Wyden, Merkley Announce Funding To Improve Access to Mental Health Treatment for Rural Veterans

Program will reach out to veterans in Bend, The Dalles, Eugene, Grants Pass, Klamath Falls, and other communities.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - Continuing efforts to make sure all of Oregon’s veterans have access to the quality medical care they deserve, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D- Ore.) announced today that the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center will receive $1.9 million to improve mental health treatment for veterans in rural Oregon.

“As more and more of our veterans confront the sometimes severe mental health effects of serving in a very dangerous environment, we must commit to providing the best possible treatment to get these men and women back on their feet,” Wyden said.

“This funding will provide resources to better reach veterans in rural Oregon, get them the mental health care they deserve, and create much needed support structures within rural communities.”

“It is our responsibility to help our service men and women address the challenges facing them when they return from overseas,” Merkley said.

“Some of them are far from the services provided on major bases and big cities. We cannot leave our rural veterans behind. This funding for mental health services and support groups is one of the most important ways we can support our veterans.”

Operating as part of the Office of Rural Health Funds Distribution Program, the Oregon Rural Mental Health Implementation program will provide a three-pronged system for improving access for Oregon veterans to mental healthcare treatment.

Building off of the expertise of the Portland VA Medical Center, the program will extend the existing Nurse Care Manager models to reach more veterans in rural areas suffering from mental health issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, substance misuse, and anxiety.

Also included in the program are improvements to the tested group tele-video treatment for PTSD patients including Exposure Based Treatments, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapies.

These programs use tele-video technology to treat patients who have experienced extreme levels of trauma. The program will also fund outreach within Bend, North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, The Dalles, Eugene, Grants Pass and Klamath Falls to assist veterans in the treatment process. Senators Wyden and Merkley have frequently called for better access to mental health services for rural Oregon.

This funding comes on top of the $13 million the Pacific Northwest is expected to receive as part of the $250 million package of rural health initiatives the Department of Veterans Affairs announced last week.

Those health initiatives will include expansion of outreach clinics, home-based primary care, and access to telemedicine technology.

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Henry Ruark May 30, 2009 11:08 am (Pacific time)

To all: First Amendment rights carry due responsibilities and strong accountabilities, too. For transcripts of Supreme Court oral arguments in 16 key cases, see: May It Please the Court; Peter Irons; 4 90-min. tape/cassettes/hardbnd. book transcribing all cases. ISBN 1-56584-330-4;($50, '97); acquired for LMA client study. Several cases show clearly publisher not required to use materials completely off-issue in any publication; discretion remains firmly with publisher since it is HIS business.

Anonymous May 30, 2009 6:37 am (Pacific time)

F y shrimp-boy!

Henry Ruark May 29, 2009 7:34 pm (Pacific time)

Craig: Your comment here has no relation whatsoever to the content of the story. Thus it has no place as part of dialog here, but is simple, obvious abuse of channel to raise political-pander issue, for diversion and fear-making purposes. Your complaint should go direct to your rep. or senator in Washington if you mean for it to be made in good faith. It may well be as egregious and wrongful as you deem it, but in S-N channel here we do expect comment to have some recognizable relation to the story. To do otherwise is simply to provide easy access for those who wish to divert, dissemble, dissuade and defeat the whole point of the stories we offer. There are other blogs and channels where your complaint might be of value. Here it is simply a waste of time and o Tim's limited resources for space, patience and dollars. To allow that to continue is to violate responsibilities supporting the First Amendment and the accountability we must expect --and require-- from those participating here in our very obvious pattern, for our very obvious purpose of an open, honest, democratic space for sharing and learning. (Documentation on Supremes decisions here available on request to Tim with phone/ID.) Yours demands attention on a completely irrelevant issue to this story and reflects bad faith in full display, clearly stealing attention from the story and its purposes here.

Craig May 29, 2009 11:18 am (Pacific time)

I wonder if the senators from Oregon would call the below Obstruction of Justice, or maybe reverse racism? Because one thing for sure if you flipped the racial make-up of these thugs it would be an international incident. Just please think about this action and what it means down the line: "Charges Against Black Panthers Dropped by Obama.... Facefwd.com The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force - one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon. The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the last days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly taped it. Prosecutors also say he "supports racially motivated violence against non-blacks and Jews." The complaint says they hurled racial slurs at both blacks and whites. A poll watcher who provided an affidavit to prosecutors in the case noted Democrat Bartle Bull, who worked as a civil rights lawyer in the south in the 1960's and is a former campaign manager for Robert Kennedy, said it was the most blatant form of voter intimidation he had ever seen.

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