{"id":23777,"date":"2023-08-20T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=23777"},"modified":"2023-08-21T06:41:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T06:41:27","slug":"vetfest-screens-280-veterans-connects-400-with-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=23777","title":{"rendered":"VetFest screens 280 Veterans, connects 400 with benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Waco VA Regional Office partnered with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/north-texas-health-care\/\">North Texas VA<\/a> in Garland, Texas, for a PACT Act Summer VetFest. The event offered toxic exposure screenings (TES), face-to-face appointments with VBA compensation specialists, battlefield acupuncture, CPR training and whole health education.<\/p>\n<p>The 8-hour event, attended by 750 North Texas Veterans, family members and caregivers, screened 280 Veterans for toxic exposures and connected 400 others with PACT Act-related benefits through new claims or intent to file. The event also enrolled 22 Veterans in VA health care who had never stepped foot in any VA facility and thought they were not eligible for such care.<\/p>\n<p>Pictured above, Angela Austin, Waco Veteran Service Center coach, discusses the process for submitting a PACT Act-related intent-to-file with a North Texas Veteran.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/08\/Man-and-Vet_r1.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Michael Buchanan, Veteran Outreach Specialist, assists Veteran at Pact Act VetFest event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThere are thousands of North Texas Veterans and survivors who are now eligible for new health care and benefits,\u201d said Michael Crouse, executive director, WACO VA regional office. \u201cJoint VBA and VHA events like Summer VetFest where my team of compensation and benefits specialists can partner with VA medical center staff to screen and educate on available health care services is how we\u2019re successfully reaching this critical group of Veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Getting Vets connected with PACT Act health care and benefits is our priority<\/h2>\n<p>North Texas VA has screened over 95,000 Veterans for toxic exposures and educated 315,000 Veterans in 40 Texas and Oklahoma counties on PACT Act benefits through in-person outreach events, virtual townhalls, community TES events and stakeholder-led event support.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2022, North Texas VA brought over 1,000 Veterans, family members and caregivers to its Dallas campus for its inaugural PACT Act and TES community event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur Veterans have earned their health care and benefits through service and sacrifice, so every time we can reach them though PACT Act and TES events, we are pulling out all of the stops and ensuring our engagement is massive and beneficial,\u201d said Jason Cave, North Texas VA director. \u201cWe owe our Veterans much and getting them connected with PACT Act-related health care and benefits is our priority.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>VA encourages all\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/resources\/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits\/\">eligible<\/a>\u00a0Veterans and survivors to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/resources\/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits\/\">file a claim<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/resources\/your-intent-to-file-a-va-claim\/\">submit their intent to file a claim<\/a>\u00a0for PACT Act-related benefits now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Waco VA Regional Office partnered with North Texas VA in Garland, Texas, for a PACT Act Summer VetFest. The event offered toxic exposure screenings (TES), face-to-face appointments with VBA compensation specialists, battlefield acupuncture, CPR training and whole health education. The 8-hour event, attended by 750 North Texas Veterans, family members and caregivers, screened 280 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,36,493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-pact-act","category-vetfest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23777"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23780,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23777\/revisions\/23780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}