David Botti
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Apr 3, 2008 11:12 AM
A group of seven U.S. senators introduced legislation yesterday that would expand Veterans Administration care with programs focusing specifically on female veterans. According to the McClatchy-Tribune News Service, the bill would also mandate available counseling for female victims of sexual abuse and trauma. The news service reported:
Two of the bill's sponsors, Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said they'd attended town hall forums for veterans where men were outspoken about their health problems, but women waited until after the meetings to whisper some of their concerns, including sexual assault.
"Women don't have to whisper to me anymore," Murray said.
The bill, titled the Womens Health Improvement Act of 2008, comes as the number of women using VA healthcare facilities is ever increasing. According to a press release by Sen. Murray's office, the VA estimates female patients will double in the next five years. The press release further quotes Sen. Murray:
“As the Department of Veterans Affairs works to ensure that those who serve our Nation are not left behind, it is essential for them to recognize the physical, mental and reproductive health challenges that face women veterans may require a different menu of services, delivered in a different way than the VA has grown accustomed to."
Writing on TheHill.com earlier this month, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) offered up a helpful set of statistics on just how many women veterans are out there serving, or having recently served:
Approximately 70,000 women have served and separated from military service in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). Among this group, in 2006 nearly 37.2 percent, or 25,960 sought and received healthcare from VA since separation from military service — up from 32.9 percent (15,903) in 2005. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the prevalence of potential Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among new OEF/OIF woman veterans treated at the VA from fiscal year 2002 to 2006 has grown dramatically from approximately one percent in 2002 to nearly 19 percent in 2006.
Late last year in New Jersey, the VA opened its first sexual abuse treatment center focused exclusively on women. The VA's 15 other sexual abuse treatment centers also provide for male patients. As the Associated Press reported last October:
“There’s a lot of women who have residential needs who I think are less likely to come to the VA because it’s literally spending 24-7 with guys,” Miklos Losonczy, one of two VA psychiatrists behind the creation of the treatment center, told The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark.
Losonczy worried that women veterans who need treatment might not be seeking it because “they think the VA is all men and wonder, ‘Why would I get my military sexual trauma treatment surrounded by men?”’
For a detailed description on Military Sexual Trauma (MST), check out this info from the VA.
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