Female vets face VA privacy problems
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I joined the Army in 1976 – the first year of the “all volunteer” military following the end of the draft. A lot of women did too, in record numbers, and it quickly became obvious that changes had to be made.
Back then, sexist remarks and worse were pretty common and NCOs tended to spend more time chuckling about complaints than doing anything about them.
A generation later, while the military’s treatment of female service members has certainly improved, women veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan continue to encounter unequal and sometimes degrading situations at VA hospitals, according to a government audit released this week.
Click here to read the Associated Press report on the audit. The story quotes Patricia Hayes, chief consultant of the veterans strategic health care group at the VA, who said that the avency recognizes the care given to women isn’t as good as what’s offered to men, but it’s made changes and will continue to do so.
The story also notes that the VA provided health care to 281,000 women veterans in 2008, a 13 percent increase from 2006. The number of female veterans is expected to increase by 17 percent over the next 20 years.
Hayes said that changes underway “will build the system that will provide care equal to the health care needs of all America’s veterans, regardless of gender.” Hayes said.
Let’s hope so.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 3:21 pm by Rich Liebson. 
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