Veterans Affairs Robert

Secretary of McDonald

McDonald’s afternoon keynote acknowledged areas where the VA has fallen short of its goals in the recent past but emphasized progress the agency has made in ensuring access to care. He also noted ongoing challenges to its mission and a need for resources to meet those challenges. Well-publicized issues with ac-

cess to VA health care [see “Shinseki Steps Aside,” Washington Scene, July 2014, and “Fixing the VA,” Washington Scene, August 2014] were not the result of an influx of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, McDonald said, but of an aging population of Vietnam veterans. He cited progress on this issue but warned the problem could resurface in the VA’s future. “If we don’t have the resources now,” McDonald said, “where are we

going to be 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 40 years from now, when veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan age?” Other challenges the VA secretary identified included meeting the needs of growing numbers of female veterans, getting private-sector providers to better understand military culture, and being more inclusive of caregivers and family members. McDonald claimed progress on a number of areas, saying the VA’s

claims backlog is decreasing and veteran homelessness is down 33 percent. He also noted agency achievements such as a traumatic brain injury summit in late August, 1.5 million incoming calls to the agency’s Veter- ans Crisis Line, and a mobile app he described as popular with veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, if not their World War II counterparts.

RESOURCES

Over the course of the day, participants alluded to a number of resources available to veterans, military family members, and concerned civilians. VA Veterans Crisis Line: (800) 273-8255, press 1; text 838255; www.veteranscrisisline.net

VA App Store: https://mobile.va.gov Vets4Warriors confidential peer support: (855) 838-8255, www.vets4warriors.com

VA Combat Call Center: (877) WAR VETS (927-8387) National Resource Directory: www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits/nrd VA National Call Center for Homeless Veterans: (877) 4AID VET (424-3838)

Tips for Lifelong Caregiving: www.moaa.org/caregiver Helping You Help Veterans (for civilians): (844) 779-2427

Event

Sponsors

MOAA thanks the following sponsors, without whose sup- port the 2015 Warrior-Family Symposium would not have been possible: executive spon- sor USAA; platinum sponsors Health Net Federal Services and UnitedHealth Group; gold sponsors AbbVie, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grum- man; lunch sponsor Fisher House; silver sponsors Delta Dental, Express Scripts, and US Family Health Plan; continental breakfast sponsor American Physical Therapy Association; bronze sponsor Zeiders Enter- prises; refreshment sponsor NAVSO; and media sponsor Military.com.

#WFS2015

@wwp: @DeptVetAffairs Secretary McDonald at

#WFS2015: The VA is focusing on #caregivers and families, they’re heroes too.

@tbnew96: Sec Robert McDonald VA mission: “To care

for him who shall have borne the battle and for his.”

@KellySKennedy: “You’re not disabled, ma’am,’ “ soldier tells CBS’ McCormick. “ ‘You’re just missing parts.’ This is what I got from Walter Reed.”

@MilVetCaregiver: “Not just a supporting cast” mil/vet care- givers have different pathways/

barriers to access care Mil Family Research Institute

— Molly Wyman has been an editor at MOAA since 1997. Her last feature article in Military Offi cer was “Dark Destina- tions,” October 2011.

NOVEMBER 2015 MILITARY OFFICER 61