On May 22nd, 2010 several of us members attended the May meeting of the Women Veterans of America Chapter #11. The meeting was held at the VA Center on Blue Heron Blvd. and Miltary Trail in West Palm Beach. This chapter is the only existing one in the state of Florida. We met with Commander Charlotte Rebillard and other members of her group pictured below. In addition their speaker that day was Carrie Kairys, the Women Veterans Program Manager at the VA Center, who spoke about the services that the VA Center in West Palm Beach is providing for women veterans in the area. As part of her presentation she gave us a tour of the women's clinic.

According to Carrie, many of the services that are offered to women veterans at the clinic include seeing a primary care physician, and addressing the needs that are specific to women such as regular gynocological check-ups. In addition oversight is provided to ensure that the women get the care they need during pregnancy and includes getting items such as prenatal vitamins. Traumatic injuries, as you would expect, are addressed here as well. For more information on the clinic check out the following website: http://www.westpalmbeach.va.gov/services/women.asp

This progress of the women's clinic is a great advance for an organization that has tended to primarily consider men in the past. In some of the older facilities it is sometimes hard to find women's restrooms. Privacy is a huge concern and the West Palm Beach VA Center has made that a priority in addition to creating an atmosphere where women will feel comfortable.

A big part of Carrie's job is outreach to the community to ensure that women veterans are aware of the services that are available. Last week a Women Veteran's Forum was held at the VA Center in which 70 plus people participated. She also addresses other groups such as the one we attended that day.

After our clinic tour the women of Chapter #11 were asked for their feedback as to how the environment could be improved in order to help women feel more comfortable when using the provided services. Suggestions such as the kind of pictures that were displayed on the walls and items that could be made available in the child care waiting room were discussed as ways to make improvements.

During the discussion Marian Wells, pictured in the bottom row, exclaimed that "the new services are astonishing and ground breaking". Marian and some of the other members are also members of the Vietnam Veterans of America chapter #25. We found the meeting educational and encouraging, and we enjoyed the social comaraderie of the group.