Getting to Know the Neighbors

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By Dorothy Meindok

The Post Newspaper Veterans Consultant 

Last week I shared that there was a veteran I thought you might like and that I wanted to introduce you to. I thought about how to best present this veteran community leader because he is quite hard to define, a trait I often find when meeting truly dynamic individuals.

His name is Damian Bennett, who served in the United States Army’s 10^th Mountain Division and is still serving the community today with focus on the veteran population of Jefferson and surrounding counties east of the Galveston and Trinity Bays. He is President of the local nonprofit Southeast Texas Veterans 4 Veterans, better known by its acronym V4V. You can find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SETXVeterans4Veterans/ .

Every time I speak with Damian, sometimes even after the midnight hour, he is actively helping as many veterans (and their service animals and pets) as he can with everything from peer support, navigating VA resources, referrals to veterans’ service officers and community-based resources to financial help as resources allow. Most recently, in his personal experiences as well as in his advocacy, Damian’s organization has felt a larger drain on valuable resources due to the disconnects and mismanagement of the VA’s VISN 16 Community Care program. The stories are tragic, many resolvable with communication and common sense, and appear to be endless; at least one case I know of which appears to have greatly influenced — if not directly — caused a veteran suicide.

Despite Damian’s own disability as a veteran that endured the known corruption years ago as a patient at Walter Reed Hospital, his current VHA challenges with VISN 16’s Michael E. DeBakey VA Hospital where he faces the next of over 30 surgeries, and all the stress that goes with that, this father, son, and husband passionately uses his voice and experience to do whatever he can to help find veteran-centric/veteran best interest resolutions, each and every day.

One of the things I learned from Damian was something I couldn’t understand, especially for Texas: that is that Houston’s MEDVAMC Hospital’s (which sits in the Texas Medical Center, in the fourth-largest and most culturally diverse city in the nation) nearest oversight is two states away; it is the only VHA system hospital in Texas without boots on the ground, empowered oversight to afford better intervention, communication and coordination with local, state/federal elected officials and veteran leadership that seeks to assist veterans with complex concerns.

Damian has actively reached out using direct communications to the out-of-state VISN leadership, initiated Congressional inquiries, and even called The White House Hotline for many, only to have the grievances, many supported by a complaining veteran’s treating medical team, simply returned to the same level and same persons that the grievance was raised against. The hamster wheel of bureaucracy spins and all the while the veteran and family in need suffers and deteriorates further.

There are many suggestions of positive resolutions to help fill the gaps where things are getting disconnected such as formation of veterans’ collaborative county commissions and creation of central resource centers to act as resource hubs and safe ground for struggling veterans. The creative possibilities are endless, and all include veterans helping veterans.

Perhaps one of the remedies is to return the governance of our local VHA hospital back to Texas, where our Congressional and State level representatives can better intervene, affording transparency and accountability of those delivering veterans healthcare. It’s a suggestion, one of many that veterans and medical practitioners (inside VA and outside community care providers) have shared.

No matter what resolutions transcend, they root in the foundation of asking the VHA to comply with federal protective laws, such as The Mission Act, which governs community care accessibility and administration.

In response to many years of veterans feeling voiceless on healthcare administration and decision matters, veterans leadership is responding together, and we’ll be asking for every veterans’ voice at three Texas Veterans’ Town Halls. We request the support and welcome the allegiances of all veterans organizations that would like to be formally present or be an active participant in the Texas Veterans Town Halls.

Veterans, what are your thoughts?

We will be setting up an online presence where local veterans can post their healthcare related concerns and questions to be forwarded to the floor of the Town Halls via a veteran moderator; veterans will also be able to submit their voices anonymously if they prefer. I will publish that link and site information as soon as it is launched.

The tentative schedule for the first Texas Veterans Town Hall is February 2023 and will be held in Beaumont. The next will cater accessibility for attendance by Galveston and Harris County’s veterans and is scheduled to be held in March 2023.

Next week, I want to shine a light on two more of our Town Hall team’s local (and well-known for good works) core organizers, Mr. Buddy Farina of VVA Texas and Mr. Fidencio Leija of Operation Honor Our Local Veterans, Inc. I will also share the coalition’s contact information in case you’d like to volunteer to help out or your organization would like to get further involved.

Get to thinking about your questions and concerns and start planning to attend. As soon as locations are confirmed, they will be published here and further shared amongst the veteran communities of the area.

Again, we welcome the support of all of our brothers and sisters, all local and national veterans organizations and representatives as well as medical and community leadership and practitioners for our peaceful outreach for veterans’ access to ethical healthcare administration and compliance.

Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.

See you next week! 

Dorothy Meindok is The Post Newspaper’s Veterans Consultant. Ms. Meindok served her nation in the United States Navy and is currently a practicing lawyer advocating for our nation’s veterans. Her column appears on Sundays.