COMMUNITY SERVICE Veterans Administration Hospital
Caring for Wounded Warriors VA Hospital’s community-care center helps veterans whose injuries go beyond the physical
T
he Errera Community Care Center located at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Haven, part of VA Connecticut, is an oasis of relative calm in the eye of the storm for veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well for as for older veterans who fought in Vietnam and Korea.
Photo:Tom Violante
The hospital provides a full range of patient-care services with state-of-theart technology and a renowned training and research program, according to Pamela R. Redmond, the center’s public-affairs director. VA Connecticut Healthcare System provides primary, secondary and tertiary care in medicine, geriatrics, neurology and psychiatry with an operating bed capacity of 216. The system also provides services for mentally ill veterans, geriatrics rehabilitation and extended care, women’s health care, hospice and respite care, pharmacy services, dental care, psychological treatments, pastoral counseling, psychosocial support services, podiatry, prosthetics, same-day surgery, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, chiropractic treatment, dialysis and specialized services for diabetics. Errera Center Director Laurie Harkness sees the faces of veterans young and old as they struggle to reclaim what most would consider “normal” lives following tours of duty. “We are a community-based recovery center for people who have been struggling with mental illness and substance abuse with homelessness and with other significant psychosocial issues,” explains Harkness. “These issues are caused either by their time in the military or life before or after their military experience.” VA Connecticut provides services at nine locations, with campuses in West Haven and Newington, as well as six clinics in Danbury, New London, Stamford, Waterbury, Willimantic and Winsted. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs also offers combat-readjustment counseling at Vet Centers in Danbury, Rocky Hill, Norwich and West Haven. For 2013 in Connecticut, the medical care budget was $494,529,295. There were 59,023 10
“In December, we opened another 74 units of permanent housing,” adds Harkness. “We’re always looking to give people their own key for their own lease, and therefore their own life. We do outreach with our local universities and colleges to help soldiers be more successful when they try to go to school. The political support that we receive from our Connecticut legislative delegation, who frequently visit the center, is unbelievable. They are great advocates, both for veterans and also to make sure that we get the resources that we need. One of our clients just got a Habitat for Heroes house in Bridgeport, the first time since 2001. She and her three children can now live under the same roof.” Harkness says that the center attracts patients from all over the country and the world seeking recovery-oriented services.
Errera Center Director, Laurie Harkness
unique patients, 2,909 female patients, 727,222 outpatient visits, and 5,430 total admissions with a 75-percent occupancy rate. In 2013, the center treated 4,785 veterans for mental health issues but has only 16 inpatient beds for mental-health patients. “The majority of our veterans are still mostly over 55 and come from the wars in Vietnam and Korea, but a growing percentage are coming from the [1991] Gulf War and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,” explains Harkness, who is also a clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine. “We’re up to about 15 percent of young soldiers [from Iraq and Afghanistan], more and more of them each day. Our young returning soldiers don’t want to be patients — they want to be living their lives.” Harkness adds that younger veterans, including some in their early 20s, are too proud to ask for help and are simply trying to get on with their lives, including going to school and and/or getting jobs. “We provide all sorts of recoveryoriented services that include counseling, teaching life skills, housing searches, vocational services and case-management services,” says Harkness. The center, which opened
in 1994, is in the process of adding 20,000 additional square feet of space. A recent $10 million grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs will help to pay for augmenting the center’s services for homeless veterans, as well as expanding medical services, vocational services, employment services and life-skills services. “We have 150 on staff, of which over half are veterans themselves,” Harkness explains. “This is very important because, in our country, there is no stronger bond than veteran to veteran.” She adds that in 2013 more than 1,000 homeless veterans came into the center for the first time, including almost 200 who were heads of families as well as 100 young female veterans. “Our job is to get them housed as soon as possible and back to living their dreams, working and going to school,” Harkness explains. “We place our staff social workers out in the courts to work with judges, prosecutors and public defenders so that our young soldiers coming home and getting into trouble can take advantage of our services to get treated rather than incarcerated.”
“We couldn’t do this without volunteers and without community partners,” she says. “They include Columbus House, Homes for the Brave, the Women’s Institute, the New Haven Community Loan Fund, AT&T and Connecticut Heroes Project, which is developing our statewide strategic plan to end homelessness.” “We have some veterans who are 20 and 21,” says Harkness. “When they’re that young, they don’t want to admit that they have a mental illness or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD]. We teach people how to live with their mental illness. We teach them that, in spite of having PTSD or being depressed, you can still live a rich full life like the rest of us. They carry the motivation and we provide the support. Our fleet of 63 vehicles goes out into the community every day to work with veterans where they live, because we want to teach them how to live in their community, not in an institution.” She is proud of the fact that the center is a national model and has been recognized by Congress as a exemplar for the rehabilitation of war-weary veterans. It’s the first time a mentalhealth facility has been so honored. “I love my job,” adds Harkness. “Can you tell?” — Thomas R. Violante
HEALTHCARE HEROES 2014