Roundtable tackles veteran's concerns
Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., spent Friday morning in Grant County participating in a roundtable discussion with local veterans about the numerous issues and concerns facing the group, including access to timely care, prescription of opioids and affordable veteran housing.
Grant County, with its more than 5,500 veterans and the Marion VA Medical Center, has a lot to discuss about when it comes to veterans and their needs and concerns, many of which overlap with both state and national issues, including the over prescription of opioids, such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and morphine.
Since then, Brooks said there have been many complaints from veterans regarding not receiving their pain medication. Wanting veterans not to suffer and preventing addiction is a tight wire many VA hospitals and medical centers are currently walking on, Brooks said.
“We have to find the right balance from over prescribing of opioids by the VA to patients learning that there may be other treatment methods other than opioids, yet sometimes providers might go too far the other way in not allowing patients in having the pain medication they need,” Brooks said. “This is a hard balance for the system.”
The right balance has yet to be found, but the federal government has begun creating legislation to help communities like Grant County deal the opioid addiction epidemic.
As a response to the epidemic, Congress passed with strong bipartisan support and President Barack Obama signed into law the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016 last July, which laid out the framework and grants for local law enforcement and pharmacists to have a role in curbing the epidemic. However, $920 million in funding for addiction treatment was blocked largely by Republicans.
Even with the passage of CARA, Brooks said work is far from over and that the federal government has and still is moving too slowly in reforming the VA as a whole.
“It’s a good bill, and it’s a big start, but we’re not finished,” Brooks said.
Grant County Veterans Service Officer Michael Houser, organizer of the roundtable, said the event went very well and that Brooks was attentive and understanding of the office’s problems and concerns. Houser, however, is still concerned too with the slow speed in changes and even lack of changes in regards to the VA.
According to Houser, the Obama Administration has hundreds of rule changes, but, in his eyes, it hasn’t made fundamental changes he thinks are needed, adding that he would like to see the privatization of VA care.
For both Brooks and Houser, the roundtable conversation was too short, though more discussions are to be held in the future, Houser said, with hopes that points raised will be taken into account when drafting both statewide and nationwide legislation.
“We have a lot of issues we’re dealing with here,” Houser said. “There have been changes, but it’s just been rule changes and not actual changes. Any veteran you ask will tell you that.”