crying, and you could hear children crying in the background,” Stephenson said.

“Her husband had just left the house, and she was afraid he would come back and kill her and (the) kids. She didn’t know where to go and what to do,” Stephenson said. The call center

teamed up with the Veterans Crisis Line; they dispatched police; and the mother and her children were taken to a VA clinic where they were safe. The husband was found and arrested, Stephenson said.

Calls are a mix of being urgent in nature or routine questions and concerns, Stephenson said.

Either way, the center gets women connected to what they need.

“The VA can be hard to navigate,” she said. “So we do that for women.”

Tammy Franklin is the Women Veterans Program manager at the Canandaigua VA and Rochester VA Outpatient Clinic. An Army veteran who served in the 1980s, Franklin said it wasn’t until the 1990s that the VA established the Women Veterans Program that now has a manager at every VA nationwide.

It took awhile for the program mandated by Congress to develop, she said. What prompted it was evidence of a disparity in care between men and women, she said. Specifically, data showed female veterans “had not been adequately represented for care for cancer and diabetes, and initially it was these two conditions that showed the disparity,” Franklin said.

Today, the VA offers many medical and behavioral health services, and new programs are being added all the time. They include a social group now being formed at both the Canandaigua and Rochester VA sites that would foster peer support and networking, Franklin said.

“It is about holistic care,” she said, emphasizing programs and services that address all aspects of care for female vets, who on average use health care more frequently than their male counterparts.

Franklin said efforts are ongoing to improve and expand VA offerings for women, including filling the need for child care. Pilot programs have been tried at Vas, but so far no funding is available for this service.

Franklin said she has pushed many a stroller through the tunnels of the Canandaigua VA to help moms with children get to their appointments.

“There was a time back in the day when we were a closed organization,” Franklin said of the VA. “We have come a long way to break down those barriers,” she said.

How many veterans?

22 million: Veteran population, U.S., Puerto Rico, and territories

2.2 million: Women veterans

177,075: Women vets in Texas, highest population of any state

66,052: Women vets in New York

http://www.va.gov/vetdata/

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as of Sept. 30, 2014







Woman veterans

15 percent of active duty military

18 percent of guard and reserve forces

12 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan

1 in 5 from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan diagnosed with PTSD

56 percent have service-connected disability

1 of 5 responded “yes” when VA screened for Military Sexual Trauma

— U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Women Veterans Call Center

1-855-VA-WOMEN (1-855-829-6636)

Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

More on Women Veterans Health Care

http://www.womenshealth.va.gov/

If you go

WHAT: Valor Day

WHEN: June 13, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

WHERE: Monroe Community College, 1000 E Henrietta Road, Brighton, Warshof Conference Center and Empire Room, use parking in Lot M and N

DETAILS: Local VA centers and veterans advocacy groups collaborate to offer a one-stop event to match vets with community service providers; will include one-on-one consultations.

Free food and refreshments; visit https://sites.google.com/site/rocvalorday/; email RocValorDay@gmail.com; https://twitter.com/RocValorDay