I attended the Saturday event. There were several "vendors" from the DAV and the Black Hills VA Mental Health Department covering everything from filing disability claims to substance abuse, homelessness, and other new VA programs.
Attendance was rather lackluster, but that was attributed to people having difficulty getting through the gates. The event was held at Camp Rapid, the local National Guard base. The NG does not provide its own security. That is handled by a contractor. To begin with, people were being turned away if they did not have a military ID. By the time I arrived, things had been worked out and I was able to get in just showing my VA ID.
The vendors packed up and left at about 3:30 and the LGBTQ+ Listening Session began at 4:00. Tom Johnson, Public Affairs Director for the Black Hills VA Healthcare System gave us some insight into how the Black Hills system works a little bit differently than other VAs around the country.
Every VA has staff and providers who truly care about their veterans. The problems they all face are budgeting and policies dictated to them by Washington, DC., such as Gender Affirming Surgeries that are prohibited by regulation.
Since electrolysis is an ongoing issue that I am dealing with, my question was what can be done when a service is declared by everyone under the Sun as medically necessary, yet not a single VA clinic in the country provides that service. He said he would need to investigate that further, but promised to get me a response. I suggested several methods that the VA could use to offer electrolysis, but they do not fit into the way the VA currently operates. And we don't want to wait 8 years while they postpone services until such a system is in place.
A woman asked about secondary disabilities. She is disabled due to service-connected PTSD. That PTSD causes stress, which in turn is causing alopecia (hair loss). She asked if that too would be considered a service-connected issue and if she could then get hair transplantation as treatment. Mr. Johnson noted that the VA does cover hairpiece prosthetics for medically necessary therapies and transgender veterans are included. I suggested the VA do a cost comparison to see how much money they spend on wigs x the number of veterans receiving them over their lifetime, versus a single hair transplant, with possible follow-up treatments. It may save money by doing the transplants. He said he did not know the answer about whether a secondary disability would also be considered "service-connected" and that he would talk to the experts who make those decisions and get back to her with an answer.
Most of the other questions were very general about how to handle VA employees or contractors who are rude or abusive. Answer: Report them immediately to the Clinic Manager.
He stated that the VA is there to serve us who served. Technically, they work for us. If you have a problem with any of your providers, you can fire them. Talk to the Clinic/Hospital Manager and ask to be assigned to a different PACT Team. The reason our healthcare is broken down into teams is each team has a variety of specialties and they work together to provide the best care. PACT stands for "Patient Aligned Care Team" and they work for the patient.
Our one-hour session ran to two hours, but all agreed it was very beneficial and there are plans to do it again. It never hurts to get more feedback.
If such a session is happening near you, plan to attend.
"Decisions are made by those who show up."
