"Right now, I can tell you anecdotally, we're working on a case in the marine corps with a -- an NCO who's going through through a commissioning program whose partner spent five days in jail for attempting to kill her and that partner who spent five days in jail is now at Officer Candidate School. So that shock factor -- it's almost unbelievable that that can happen but there are ways around the system. And DoD needs to explore that," declared Service Women's Action Network's Anuradha Bhagwati Thursday in a joint-hearing held by the US House Veterans Affairs Disability and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Health.
They were exploring the issues effecting women veterans. It was the second hearing on that topic last week. The first was Tuesday when Senator Daniel Akaka chaired the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing.
In that hearing, Grace After Fire's Kayla Williams explained, "Other barriers may disproportionately affect women. For example, since women are more likely to be the primary caregivers of small children, they may require help getting childcare in order to attend appointments at the VA. Currently many VA facilities are not prepared to accommodate the presence of children; several friends have described having to change babies' diapers on the floors of VA hospitals because the restroom lacked changing facilities. Another friend, whose babysitter cancelled at the last minute, brought her infant and toddler to a VA appointment -- the provider told her that was 'not appropriate' and that she should not come in if she could not find childcare. Facilities in which to nurse and change babies -- as well as childcare assistance or at least patience with the presence of small children -- would ease burdens on all veterans with small children."
It would be noted in Thursday's hearing by Williams (she and Disabled American Veterans' Joy J. Ilem testified at both hearings) and by National Association of State Women Veterans Coordinators, Inc and the Texas Veterans Commission's Delilah Washburn that women were not just discouraged verbally from bringing their children along, there weren't basic things available. Bathrooms, for example, did not have changing tables so if you had an appointment to keep and you brought your infant or toddler with you and needed to change his or her diaper, you had to put your child on the floor to do so.
Airport bathrooms offer more accessibility than does the VA.
Doubt us?
Tuesday hearing featured Randall Williamson, of the US Government Accountability Office stating, "But simple things -- as we visited the facility -- simple things that are easy to do like placing exam tables so the foot is away from the door, putting sanitary products in bathrooms for women, those things are easy and if they're not being done, part of that reason may come back to is there a commitment at the - at the local level to ensure these policies are done?"
Placing exam tables so the foot is away from the door? He's talking about gynecological visits. The GAO's investigation found that the women were forced to get on a table where their feet (there fore the lower half of their exposed bodies) faced the door. In at least one instance, he explained, that door didn't go to a hall way for other examination rooms which would have been bad enough, that door opened out onto the waiting room. Was this supposed to supply medical care or provide a peep show?
Wounded Warrior Project's Dawn Halfaker spoke Thursday about her experience at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Attempting to access health care, she first had to endure cat calls from men as she walked through the facility. Not only did it not convey a safe environment, but Halfaker pointed out that it caused "a true culture shock going from the military where that would never be tolerated to a VA facility where you're trying to get care and, you know, you're uncomfortable."
US House Rep Corrine Brown started bringing up "work crews" as if this was just something women had to endure. No, it's not something women have to endure. If Dawn Halfaker were African-American and the same men were screaming racial remarks at her, does Brown really think the Walter Reed staff wouldn't be required to address that? Why the hell does she think that it's not Walter Reed's responsibility to address this?
She declared that the men were civilians. So what? It doesn't matter. There is behavior that's acceptable in public and behavior that's harassment and unacceptable. And as Halfaker pointed out, "it's a leadership issue and, you know, if I was the director of that hospital, I would do whatever I had to do to ensure that the environment couldn't happen."
But the environment can happen when a member of Congress, especially a female one, wants to excuse away the behavior and bring up what work crews might do. Let's share a little reality with Corinne Brown. If a work crew comes into your neighborhood and does cat calls -- at women, making homophobic remarks at men or women -- you call that company and you complain and those remarks stop right away because that company doesn't want the bad reputation. The workers' opinions don't change, but they learn real damn quick that certain things will not be tolerated.
That's reality.
Reality is not these-things-happen-what-are-you-going-to-do?
And such an attitude doesn't just stop progress, it encourages harassment.
Does Corinne Brown not grasp the sexual assault rate in the military? Does she not wonder what these cat calls, what effect they might have on victims of sexual assault? How the hell is a veteran whose been sexually assaulted (male or female) supposed to feel safe in a supposed health care environment when you've got sexually disgusting remarks being yelled at women walking through the facility?
That's just disgusting.
From a fact sheet on MST (Military Sexual Trauma) from NOW on PBS:
27% of men have experienced military sexual trauma
60% of women have experienced military sexual trauma
3.5% of men have experienced military sexual assault
23% of women have experienced military sexual assault
11% of women have experienced rape
1.2% of men have experienced rape
Service branch with the highest percentage of women reporting sexual trauma: Marine Corps
20% of women seeking care at VA facilities have experienced sexual trauma
1% of men seeking care at VA facilities have experienced sexual trauma
8.3 percentage of women report lifetime PTSD related to MST
More than half of the incidents took place at a military work site and during duty hours
The majority of the offenders in these cases were military personnel
Factors that increase risk of sexual assault for active duty females include presence of officers who condone or allow sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention
This isn't a minor issue by the issue or by the numbers and the VA better damn well get a policy together on how to address sexual harassment of veterans attempting to receive health care.
We'll note two exchanges from the hearing. First, this is Senator Patty Murray questioning the second panel of Tuesday's hearing.
Senator Patty Murray: Ms. Williams, you mentioned that you were both a care giver and a care seeker. You're husband was in the military. I assume that that is fairly common for a woman to be married to a fellow military officer and be in the same position. What can be done to help us care for women veterans who are not only dealing with their own readjustment issues but our dealing with spouse or children as well?
Kayla Williams: I think that it's important that care be more comprehensive. And you're right, the percentages are very high. Among active duty enlisted married female service members, over 50% are married to other service members -- compared to only 8% of their male peers. And my husband and I were both enlisted. I know that the VA is trying very hard to do outreach. I once got a call, for example, asking if I had sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury as part of their outreach efforts to make sure that they're catching everybody. And I said, "No, I didn't but I'm glad you called because my husband did and our family is in shambles right now I don't know how to hold myself together and my family together and keep my job and I'm struggling really hard here. And he said, "Well I can't really help you with that. I'm calling to ask if you've suffered a brain injury." And that's the way that I think that we can try to make sure that we're addressing entire families. If you have one -- if you have a service member who has sustained an injury -- both while they're in the DoD and once they've transitioned to VA care -- making sure that their family is being taken care of is an important step. I know The VA does not cover care for family members but if they learn that the spouse is also a veteran, it's important that they take the extra step and reach out and contact them proactively and ask if they need help as a caregiver. And, of course, this does apply to both male and female spouses, it's just the number of female spouses is much higher.
US Senator Patty Murray: I hear a lot from women about the access of child care being a barrier to the VA. You, several of you, mentioned this in your testimony and I don't think a lot of people realize that you tell a woman there's no child care, they just simply don't go, they don't get their health care. Do you for all the panelists, do you think that the VA providing child care would increase the number of women veterans who go to the VA and get the care that they need? Joy?
Joy Ilem: I would say definitely. I think researchers have repeatedly shown this as a barrier for women veterans and that's the frustration, you know? How many research surveys do you have to do when women keep saying this is a barrier to access for care? And I think it was Kayla who mentioned the experience of someone who was told it was inappropriate for them to bring their child with them and some of these very personalized for appointments for mental health or other things -- it may be very difficult but they have no other choice. I think it would definitely be a benefit and we would see an increase in the number of women veterans who would probably come to VA.
Senator Patty Murray: Ms. Williams?
Kayla Williams: I definitely think that usage rates of the VA would increase if women knew that they had child care available. There are a variety of innovative ways that we could try to address the problem of women having to balance their needs of child care with their needs to get services. Among them would be increasing the availability of tele-help and tele-medicine where women don't have to necessarily go all the way to a remote facility and spend four hours trying to get to and from and then be in-care. And there are also opportunities for innovative programs. For example, the VA has small business loans available if they could provide loans to women veterans who want to provide child care facilities near VA facilities, that would be a great way to try to marry these two needs. There are also a lot of community organizations that stand ready and waiting to help that would be happy just given a small office to staff it with volunteers and be able to provide that care for the time that a woman has to be in appointment. I think, as many others have said, the specific solutions may vary by location but there are a lot of innovative way that we could forge public-private partnerships to try to meet these needs.
And from Thursday's House hearing, we'll note this exchange.
Chair John Hall: Thank you. And Ms. Williams, I'm going to ask you this question and then ask each of the other panelists so quickly, because my time is long expired here, quickly give me an answer if VA and the DoD could do one thing to better assist women veterans what would that be?
Kayla Williams: I believe that electronic medical records are absolutely imperative to prevent problems with lost paperwork and missing files and missing records. And that that would really help smooth the transition from the DoD to the VA.
Chair John Hall: Ms. Washburn?
Delilah Washburn: Yes, sir.
Chair John Hall: Ms. Halfaker? I'm just asking for an answer to that same question, just quick if you could.
Delilah Washburn: The one thing that I think that they could do immediately that will make a difference, and not just for gender specific issues, we're talking about we no longer have to worry about providing the stressor for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If you're in combat its conceded. And let's press on with getting a diagnosis and write those claims and get them off the table because the near million claims that are pending is just something that we cannot continue to live with. It's a barrier to veterans getting their benefits.
Chair John Hall: Thank you for the wonderful endorsement of my bill HR 952.
Dawn Halfaker: Outreach.Chair John Hall: Outreach. Ms. Bhagwati? Microphone please.
Anaradha Bhagwati: Sorry, sir. One thing on the DoD side would be enforcement of VO policy and sexual assault policy. On the VA side, it would be education and training of claims officers about what it's like to be a woman in uniform.
Joy Ilem: I think just true collaboration on all levels within VA, VHA and VVA would be really extremely important. There's just so many areas where they can benefit working together to really solve the problem. It just can't be done piece meal. It helps to work on the preventative side with DoD and during that transition period for women coming to VA.
There were a lot of important topics being touched on and in a working media environment, you would have had at least the same amount of time devoted to these hearings as to celebrity passings. But that didn't happen, now did it?
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Ava, C.I., Kat and Wally attended the hearings. For more on the topic, you can see C.I. and Kat's
"Iraq snapshot," "Seante Veterans Affairs Committee," "Iraq snapshot," "Sexism leads to silence," "Iraq snapshot," and "US House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee" from last week.