Special counseling for veterans will become available in John Day through the use of a Mobile Vet Center vehicle, which will arrive for its first visit May 23.
The RV-type vehicle will be at the John Day Elks Lodge from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to Greg Ford, the veteran outreach specialist at the Central Oregon Veteran Center in Bend. The vehicle will travel to John Day on the fourth Wednesday of each month until weather prevents travel, he said.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Readjustment Counseling Services maintains a fleet of 70 Mobile Vet Centers. Each vehicle provides confidential counseling space for direct service provision and features state-of-the-art satellite communications, Ford said.
The VA’s goal is to provide focused outreach to communities that do not meet the requirements for a brick-and-mortar vet center but where there are eligible veterans, service members and families in need of counseling services, Ford said.
“In many instances, these communities are distant from existing services and are considered rural or highly rural,” he said.
Counseling services will be made available to eligible combat veterans and their families and persons who suffered military sexual trauma, in addition to bereavement counseling for family members who lost an active-duty service member, Ford said.
Bob Van Voorhis, an active supporter of local veterans in the John Day area, said he and the John Day Elks Lodge pushed hard for these services.
“It’s one of our guiding principles to help vets,” he said.
Van Voorhis said about 780 self-identifying veterans live in Grant County. If
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