Department of Veterans Affairs Announces New VA Facilities
In fiscal year 2023, more than 115,000 veterans, families, and currently serving troops have gotten help at a Department of Veterans Affairs 300 Vet Centers. And access to that help is expanding across the United States as the agency adds more VA facilities.
VA Announces New Counseling Facilities
The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced three new Vet Centers and six smaller satellite locations (known as Vet Center Outstations) to improve access to counseling for those in the VA healthcare system and service members.
The new Vet Centers and Vet Center Outstations are located in various states (see below) and feature counselors and outreach staff.
VA.gov notes that many of the staff members at these facilities are veterans themselves and “are experienced and prepared to discuss the tragedies of war, loss, grief, and transition after trauma,” according to VA.gov.
What Are VA Vet Centers?
Department of Veterans Affairs Vet Centers are counseling centers offering what the VA describes as “no-cost professional counseling to eligible Veterans, service members, and their families.”
Services include counseling for issues such as:
- Depression
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Military sexual trauma
The centers also offer referrals to community-based options, VA care, and benefits.
New Vet Centers and Vet Center Outstations
The new Vet Centers and Outstations announced on December 1, 2023, operate in the following locations:
- Sierra Vista, Arizona Vet Center Outstation
- Solano County, California Vet Center Outstation
- St. Cloud, Minnesota Vet Center Outstation
- Vineland, New Jersey Vet Center Outstation
- Clarksville, Tennessee Vet Center
- Fredericksburg, Virginia Vet Center
- Leesburg, Virginia Vet Center Outstation
- U.S. Virgin Islands Vet Center
- Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Vet Center Outstation
Some of these facilities were announced with no start date; others were scheduled to start operations in 2024. Contact the Department of Veterans Affairs directly at 1-800-827-1000 to learn where the nearest vet center or outstation is near you.
“Vet Centers provide Veterans with high-quality counseling, community engagement, and referral services in nearby and comfortable environments,” according to VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D. quoted in the announcement at VA.gov.
Elnahal adds, “Expanding this program throughout the United States and its territories reaffirms our commitment to meeting Veterans, service members, and their families where they are and improving the overall mental health and well-being of those who served.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs pledges to expand the vet center program to support those needing these services.
Related: A Defense Budget Warning From the Joint Chiefs of Staff
About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
