VA actively pursuing young soldiers

Aid for all veterans
Wilkes Barre Times-Leader - Wilkes Barre,PA,USA
VA actively pursuing young soldiers
DAWN ZERA Times Leader Correspondent
PLAINS TWP. – When Colleen Kaskel first joined the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center as acting Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom manager, about 3,000 veterans of those conflicts had sought VA services.

That was a year ago; now there are about 4,100 – an increase the Veterans Administration has worked hard for, as the agency tries to communicate to a younger generation of soldiers that services are available once they leave the military.

“There recently was a concentrated effort, to reach every person who has served, through nationwide and global phone calls to those who have been discharged,” Kaskel said. “Out of that, we got about 63 veterans who had never been here before. Now, those phone calls will be done on a yearly basis.”

The local VA center serves more than 207,000 veterans in 19 Pennsylvania counties and one New York county, with outpatient clinics in Allentown, Berwick, Bangor, Sayre, Tobyhanna, Williamsport and Schuylkill County. A long list of health and welfare services includes a women’s veterans program, readjustment counseling, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder services, pharmacy, pastoral counseling, an eye clinic and even smoking cessation.
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