VA reaches out to female vets across nation - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

VA reaches out to female vets across nation

The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an effort to find out why female vets often don’t turn to VA for their health care needs.

Starting in June, VA representatives began calling the nation’s 1.8 million female veterans, starting with those who have enrolled in VA but are not using its health care facilities or programs. The department hopes the women will share their impressions of VA and make suggestions to enhance care.

VA plans to spend the next several years trying to reach the veterans, says Patricia Hayes, chief consultant of the department’s Women Veterans Health Strategic Health Care Group.

Hayes said the number of women using VA health services has doubled in the last decade, and the department is preparing to accommodate an additional 300,000 women who will enter the VA system in the next five to 10 years.

“Our goal is to find out how we can serve them and provide them the best care,” she said.

The initiative is part of a larger VA effort to better serve female vets. In less than 10 years, the population of female veterans has nearly doubled to 7.8 percent of all vets.

Since launching the telephone outreach effort, VA has reached about 1,000 female vets, Hayes said. More than half responded to the calls, with 22 percent asking for more information. Another 24 percent had questions answered by the VA call center staff.

Funding for the program is supplied by the more than $217 million designated for women’s health care issues in VA’s 2011 budget.