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VVAW Military and Veterans Counseling Traveling This Fall

By Johanna (Hans) Buwalda

Hans Buwalda at Chicago Memorial Day event, 2012.

VVAW Military and Veterans Counseling may have shrunk by 50% since Ray Parish left the project, but I am continuing to provide mental health services to as many veterans as possible. From January-September, I have assisted over 175 veterans, service members, and their loved ones.

While I am now in the process of referring those veterans who are facing complex VA benefit appeals and discharge upgrade requests, I continue to provide free counseling, therapy and evaluations to veterans who cannot or will not use the VA. In my search for providers who both care and have the necessary knowledge and skill, I continue to come across many amazing professionals and para-professionals.

In addition, I will be traveling to the second IVAW Women's Retreat in Pennsylvania as well as the IVAW Annual Convention in Baltimore, to provide consultations, support and referrals to any interested participants. Generally, my presence is not utilized as much as one might think during these events because the veterans have each other for adequate support. But afterwards, when everybody has gone back home, my presence at these veteran events pays off. That is when these veterans feel much more comfortable calling a provider when they or their peers need one, because they know me already. Going to these events is mostly about doing outreach and networking to meet future needs.

In between, I will be presenting on a panel with Annie Hirschman at the American Public Health Association Convention. I intend to speak on the implications of withholding quality care from veterans as a large public health problem that will affect all of us: civilians and veterans alike. I especially intend to speak about the public health implications of the continuously large number of veterans who unfairly receive bad discharges as a result of service connected (mental) health problems.

It is going to be a busy, very interesting, and hopefully fruitful fall. Thank you for continuing to support VVAW's Military and Veterans Counseling.