Women Veterans Still Struggle To Receive The Same Quality Care As Men At The VA

The first women began serving in the military under the Army Nurse Corps in 1901. Since then, thousands of women have served their nation in a variety of roles in the armed forces.

Today, 15% of the United States’ veterans are women. As service members, they should be entitled to the same benefits as their male counterparts, but in practice, this is far from true because VA hospitals are critically understaffedand unprepared to address medical issues specific to women.

Men and women have different bodies, and different needs when it comes to physical care. The symptoms of everything from PTSD to heart attacks are different in women than in men.

15% of the United States’ veterans are women.

There is yet a severe lack of gynecologists and the equipment and treatments gynecologists need to treat women at the VA. According to a report by Disabled American Veterans (DAV), a third of VA medical centers lack a gynecologist on staff.

“Almost one in five women veterans has delayed or gone without needed care in the prior 12 months,” the report reads. “VA needs to expand its delivery of gender-sensitive health care services to meet the needs of the rapidly growing number of women they serve. How can an integrated health system that serves women purport to provide comprehensive health care when a third of their medical centers do not have a gynecologist on staff? Yet that is the case in VA today.”

SomeVA facilities lack critical women’s resources or a gynecology staff.

Another report from Disabled American Veterans (DAV). indicates that 31% of VA clinics lack staff to provide adequate treatment for sexual assault.

While it has become easier for survivors of sexual trauma to get treatment since the government ended the requirement that military members produce proof of an assault. thousands of female veterans are yet unable to get disability compensation benefits for sexual trauma because they do not have enough paperwork to support their claims.

Thousands of female veterans are yet unable to get disability compensation benefits for sexual trauma because they do not have enough paperwork to support their claims.

According to the Military Times, VA processors have mishandled thousands of veterans’ military sexual trauma claims, including failures to give specially trained staff enough time to fully review the cases.

An investigation by the Inspector General Michael Missal’s office found numerous uncorrected problems dating back to 2018, despite promises of changes.

Tell theVA to take a stand for women veterans!

“Many of the military sexual trauma (MST) coordinators interviewed said they did not have enough time to fulfill all of the responsibilities of their role,” Missal told lawmakers. “A number of them said that other clinical duties interfered with the time needed to complete their MST related responsibilities … Others said that they did not have adequate resources.”

Our female veterans deserve the same level of care and professionalism that goes into treating male veterans.

Click below and ask the Veterans Affairs Department to make sure women veterans get the care they need and deserve!