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Maryland and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

 

  • General: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers a wide variety of programs and services for the nation’s 24.7 million veterans. In 2004, more than 5 million people were treated in VA health-care facilities, 3.5 million veterans and survivors received VA disability compensation or pensions, 490,397 used GI Bill education benefits and more than 2.5 million owned homes purchased with GI Bill home loan benefits. About 93,000 veterans and family members were buried in VA’s national cemeteries and 369,000 headstones and markers were provided for veterans’ graves worldwide.
    • VA spent more than $1 billion in Maryland last year to serve about 479,000 veterans who live in the state. In 2004, 60,297 veterans and survivors received disability compensation or pension payments from VA in Maryland. More than 10,727 veterans, reservists or survivors used GI Bill payments for their education, and 104,531 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees. In 2005, 234 were interred at the state's three national cemeteries.
  • Health Care: One of the most visible of all VA benefits is health care. VA has 154 hospitals, 869 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 207 Vet Centers, 134 nursing homes, 42 residential rehabilitation treatment programs and 92 comprehensive home care programs. Due to technology and national and VA health care trends, VA has changed from a hospital-based system to a primarily outpatient-focused system over the past eight years.
    • In fiscal year 2005, VA facilities in Maryland had 7,566 inpatient admissions and provided 575,278 outpatient visits.
    • In Maryland, the Baltimore and Perry Point VA Medical Centers, and the Baltimore VA Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center work together to form the VA Maryland Health Care System -- a dynamic health care organization providing compassionate and accessible care to veterans throughout the state. The health care system provided services to 50,961 Marylanders in fiscal year 2005. The services provided include medical, surgical, rehabilitative, neurological, primary and mental health care on both an inpatient and outpatient basis.
    • The health care system employs approximately 2,595 professional, technical, administrative and support personnel, augmented by more than 1,300 community volunteers. Additionally, the VA Maryland Health Care System operates five community based outpatient clinics in Cambridge, Fort Howard, Glen Burnie, Loch Raven and Pocomoke City. These clinics offer a full array of primary care services for veterans in the communities where they live and work. In addition to the outpatient clinics operated by the VA Maryland Health Care System, the VA Medical Center in Washington, DC, operates outpatient clinics in Charlotte Hall and Greenbelt, Md. The VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, W. Va., operates outpatient clinics in Cumberland and Hagerstown.
    • As a leader in education, the VA Maryland Health Care System prides itself on an active affiliation with the University of Maryland School of Medicine at Baltimore and other local colleges and universities. More than 1,000 residents, interns and students from various disciplines are trained each year throughout the health care system. Most physicians hold dual appointments at the VA Maryland Health Care System and the University of Maryland, providing veterans the latest clinical practices and procedures.
  • Post-Conflict Care: VA has launched special efforts to provide a "seamless transition" for those returning from service in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF). Each VA medical facility and benefits regional office has a point of contact to coordinate activities locally to help meet the needs of these returning combat service members and veterans. In addition, VA increased the staffing of benefits counselors at key military hospitals where severely wounded service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are frequently sent. Once home, recent Iraq and Afghan veterans have ready access to VA health care, which is free of charge for two years following separation for any health problem possibly related to wartime service. Nearly 120,000 veterans from the Global War on Terrorism have sought VA health care since returning stateside, about 28 percent of the total number of men and women leaving military service.
    • In Maryland, more than 1,066 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terrorism have sought VA health care. Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Aberdeen, Baltimore, Cambridge, Elkton and Silver Spring. These community-based Vet Centers serve as an important resource for veterans who, once home, often seek out fellow veterans for advice or help transitioning back to civilian life.
  • Geriatric Care: Long-term care is a critical issue for America’s veterans. Approximately 38 percent of living veterans are at least 65 years, compared with 12 percent of the general population. The challenge to care for these 9.4 million men and women is met through a spectrum of home and community-based programs such as home-based primary care, homemaker and home health aide services, home respite and hospice and adult day care health. VA also provides home and domiciliary care for veterans who can no longer be safely maintained in non-institutional settings. Additionally, VA conducts nationwide research on the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and funds 21 geriatric research, education and clinical centers, each focusing on a major geriatric problem.
    • In Maryland, 23,849 veterans aged 65 and older received medical care from VA in 2005. The Baltimore VA Medical Center is home to one of VA’s Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers, helping to increase basic knowledge of the aging process and share that knowledge with other health care providers. Its primary focus is to examine the hypothesis that functional declines in cardiovascular disease with aging are predominately related to the influence of sedentary lifestyle, environmental factors and disease instead of biological aging. The secondary focus of the program involves the evaluation of the effectiveness of exercise rehabilitation on the functional capacity and quality of life of older veterans who have suffered from a stroke. One of the center’s most notable studies included analyzing cardiovascular risk factors for retired professional athletes compared to non-athletes as they age.
    • Maryland operates a state veterans home supported by VA funds, which is located in Charlotte Hall. It has 100 domiciliary beds and 278 nursing care beds.
  • Research: To provide the highest quality of health care to the nation’s veterans, VA sponsors a world-renowned research and development program that addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing medical science today, such as aging, vision loss, women’s health, Gulf War illnesses, diabetes, bioterrorism and hepatitis. VA researchers led the way in developing the cardiac pacemaker, the CT scan, magnetic source imaging and improving artificial limbs. More recently, injuries sustained by armed forces engaged in current deployments have further increased the long-standing emphasis on VA research on limb loss; prosthetics and tissue replacement; traumatic brain injury; spinal cord injury; and mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder. The quality of the research and relevance to the veteran population remain the determining factors in deciding what studies to fund.
    • In Maryland, researchers at the Baltimore VA Medical Center were awarded $46.1 million last year to conduct research projects. The Baltimore VA Medical Center is ranked in the top four nationally in all research funding for grants provided to the VA. With 169 investigators throughout Maryland and 558 active projects, researchers are studying the causes, prevention and treatments of some of today’s most prevalent medical problems. These include Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, mental illness, diabetes, obesity, bacterial infections, AIDS, Gulf War illnesses and the effects of depleted uranium.
  • Disabilities and Pensions: Not all military service related issues end when people are discharged from active duty. About 2.6 million veterans receive monthly VA disability compensation for medical conditions related to their service in uniform. VA pensions go to about 338,000 wartime veterans with limited means. Family members of about 530,000 veterans qualify for monthly VA payments as the survivors of disabled veterans or pension recipients.
    • VA's Baltimore Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Maryland who are seeking VA financial benefits. In fiscal year 2004, the Baltimore Regional Office processed 8,496 disability compensation claims. The total includes 2,855 veterans applying for the first time for disability compensation. During fiscal year 2004, the Baltimore Regional Office acted on 5,641 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.
  • Homeless: Nearly 23 percent of homeless adults are veterans, and many more veterans who live in poverty are at risk of becoming homeless. VA is the only federal agency that provides substantial hands-on assistance directly to the homeless. It has the largest network of homeless assistance programs in the country. More than 10,000 transitional housing units and 2,000 permanent beds case managed by VA staff are available for homeless veterans throughout the country. VA aggressively reaches out to veterans on the street, conducts clinical assessments, offers needed medical treatment, and provides long-term shelters and job training. More than $230 million is dedicated to specialized homeless programs to assist homeless veterans, including grants and per diem payments to more than 350 public groups.
    • From shelters and abandoned buildings to prisons and soup kitchens, Maryland VA staff have reached out to homeless veterans since 1994. The homeless programs at the Baltimore and Perry Point VA Medical Centers focus on helping veterans in Baltimore City, as well as Baltimore, Howard, Carroll, Anne Arundel, Harford and Cecil counties, the Eastern Shore and parts of Delaware. Providing assistance in obtaining discharge papers, birth certificates, substance abuse treatment and medical and psychiatric health care are among the benefits of the program. Maryland’s Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans program is designed to rehabilitate veterans for re-entry into the community where they can ultimately have healthy and productive lives.
  • Memorial Affairs: Most men and women who have been in the military are eligible for burial in a national cemetery, as are their dependent children and usually their spouses. VA manages the country’s network of national cemeteries with more than 2.7 million gravesites at 123 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldier’s lots and monument sites. Last year, 93,000 veterans were buried in VA's national cemeteries. Additionally, VA provided nearly 369,000 headstones and markers and 488,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates to the loved ones of deceased veterans. VA-assisted state veterans cemeteries provided more than 20,000 interments.
    • VA has three national cemeteries in Maryland. The Baltimore and Annapolis national cemeteries bury eligible family members and cremation remains. Loudon Park National Cemetery buries only family members. Last year, Baltimore had 229 burials, Annapolis had two and Loudon Park had three. Maryland has five state veterans cemeteries that received VA grants. In 2004, Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery had 803 burials; the cemetery at Crownsville had 700; the Eastern Shore Veterans Cemetery in Hurlock had 258; the Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery in Owings Mills had 1,220; and the Rocky Gap Veterans Cemetery in Flintstone had 137. Last year, VA provided 6,792 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Maryland and sent 4,958 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Maryland survivors of veterans.

For additional state summaries see: http://www.va.gov/opa/fact/statesum/index.htm.