Sonoma County Veterans Stand against Federal Erosion of VA Services

"Morale is way down at the VA right now," said Ginger Schechter, MD, a 17-year health care professional at the South Santa Rosa VA Clinic. "Staff, including MDs, Psychiatrists, Nurses and researchers, are leaving the VA due to a lack of support from and confidence in new VA management with this administration," she explained.

She and about thirty fellow veterans and veterans' supporters gathered Friday, 10/31, at the South Santa Rosa Veterans Clinic in Santa Rosa, CA to rally for public support in stopping the decline of veterans health services.

Among the additional threats to VA service quality and breadth are the current trend to shift care and resources to the private sector, the dismantling of VA workers' unions, unfounded accusations of fraud and the HIPPA private VA patient information that has been compromised by DOGE.

In the face of these threats to critical VA services are the continuing challenges veterans face in all aspects of health care, many of which are unique to veterans. High among them is the fact that twenty-two veterans take their own lives each day, and in comparison to the 58,220 service members' lives lost in the Viet Nam War, five times that number of Viet Nam vets have committed suicide since returning home.

The privatization of care for vets has deteriorated their quality of care in large part because private health professionals and support staff do not understand the stresses and injuries, both physical and mental, from which vets suffer. At the same time, critical medical and psychiatric staff are leaving the VA out of frustration with directives from Trump political appointees who are not seen as supportive of their commitment to provide adequate, continuing care.

Exacerbating the pressure on staff is the destruction of their unions, of which three have been completely lost.

"The only force acting to uphold VA care and services are the vets themselves!" declared Kate Weber, an Army veteran of the Gulf War turned activist. This sentiment was echoed by many of the vets in attendance of the Friday Rally. They added that people can help support the VA by both calling Congresspeople and senators with their concerns and by voting.

Weber stressed that there are additional resources available for vets in need and for those who want to help. These include Veteransforpeace.org Save Our VA site (https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/stop-privatization-veterans-health-administration), "and they can come out and join us at our rallies," she added.

South Santa Rosa VA Clinic rally times are Fridays 11am-1pm 2285 Challenger Way, Santa Rosa.