VA Reaches Out to Women Veterans

Department Hosts 4th Quadrennial Summit

WASHINGTON, June 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Fourth National Summit on
Women Veterans' Issues will take place at the Westin Washington, D.C., City
Center from June 20-22. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake said
the three-day meeting will help ensure that women veterans know about the
benefits and health care they have earned.

"With more women than ever serving in our armed forces, this public forum will
bring visibility to the issues important to women veterans of all eras," Peake
said. "Today, women are important contributors to the military and valued
members of the veterans community."

Recognizing the valor, service and sacrifice of America's 1.7 million women
veterans, VA has created a comprehensive array of benefits and programs.

Women veterans are entitled to the same benefits and medical care as their
male counterparts, including health care, disability compensation, education
assistance, work-study allowance, vocational rehabilitation, employment and
counseling services, insurance, home loan benefits, nursing home care,
survivor benefits and various burial benefits.

In addition, VA also has a multitude of services and programs that respond to
the unique needs of women veterans, including pap smears, mammography, and
general reproductive health care, substance abuse counseling, counseling for
sexual trauma, and evaluation and treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD).

Today, over 200,000 women are serving in the armed forces. About 11 percent
of the U.S. forces currently serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are women.

According to a recent "hospital report card" by VA, the Department's screening
for breast and cervical cancer for women in VA facilities exceeds screening in
private-sector facilities, but women veterans lag behind their male
counterparts in some quality measurements.

VA has already launched an aggressive program to ensure women veterans receive
the highest quality of care, including $32.5 million to purchase additional
equipment to meet the health care needs of women. This includes full field
digital mammography equipment, stereotactic imaging technology, specialized
ultrasound and biopsy equipment and DEXA scanners for bone density
measurements. The status of health care for women veterans will be a major
topic at the summit.

There is a women veterans program manager at every VA medical center, a
women's liaison at every community based outpatient clinic and a women
veterans coordinator at every VA regional office.

For the latest news releases and other information, visit VA on the Internet
at
http://www.va.gov/opa.

To receive e-mail copies of news releases, subscribe to VA's list server at:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/opalist_listserv.cfm.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-461-7600