What Lies Ahead for the Future of VA’s VITAL Program

What started as a pilot between the VA Medical Centers (VAMC) and higher education institutions took on a life of its own. In 2011, the VA launched the Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership (VITAL) program to provide a support bridge with health care benefits, academic accommodations, and mental health services to student veterans. It was originally funded as a three-year pilot and now exists as a facility-based, flexible option dependent on resources to continue.

The VITAL program is not a mandated VA program with centralized funding or policies. Therefore, this means that the management and overarching decision to start or stop VITAL is localized at VAMC facilities. Based on the VA VITAL Program Sites locator, only a few states, like New York, have a large number of sites, whereas others have very few. Furthermore, 54% of states have no VITAL sites at all, with only one designated VITAL online program site.

According to Elizabeth Louer, the National Program Coordinator, VITAL & Peer Support Services, VITAL staff may be occasionally reassigned from a campus to a nearby VA facility depending on local needs, and these movements are not reported since it is not mandated policy. Their data, gathered in 2022, estimated that VA medical centers had spent a cumulative amount of approximately $5.2 million on the VITAL program. Approximately 30 VITAL programs are still in operation today.