Mission: Family: Active-duty troops ineligible for veterans center counseling despite new law - Marine Corps Community, discussions, blogs, photos & video - Marine Corps Times

Mission: Family: Active-duty troops ineligible for veterans center counseling despite new law

With everything the military community has gone through in the past decade, who can question why anyone might feel a need for some extra short-term help to get through a rough patch, or long-term help for more complicated issues related to combat service?

Lawmakers understand this; it’s why they passed a law to open eligibility for readjustment counseling at the Veterans Affairs Department’s vet centers to include those who serve or have served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom — including those still on active duty. The law was enacted last May.

At a recent event held by the House Military Family Caucus on Capitol Hill, a VA official touted the fact that Vet Centers had been opened to active-duty members and their families who meet the criteria.

But have they?

As it turns out, VA has not issued its implementing rules for the benefit — and VA spokeswoman Kerry Meeker said these newly eligible troops and families can’t seek this counseling until the regulatory process is complete.

To add to the confusion, VA’s website states that among those eligible for the counseling are: “Veterans who serve or have served in military expeditions to combat terrorism on or after September 11, 2001 …”

VA officials can’t provide a timeline for when the counseling will become available to everyone. The law doesn’t mandate a deadline for providing the counseling — and it says the counseling is subject to the availability of funds.

Whenever it does become available, the counseling will be free and confidential, and you won’t have to enroll in the VA health care system to get it.

VA has 264 vet centers around the country and will have 300 by the end of this year, along with centers in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa.

Most staff members are veterans; more than half have served in combat, and about a third of those have served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

Defense and service officials have been expanding counseling help through Military OneSource, military family life consultants and other options. But some prefer to get counseling outside military channels.

One other confidential counseling option that’s always available is through the private nonprofit Give An Hour.

Hopefully, this vet center benefit will be available soon for all current and former veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.