During a House Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) questioned Dr. Daniel Zomchek about tele-health services for veterans.
00:00I was just going to follow up on telehealth, actually, and maybe ask Dr. Zomchek.
00:05When you're talking about telehealth and using it specifically for mental health challenges,
00:10do you find that there are still a lot of barriers around stigma related to seeking this care,
00:17barriers to, you know, a veteran coming in in person or utilizing telehealth?
00:23Is telehealth making it more easily accessible for a veteran that might be trying to get over a stigma
00:28about seeking that care?
00:31Well, I think, first of all, VA care and mental health is second to none.
00:36I think the plethora of services that we offer and modalities that we offer mitigates stigma that historically was there.
00:48I think it's still there, certainly, and I think, candidly, I think it's part of the disease process,
00:55to some extent, for people to be reluctant to seek care when they really need it.
01:00And so I think, you know, we will never stop in terms of that outreach and finding connectivity for our vets,
01:07whether it's through VVC or coming to a local CBAC and using telehealth.
01:15or one of the programs that we have related to this broadband discussion we've been having is what we call the Digital Divide Program.
01:25And that's where we've literally issued VA-loaned iPads, tablets that have Internet connectivity for veterans that are in rural areas who can't afford it.
01:38And then that gives them the ability to connect with their clinician at their kitchen table.
01:43And we've distributed thousands of those across the network.
01:48That's great.
01:48Yeah, that's great.
01:50Can I open the question up to the, I know we have a number of veterans, obviously, on the panel,
01:54specifically around barriers, any, you know, anything you could speak to as far as barriers that we can help overcome
02:02in helping connect veterans to telehealth services, mental health services?
02:08So I think, when we think about the telehealth services, I've used telehealth, telehealth, mental health even.
02:15I'm not even ashamed to admit it.
02:18And it was wonderful.
02:19It worked.
02:20I'm at work.
02:21I'm a working adult.
02:22I'm still in the workforce.
02:24And I think sometimes there is this misconception that, you know, oh, you can just take off work to go to an appointment.
02:30Here in Illinois, we've got legislation pushing forward to kind of help those veterans take some extra time off,
02:34and it's not compensated to go to these appointments for service-related conditions.
02:39But a lot of this is going to come on educating, especially for some of our older veterans that are just not quite at the technology level.
02:47Maybe some of us are.
02:50You know, we're still seeing Vietnam-era veterans that are now coming in for the first time for PTSD.
02:54You know, it breaks your heart to see them dealing with that for so long.
03:06But we've got to figure out ways to also, as we issue out those iPads and pieces of technology, how do we educate them to use it?
03:15You know, one of the things we do in our office is, you know, when they come to see us for claims,
03:19do you have the a.gov app on your phone?
03:22You know, most veterans do have phones at this point, even the older ones.
03:26So how do we educate them to use that VA app?
03:29They can communicate with their primary care provider on there.
03:31They can retrieve records, letters, medical records, decision notices.
03:36They get notices for appointments coming up on their app.
03:39It's really a great tool, and we really do love that app.
03:42It's just, again, how do we educate those veterans on using it?
03:46You know, so making sure that we've got access, critical, but also education on how to use the tool.
03:53Great.
03:53Any other?
03:54Yeah.
03:55Yeah.
03:55So one of the biggest barriers I see is just a lack of awareness of eligibility.
04:00I think that the veterans that are within the VA somehow or have ever been connected to the VA will get some information.
04:06And you can access so much information on the Internet, but it's almost too much.
04:11It's hard to digest.
04:12You don't know what's worth going after.
04:14And not everybody even realizes that it's something that they should pursue.
04:19So I think, again, that outreach is so important in going to where the veterans are.
04:25We find a lot of luck meeting women veterans in places like the farmer's market, you know, like places just that veterans are versus having a fair where they come to you.
04:34Because if I don't believe, we have a lot of veterans that don't even understand that they are a veteran.
04:40They don't identify as a veteran.
04:42And so that resource fair to them is not for them.
04:45And so finding ways to meet the veterans where they are and make sure that you have those conversations about what you are eligible for.
04:52Most of our women, that's why they have now gotten VA care is because they learned that they could.
04:58They didn't even know that it was a possibility before.
Be the first to comment