Veterans schedule meeting for veterans’ clinic initiative
A group of veterans leading a push to establish a veterans’ clinic in Dubois County has scheduled a public meeting at the Jasper VFW Post 673 for Tuesday, September 10 at 6 p.m.
The group will update the public on its efforts to bring a VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic to the area to improve the quality of life for nearly 13,000 veterans in Dubois and the surrounding counties.
The closest veteran outpatient clinic for the 3,108 eligible Dubois County veterans is located in Evansville and New Albany, both over an hour’s drive away, and the closest veteran’s hospital is in Louisville or Indianapolis.
Robert Johnson (retired U.S. Navy), Dubois County’s veterans service officer, and Dave Englert (retired U.S. Marine Corps), chief of staff of the Indiana division of the Marine Corps League, are leading the charge to make the clinic happen. The two appeared in front of the county commissioners in August to garner support for their project. Read that story here.
The meeting is open to the public and will also provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions and to show their support of this initiative.
This meeting will follow a day long working group to discuss options, find solutions and develop courses of action.
According to the group representatives from the following offices/organizations have been invited:
Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran Integrated Support Network 9
Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran Integrated Support Network 11
Department of Veterans Affairs, Veteran Integrated Support Network 15
Senator Joe Donnelly
Senator Dan Coats
Congressman Todd Young
Congressman Larry Buschon
State Representative Mark Messmer
State Representative Lloyd Arnold
Governor Mike Pence Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann
Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs
Commandant Ann Hunsinger, Department of Indiana, Marine Corps League
Commander, Greg Baker, Department of Indiana, VFW
Commander Ed Trice, Department of Indiana, American Legion
Commander Tom Bratcher, Department of Indiana, DAV
Commander Rick Caldwell, Department of Indiana, AMVETS
President Larry Vollmer, Dubois County Commissioners
President Allen Bromm, Dubois County Veteran
Local veterans who are spearheading a push to open a veterans clinic in Dubois County will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Jasper Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 673, 1907 Newton St.
The public is welcome to attend.
The proposal is in the beginning stages and must be approved by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The proposed clinic would bring health care closer to thousands of ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen scattered across southwestern Indiana.
The closest VA clinics are in Evansville and New Albany, more than an hour’s drive from Jasper. And the closest VA hospitals are in Louisville, an hour and a half away, and Marion, Ill., which is a three-hour drive.
According to figures compiled by the VA, Dubois County has more than 3,100 veterans eligible for VA care.
What a great deal all around it would be to put a full service VA hospital, clinic, and/ or long term care facility in the former St. Joseph’s hospital and surrounding campus. I am a medical student in Indianapolis and have spent months at the VA hospital with more coming up; I can’t tell you how many times we were ready to discharge a patient but they had nowhere to go, all the veterans facilities were full. My classmates informed me there was always a long waiting list to get surgery like a hernia repair.
A stand alone clinic could attract veterans from a few counties; a hospital with imaging services and long term veteran housing would attract them from a much larger area as those services aren’t even available in Evansville.
These guys are some of the most grateful patients you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. It would be great to help them through direct care and the county through increased employment, economic impact, and restoring a large tired property.