Special to the View

U.S. Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez (TX-23), a member of the House Veterans Affairs and the Appropriations Committees announced that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would open a community-based Vet Center in Bexar County by December of 2009. 

The VA’s Community Vet Centers provide combat veterans and their families with quality readjustment services in a confidential and non-bureaucratic community setting.

“As the suicide, homelessness and substance abuse rates among veterans continue to rise in great part due to trauma faced by our troops, facilities like these are increasingly important,” Rodriguez said. 

“This Vet Center will be a crucial addition to our community.  As our troops come home they deserve access to the best care and services we promised them when they committed to serve our great country.”

The additional resources will address the growing need for readjustment counseling/ services to existing and new combat veterans and their families, and include families of those killed while on active duty and veterans experiencing military-related sexual trauma.

The VA wants to continue to provide quality outreach and readjustment counseling to all combat veterans.

The actual sites of the Bexar County Vet Center will depend on market availability of space, but is intended to be within the county.  

The Department of Veterans Affairs will establish 39 new vet centers throughout the country to improve access to readjustment counseling for all combat veterans and their families. 

All 39 new sites will be operational by the end of 2009.