Jacob Hirsch
Fighters For Fighters
1st Social Justice Blog Post
Veterans Affairs Hospital on Veteran Homelessness and Veteran Struggles, Interview with Dr. Craig Tenner on 10/28/14
On Tuesday October 28th, our Veteran Homelessness group visited the New York Veterans Affairs Hospital. The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated health care system with over 1,700 sites of care. They serve 8.76 million Veterans each year. As soon as we arrived we were met by Claudia Benjamin the Executive Chief of Staff. She greeted us and took us through security. She led us up two flights of stairs to the Doctor we would be meeting with.
Dr. Craig Tenner practices general internal medicine with specialties in disease prevention and medical informatics. Dr. Tenner helped us understand why veterans struggle to get back on track in society when they return from the war. His explanations included descriptions of veterans abandoned by family and loved ones; and veterans whose world had changed so much that when they returned they were just not able to integrate into the community. Many of the veterans returned from service without having homes to go to because they were so young when they entered military service, they never had the time to establish a foundation to come back to. Dr. Tenner also explained why our work was so important and had the potential to positively impact the lives of veterans. He helped us understand that these veterans, like first responders, give much of their lives, effort and energy to protecting us, both here in the United States and abroad. There has to be support for the men and women who risk their lives in the US armed forces when they return to live in their communities.
We pushed Dr. Tenner to explain how we could be most helpful to veterans and homeless veterans specifically. He said, “One of the most valuable things you can do for the veterans is make people aware of their situation. ” He told us, “You are the future generation, if you learn how to help and take care of the people in your community, you will be supporting the growth of your community.” I enjoyed listening to Dr. Tenner. I left feeling encouraged and excited to work hard to help this community understand what a veteran really is, what they have done and why we should support them. As Dr. Tenner said, “It is not really about giving them money.” I am looking forward to planning ways to help LREI students understand this community of people who need our help.
Photography Not Allowed On VA Property
