LAKEPORT — Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) held a meeting Monday with county veterans organization members as a follow up to a meeting held earlier in the month.
At the first meeting, which took place April 2 at the American Legion Post 194 in Kelseyville, Thompson said he was alerted to several issues affecting veterans of which he was not previously aware.
Because of that, the Congressman invited Lawrence Carroll, director of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (V.A.) Medical Center, and Douglas Bragg, director of the Oakland V.A. Regional Office to the Lake County Courthouse Monday afternoon to assist the veteran”s organizations in answering questions. Approximately 23 people were present.
Thompson said this was the group”s second meeting of the day, following a meeting with Sonoma County veteran”s organizations.
Many veterans previously expressed difficulty with transporting themselves to V.A. clinics, whether the clinic is located in Clearlake, Ukiah, Santa Rosa or San Francisco.
Carroll acknowledged the difficulty with transportation in his opening remarks and said the V.A. was trying to figure out a way to make things better. “This is a big county,” Carroll said. “It”s hard to get around.”
Bragg described a plan to speed up performance at the Oakland V.A. office, which consists of extra training, shifting 27 employees to increase capacity for processing claims and appeals, as well as sending off claims to other V.A. offices to get them processed faster.
“I”m committed to making Oakland better and delivering better results to you,” Bragg said.
Related to transportation was the availability of medical care services at the medical clinics in Clearlake, Ukiah and Santa Rosa. The veteran”s organizations members expressed the difficulty for older veterans to get to the V.A. Medical Center in San Francisco and asked for more services to be provided closer to home.
Carroll said the San Francisco V.A. is providing competency training for those at the Clearlake, Ukiah and Santa Rosa V.A. clinics to make sure doctors, nurses and other medical personnel can provide necessary skills. He added there are plans to expand the Santa Rosa V.A. clinic to provide more surgical services in the future.
Thompson asked Carroll to make sure Clearlake V.A. clinic director Dr. Michael Novak M.D. and his team have as many skills as possible to prevent veterans from having to travel to San Francisco for treatment.
Another issue brought up was a lack of housing for veterans.
Carroll said 80 percent of V.A. housing was in San Francisco, with the remainder in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties, with a few in Eureka as well. He said there are grant programs the veteran”s organizations might be able to use to get facilities recognized as appropriate for V.A. housing.
Jim Brown, Lake County Veterans Service Officer, said items are being worked on that are related to V.A. housing in Lake County.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14. Follow on Twitter: @KevinNHume.
