Veterans Assistance

A veteran of the Air Force, Stan Clancy said he’s been without benefits since he retired a few months back.

The mission of CalVet is to deliver the innovative services veterans and their families need to be successful, productive Californians in the most efficient and cost effective manner through aggressively collaborating with key stakeholders and partners.

A new not-for-profit organization, HonorVet, is gearing up to be the next- generation interactive community for veterans, service members and their families. HonorVet.org is expected to allow users to access mental health professionals at any time of day through online video conferencing, instant messaging chat rooms or phone. Users will be able to speak to someone immediately or schedule an appointment.

The Real Warriors’ Campaign helps promote recovery, build resilience and support the reintegration of service members and their families. They offer an Outreach Center, a 24/7 call center staffed by health resource consultants and more.

The Outreach Center can be reached toll-free at (866) 966-1020 or via e-mail at resources@dcoeoutreach.org.

About six years ago, I was preparing to retire. Starting to cut back on my clinical psychiatry practice, I was looking forward to spending more time with my grandchildren and traveling with my husband, Donald.

But then Donald and I happened to walk along the beach in Santa Monica, just as a veterans’ group was putting up hundreds of little white crosses in the sand, commemorating deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I gasped, stunned by the enormity of the losses. And then I started thinking about all the soldiers who have been returning home alive, and maybe physically well, but traumatized by all they have seen and endured.

As a therapist, I knew I had the tools to help, and also that I couldn’t ignore the need.

So rather than retire, I soon embarked on a new career, as the founder of a new nonprofit organization called The Soldiers Project, which provides free mental health care for veterans and their families.

Today [August 31, 2012] President Obama signed an executive order to improve mental-health care for service members and veterans, who are killing themselves at alarming and baffling rates. The order affects the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services, Education and Homeland Security. It calls for things like  more hiring of mental-health professionals, a national suicide-prevention campaign, and a review of existing mental-health and addiction-treatment programs to identify and expand the programs that work well.

It was a bill that had no organized opposition, and passed through every committee without a single “nay” vote.

The governor added his approval Tuesday to that overwhelming support, signing AB 1869 by Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles) into law.

The legislation affects approximately 130,000 veterans who remain uninsured despite possibly being eligible for federal Veterans Affairs health benefits, according to a Senate analysis of California Health Interview Survey data compiled by UCLA.

It’s possible that some of the 174,000 veterans who receive Medi-Cal benefits in California might be eligible for federal veterans’ benefits. Usaing veterans eligibility could save the state money, since Medi-Cal is supposed to be the payer of last resort, the Senate analysis said.

SAN DIEGO — As part of President Obama’s 2013 budget, the Department of Defense proposed raising annual enrollment fees and prescription drug cost-sharing for TRICARE, the health care program for active military members, retirees their families and survivors.

The proposed additional fees amount to a $13 billion shift from the Pentagon to TRICARE beneficiaries over a period of five years.

TRICARE serves 9.6 million eligible active and retired military personnel and their families. Approximately 650,000 of those beneficiaries are based in California. More than 300,000 live in the San Diego region.