More than 100 local veterans took advantage of a one-stop claims clinic at the Howard Center in Georgetown on July 17. The event was hosted by Georgetown County and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as part of a new outreach campaign from the Department’s Regional Office in Columbia.
It won’t be the last such event, vowed Shelia Jackson, who was appointed as director of the Regional Office just over a year ago. In the next couple of months, she hopes to have another, bigger event. One that would include bringing medical professionals to Georgetown, allowing veterans to see a VA doctor on the spot right here in their own community. It would help address the backlog that exists for appointments at VA hospitals and allow veterans to have claims decided that same day.
It’s all part of an impactful initiative Jackson and her team have set to bridge the communication gap between the VA and the veterans the agency serves. It starts with community clinics, like the one in Georgetown, and builds from there as the department regains trust and develops better relationships with veterans. The ultimate goal is to make sure veterans are aware of and can access the benefits they have rightfully earned.
A 20-year Army veteran herself, Jackson said the first thing she noticed when she came to S.C. is there were many veterans the agency wasn’t reaching. She wanted to fix that.
"We started on this massive outreach campaign," Jackson said. "We have to go out there and reach the veteran where they are in their environment, at their leisure, and at their time. Our whole vision and mission is to bring service to them for benefits that they so richly earned.”
The clinics bring the full resources of the regional office directly to veterans in their communities. These claims clinics function as mini regional offices, offering on-the-spot assistance and resolutions to veterans' queries.
When the VA reached out to Georgetown County Veterans Services Officer David Murphy about bringing a clinic to Georgetown, he was delighted and eager to take part in the initiative to bring services to Georgetown County veterans. He said the immediate feedback he received when the July claims clinic was announced is proof of how needed these outreach events are.
“It's been a good day,” he said as the first clinic wound down. “I'm really excited because a lot of the veterans, they don't understand the other side of the VA — what happens in Columbia. They come to us and we help them file a claim, but we don’t have access to all their records. We can’t give them a decision. But the people we have here today, they’re the decision makers, they can give them answers on the spot.”
The success of these initiatives relies heavily on community support. Jackson expressed her gratitude to local partners who help spread the word and ensure that veterans are informed about valuable services available at the clinics.
For more information on upcoming events and how you can support these initiatives, contact Georgetown County Veterans Services at 843-545-3330.