Legion: VAMC child care an excellent idea

The American Legion is praising the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for a new pilot program that provides child care at VA medical centers.

During a mid-July National Summit on Women Veterans' Issues, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced the launch of free, drop-in child care service centers at three VA medical centers: two in New York state and one in Washington state.

"In the Legion's recent survey of women veterans, about a third of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with VA's medical centers in terms of convenience and amenities," said Verna Jones, director of The American Legion's Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division. "Lack of child care was identified as one of the deficiencies, so the VA's responsiveness to this need is most welcome. We hope this pilot program will be expanded greatly and quickly to many other VA venues."

Jones was referring to a survey of more than 3,000 women veterans commissioned by The American Legion this past winter in which 67 questions were posed regarding experiences and attitudes about health care provided by VA, private practitioners and other health-care providers. The survey results were made available to VA, other government entities and the public in March, 2011.

"We are very pleased that VA is answering the call to action from women veterans," Jones continued. "We appreciate the challenges presented to the department which, until relatively recently, served a nearly all-male population."

The Department of Veterans Affairs reports that the burgeoning female veteran population now numbers about 1.8 million. Only about a quarter of them utilize VA health care because of lack of knowledge about their earned medical benefits or due to misgivings about the quality of VA medical care.