Pinellas County Plans Major Expansion of Veterans Services
Outreach and program assistance will focus on homeless veterans
The Pinellas County Department of Health and Human Services, which operates the Office of Veterans Services, has announced plans to expand services to homeless veterans living in Pinellas County.
With more than 100,000 veterans in Pinellas County, the county ranks third in the state of Florida in the number of veterans living in a county. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately one-third of the adult homeless population is veterans.
A large percentage of these veterans served in the Vietnam War, as well as a growing number of veterans recently returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Many of these veterans are suffering from the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, physical disabilities, and behavioral health and substance abuse issues.
In an effort to better meet the needs of this population, the Health and Human Services Department is planning to increase outreach efforts and services to homeless veterans that will help get them off the streets, into housing and treatment programs, provide them with quality healthcare, and give them vocational training and access to programs and services they need.
The goal of this initiative is to target the county’s at-risk veterans and enable them to return to self-sufficiency.
Plans include the addition of regular visits by staff to shelters and soup kitchens that serve homeless veterans. These locations include Pinellas Hope in Pinellas Park and Safe Harbor in Largo.
The county is also dedicating an additional team of case managers to work one-on-one with homeless veterans to connect them to benefits and services designed to help them heal and once again become healthy productive citizens.
The county is planning an increase in locations where these services will be provided. There are currently two locations where veterans and their families are provided assistance in applying for Federal VA benefits. This fall, the county will be adding two new sites for a total of four locations where these services will be provided.
Effective Oct. 1, services for veterans will be offered at the following locations:
- St. Petersburg
Pinellas County Department of Health and Human Services
647 First Ave. N.
- Clearwater
Pinellas County Department of Health and Human Services
2189 Cleveland St., Suite 230
- Largo
Pinellas County Health Department
8751 Ulmerton Road
- Tarpon Springs
Pinellas County Health Department
301 S. Disston Ave.
The services traditionally offered by the Pinellas County Office of Veterans Services, which include assisting veterans and their families in applying for VA benefits, such as VA compensation, educational benefits, health care, nursing home care, aid and attendance, home loans, life insurance, and funeral and survivor benefits will continue to be offered to all veterans and their families.
For more information on Pinellas County services and programs, visit www.pinellascounty.org, now with LiveChat, or create a shortcut to www.pinellascounty.org/mobile on any smartphone. Pinellas County government is on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Pinellas County complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Louise Martin
10:24 am on Sunday, September 2, 2012
So, bla,bla,bla now we are going to this and this and that. Pres. Bush, you put a stop to spending money to care for these kids coming out of the service when they were badly in need of help? Why did we have so many kids taking their lives when they had enough. If they were lucky enough to have family some off them were able to go on but those who didn't have loved ones took there own life. I remmember II when the hero's came home they were priorty!!! Got Federal jobs. If you had an apartment for rent you had to give it to the vet and we still lived with our parents until we could find an apartment. Why because we loved our vet's for doing what they did to protect us. This war of today is a joke!!!!! As I remember wars in the old days you went to war fought it off.....war over. Kids home....This war has been going on for so many years it has become a regular job for the kids...get up in the moring go bomb...go home at nite sleep...get up in the morning do the same thing. But now you have racked up seniority for being in the stupid was going no where!!!!!! How many years have we been at this now?????? Which brings me to the same subject. Obama, remember when you said "our kids will be home by the end of the year" well the end of the year IS HERE!!!!!!! WE WANT OUR KIDS HOME BY THE END OF THIS YEAR.!!!!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!!!! Everyone hang up the yellow ribboms again as we did when they left us, I will, too. Louise Martin Seminole Fl
Gwen Thomas
2:01 pm on Monday, September 3, 2012
Can't blame Louise for not being impressed with the VA's latest attempt at an expanded vet program. The bottom line is to bring troops home and shorten their deployment. For years vets have been compensated poorly and wind up self medicating themselves for PTSD legally through the VA health care system. To top it off, these vets supplement their income by selling the narcotics for more money than they get from the government. War is a wicked business all around.