What do you think are the largest issues facing the Veteran community?

I believe that EVERY Veteran should have the Forever GI Bill. I came into service in 1984 and was on VEAP, which was inadequate, then I retired in 2004. As a single mother with a small child with a disability, my first prior was to get him through school and to graduate High School. Well, he graduated in 2019, right at the time my education benefits expired. While certain political leaders are call for student loan forgiveness they should be focusing on the 2% of the population that are Veterans and provide us the educational benefits we Earned! How are We supposed to get the jobs of the future when our educational benefits are not there. I don’t believe that a Retired, Disabled Veteran, that has protected and served this Nation should have to chock up student loan debts.
P Hendrickson, Ret. USN

I think we should be able to see our outside providers. They know us and our history better. At the VA we are just a number in an animal sell getting pushed through.

Hi,

If I may, I think that there are 3 major issues for veterans.
For me personally 1 of them is the lack of qualified medical personnel at the VA. Hospital, and by that I mean as an example; for some of my appointments I've had to see a P.A. an RN, etc. but not an actual Doctor and one of the reasons that this is an issue for me is because some of the medical questions that I've posed to them at various appointments was answered with an "I don't know," while I appreciate their honesty I still really do need help & answers to my questions and comparatively I usually don't get an "I don't know" answer from my actual Doctor. I should also say that the "other than Doctor" fill-ins that I mentioned aren't necessarily "unqualified" but I think they are put in certain positions that are out of their scope of knowledge or practice. I see this at the Decatur, Ga. VA Hospital and I'm not sure if the issue is because they are short staffed or what.
The 2d issue for me is getting more timely appointments. I've had to wait over 90 days to get a Dr's appointment before, at which point I'm usually then referred to my VA's community care program but sometimes surprisingly they are facing the same appointment scheduling issues so being referred to them doesn't always help.
And lastly, I wish the different medical departments that I visit would "get it together" so to speak as far as the disconnection of the medical advice/information being disseminated. Meaning for example; if a thing (whatever that may be) is bad or good for you then it should be bad or good across the board not opinionated responses about various medical subjects. Just a brief example of that is one Doctor will say "Tylenol is so bad for you, take Ibuprofen instead". Then the subject would come up with a different medical personnel and I then get "Ibuprofen is so bad for you, take Tylenol instead". That makes me crazy and confuses me because I'm supposed to be able to go to them when I need to and I expect to get concise and at least similar answers but this is not always the case for me. That may be a bad example but I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say anyway. Thanks for your time!

Anybody with a purple heart should be automatically 100% permanent disabled
Listed

I think the best thing is to actually talk to the veteran who is fighting for his disabilities instead of just looking at his jacket. The worst thing in the world is to disregard these men and women who are trained to think for others and not themselves throughout their entire career and then they wake up one morning and realize they need help. That to me is the bravest thing that these people can do.

The military will try to kill you , till death do we part . Most are crazy , gun's and bombs they got . They send us , to others who want to kill us . Cuss them than take their gun's . Your our favorite son's . We would do it , but we're sending you . Go do what we're telling you . We could end up in heaven , any second. Any time and not know it . We'd like a 2 week notice . Not a second to notice . Our victory is coming home un-hurt . Home is never how we remembered , and thought it would still be . They can't see , it's still me . People ask , were you exposed to something that might hurt me ? Every night , my dreams attack , that's a fact , glad you can't see . VA wants physical evidance . They know what we had to do , but want to make no sence . Every word out their mouth is a lie . They just want us to die . A thousand times you hear . While living in fear . What do you want us to do ? They just want to hear about our funeral , our burial . They throw dirt and thank us for our service . I say , you know the part you can kiss . Navy . That was me . Dennis Lopez . What he say's .

1. The v a news email I receive on my phone helps but staying informed of important subjects such as resources etc needs improvement. In a nutshell keep vets informed more frequently
2. Ensure vets can get a booster. Schedule like the 1st shot. I couldn't get in touch with the personnel to get a booster and ended up going to a CVS pharmacy to get it.
3. Please please keep us informed about monkeypox ! I have heard some states have declared an emergency because of it. Also keep us informed as to when we can get vaccinated for it.

Getting people to not just appreciate but respect what you did for your country whether it was in combat or an office. Give a Vet the space if they need it and get closer to them if they don’t!! Amen and God Bless

Mental health is The Most largest issue with Veterans and it has been since the days my father served in WW2 to our veterans present day. Our government spends billions on the immigrants coming into this our Country and Millions on the war in Kuwait. This money should be going to address mental awareness from veterans living on the streets homeless, veterans in our VA hospitals that offer access to mental awareness but not All VA hospitals offer it in these small town where the majoity of our enlisted come from. Our homeless need to know "Where are Here" for YOU!! They need the VA hospital to get off the streets, once they are helped with their disability the VA need to help place them where they can adjust to being part of their community again.
All VA health care weather its in NYC to the small rural town of 3,000 people in it needs to have the same VA system so if you go to One VA it will be the same somewhere else. No veteran should be left in the dark because their VA doesnt have the ability to treat them and travel miles and miles to get there. Some Veteran families dont have the cash to get there especially now a days. There should be buses especially for our disabled veterans or veterans who dont have the means of getting to their appointments. Also, dental should not be for just our 100% Disabled Veterans. Why? I can see everything else but EVERY Veteran served the same and every Veteran should get dental and not just health care in our VA system or out in the community.

The VA spends so much money sending out letters to our veterans and I would say 90% of our veterans have emails or get texts on their phones so that is money they could use elsewhere for our veterans that need it the most especially our homeless

Homelessness