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Wilmington VA holds open house, IG report still pending

Anne Hoffman/Delaware Public Media
Jay Hills coordinates the homeless program at the Wilmington VA.

The Wilmington VA hosted an open house Monday. The goal was to showcase services like creative arts therapy and a mobile outreach clinic. In January, the VA announced it would offer services in a more collaborative way, through the MyVA initiative --  a regional framework meant to create a seamless, integrated experience for vets.

Monday’s open house was meant to highlight that spirit of collaboration. It wasn’t just about making different programs visible to the public, but making them aware of each other as well.

 

Jay Hills, for instance, leads the homeless programs at the Wilmington VA. His group was able to find housing for 24 people in just 100 days, because of an initiative led by Michelle Obama to end homelessness.

"The whole gist of it is to really get together, push hard, and sort of on steroids, try to get as many people housed as possible," he said.

 

Someone like Hills could network with someone like Janet Osbourne, a therapist who helps veterans in the residential program process complex emotions like loss and anger through the visual arts. She helped a patient who at first refused to do art therapy eventually develop a consistent practice.

 

"I see in him less agitation, less anxiety around just his situation," said Osbourne.

 

There were also participants who helped transition elder veterans into foster families for late in life care, mobile outreach clinics and online messaging networks for patients and doctors.

 

The open house comes about around a year after the Wilmington VA first faced serious allegations over long wait times and scheduling manipulation.

 

Robin Aube-Warren, the Director of the Wilmington VA says access times at the moment are good.

 

"I hope that we’re certainly moving in the right direction, we’ve done some veterans focus groups. We’ve done some town halls. And we’re going to continue to do that," she said.

 

Inspector General’s investigation regarding the Wilmington VA is still pending.

 

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