Over a dozen veteran discussed issues in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs Denis McDonough and U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) in an audience in Bethel last week.
“They were adamant about the cost of living at Bethel and within the Y-K Delta,” said Bethel’s Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 10041 Commander Henry Hunter Sr. “Just to fly to Hooper Bay, I think it’s around $600 for one way. It’s pretty costly for veterans.”
Peltola and McDonough addressed their concerns for more than two hours on February. 23. The veterans said they were worried about the deficiency of internet and benefits and Alaska’s expensive price of living as well as their fears over being concerned about the U.S. being dragged into an ongoing war with Russia as well as Ukraine.
For veterans from remote Alaska, McDonough said that residents of rural communities across the nation are more active than those who live in suburban or urban regions. If they leave their service from their service or decide to retire, they usually return home to their tiny communities.
Alaska Natives, and in particular have a very high level.
“I believed it was crucial to go out to Bethel and see the unique life our veterans live here,” McDonough said. “So that we can make sure we’re receiving the best care that is available to them, and getting benefits they’ve been able to earn and that they so richly deserve accessible to them in a fair manner without having to travel halfway across the largest state in the country to get it completed.”
The most significant issue that was raised was the prevalence of veteran suicide. The most recent information available is from the year 2020 and one sobering statistic is that greater numbers of U.S. vets have died through suicide over the past 10 years than military personnel who were killed in combat from Vietnam. Alaska Senator. Dan Sullivan is co-sponsoring an initiative to the VA to investigate the impacts of medical cannabis for veterans suffering from the condition known as post-traumatic stress (PTSD) as well as chronic pain.
“We would like to ensure they have a serious examine whether there’s an opportunity to give us better access to researchand the possibilities of using cannabis to treat things such as PTSD,” McDonough said.
Veterans in attendance and by the majority of them said they don’t believe that there is enough effort from government. McDonough explained that the VA’s main top priority in clinical care is to decrease and stop suicide among veterans. Recently the VA put $3 million in an app designed for Native veterans to help reduce suicide. McDonough stated that the app helps veterans who are at risk or are in crisis with the services they require in their own communities.
“So this is exactly the kind of thing we were looking to invest in in order to see if we could expand it to ensure that other veterans from Alaska as well as other veterans across the nation have access quickly to the treatment they need,” McDonough said.
