WASHINGTON — A new era for women has dawned at the Veterans Affairs Department, officials said Thursday.
“We’ve changed the culture of the VA,” said Patricia Hayes, chief consultant for the Women Veterans Health Strategic Health Care Group in the department. “Women can’t just be sort of an invisible second thought.”
The VA held a news conference Thursday to discuss maternity health care. The department is attempting to give monthly updates about its efforts to improve support for female veterans.
Women are increasingly a larger part of the armed forces, Hayes said. While only 3 to 4 percent of military personnel were women during the Vietnam and Korea eras, the armed forces are now 15 percent female, she said.
Hayes said she has seen the VA expand its services to care for female troops since her appointment in 2007. And the number of women in the armed forces today means the department must continue to improve its care in the future, she said.
Female service members are “in the pipeline” to become veterans, Hayes said, and are “going to be on our doorstep tomorrow if they’re not there today.”
She touted the department’s push to make sure women are more informed about their benefits, as well as the resources available to them like “The Purple Book” — information about prenatal and maternal care put together by the department.
“This is a new VA,” said Stacy Garrett-Ray, a deputy director in the Office of Patient Care Services. “We’re here to provide the best care that we can for women veterans.”
Garrett-Ray said the department also provides counseling for women — and men — who are considering whether to start a family, though she was unable to say how widely used the program is.
However, there is an ongoing independent review to evaluate the VA’s services and care of women. Results are expected to be announced later this summer.
“It’s important that we all know that we’re accountable for these changes,” Hayes said.
The VA is also training its health care providers who may not be used to dealing with women’s health issues. Hayes said they expect to have 1,100 trained by the end of the year.
The push for greater outreach and accountability comes at a time when the VA has drawn heavy criticism for its treatment of female vets. In January, the VA Office of Inspector General found that while women are more likely to suffer from mental health conditions, men are more likely to get treatment.
Sometimes treatment is dependent upon service in combat, the IG report said — but the Defense Department forbids women from holding combat jobs. Yet because IEDs and suicide bombers have blurred the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, many women enter the VA system having seen just as much combat as the men.
Hayes said one of the most difficult parts has been reaching out to the women themselves.
“A lot of times women don’t think of themselves with the word ‘veteran,’ ” she said.
In an attempt to better contact veterans, the department is beginning to hand out thumb drives loaded with websites and documents that veterans would need to reach the VA and get the services they need.
Hayes said that supporting female veterans is not a separate project or a separate budget. It’s part of the VA’s mission.
“When women come to us for care, they actually like the care quite a bit,” she said. “We’re not surprised, but the world seems to be surprised.”