Veterans Affairs committee  With the Vet Center program it's a lifetime benefit, so at any time during their life after the military, they can come in and use a Vet Center.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I don't have the slide here, but I had it in other presentations. At the past two major league baseball world series, we had a mobile Vet Center at that event. We actually had representatives from the Veterans Benefits Administration as well as the VA medical centres, with V

Veterans Affairs committee  Employment is one of the issues we tackle at a Vet Center, but it's primarily readjustment counselling. Under this heading is employment. That could include individual, group, marriage, or family counselling. We have social workers, licensed professional counsellors, and psycholo

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. When we define outreach, we define it as both a face-to-face connection as well as print media and things along those lines. There's a slide in there that has a bunch of cows walking in front of one of our mobile Vet Centers. I love this slide because it's at a rodeo

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. The veteran-to-veteran connection provides that instant credibility. It's just that familiar language, the familiar experiences. It gets them really comfortable with what services are available, so they can start taking advantage of them. I agree, yes, it would.

Veterans Affairs committee  In the Vet Center program, our services are actually at no cost to the veteran. They are earned through their military service and are about time limitation. Those co-pays the medical centre might have are not transferred over to the Vet Center.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we have experienced those. One of my slides talks about the Vet Center services that were provided in fiscal year 2011. It shows that 30% of the veterans who come to Vet Centers use only Vet Center services; they don't use any other VHA services. In part that is because the

Veterans Affairs committee  To be honest with you, it's the veteran-to-veteran connection. I talked before about that common language, being able to go out and speak the same things, having that instant credibility, if you will, as well as having advertisements and all of that. That helps as well.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. Not all the staff at the call centre are mental health professionals. That said, every shift has some mental health professional who is available at the call centre, whether it's a social worker or a licensed professional counsellor, whatever mental health discipline

Veterans Affairs committee  For the Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, it's about early access. It's about getting out to the events, whether it's to demobilization events or events that are happening in their communities, to make them aware of what services are available to them. I talked in my presentation abou

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for allowing us to present. My name is Mike Fisher, and I'm going to talk about the Vet Center program. The Vet Center program is a community-based program within the Veterans Health Administration of VA. It provides readjustment counselling to anyone who's served in