VA reaches out to homeless

Washington鈥擬ore than 15,000 homeless veterans have received dental care through a two-year Veterans Administration initiative, Dr. Elizabeth Nunez, program director, told the ADA News.

“This year we have a budget of $16.5 million distributed to 107 VA facilities across the country,” Dr. Nunez said. “Many of those are partnering with our private practice colleagues to deliver care.” The mission of the homeless veterans dental program is to improve access to dental services to homeless veterans, especially veterans enrolled in certain VA-sponsored rehabilitation programs.

It is the first report to the nation’s dentists on an initiative launched late in 2006 to add dental care to the array of VA programs serving more than 100,000 homeless veterans. Dental treatment includes such basic care as cleanings, fillings, extractions and dentures, said Dr. Nunez. Care is offered in VA dental facilities as well as community clinics and by private practice dentists.

Homeless veterans had long placed dental care as one of their top three unmet needs, said Dr. Nunez. “Imagine how difficult it would be for a veteran, graduating from a VA-sponsored rehabilitation program, to obtain decent employment when he or she is suffering from dental pain or missing several front teeth. These are veterans who are in the midst of rehabilitating their lives and re-entering society as productive, self-sufficient people.”

The VA offers specialized services for homeless veterans that include health care, grant and per diem, domiciliary residential rehabilitation and compensated work therapy/transitional residence programs. The VA provides the largest integrated network of homeless treatment and assistance services in the country, said Dr. Nunez, director of the homeless veterans dental program.

Veterans comprise an estimated 25 percent of the nation’s homeless population.