VA For Vets: MENTAL HEALTH HIRING INITIATIVE

 VA Announces Aggressive National Recruitment Effort to Hire Mental Health Professionals

WASHINGTON - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki recently announced the department would add approximately 1,600 mental health clinicians as well as nearly 300 support staff to its existing workforce to help meet the increased demand for mental health services.  The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has developed an aggressive national recruitment program to implement the hiring process quickly and efficiently.

“The mental health and well-being of our brave men and women who have served the Nation is the highest priority for this department,” said Secretary Shinseki.  “We must ensure that all Veterans seeking mental health care have access to timely, responsive and high-quality care.”

 

VA has developed an aggressive national mental health hiring initiative to improve recruitment and hiring, marketing, education and training programs, and retention efforts for mental health professionals, to include targeted recruitment in rural and highly-rural markets. This will help VA to meet existing and future demands of mental health care services in an integrated collaborative team environment and continue to position VA as an exemplary workplace for mental health care professionals.

 

It is critical for VA to proactively engage psychiatrists and other mental health care providers about the vital mission to deliver high-quality mental health services, especially for returning combat Veterans.

 

“The VA mental health community is aggressively transforming the way mental health care services are provided to the Veteran population. As the mental health care workforce continues to increase, VA is committed to improving Veterans’ access to services, especially for at-risk Veterans,” said VA’s Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert Petzel. 

 

The national recruitment program provides VHA with an in-house team of highly skilled professional recruiters employing private sector best practices to fill the agency’s most mission critical clinical and executive positions.  The recruitment team consists of 21 national, dedicated health care recruiters targeting physician and specialty health care occupations. These recruiters also understand the needs of Veterans because each member is a Veteran. 

 

VHA has also established a hiring and tracking task force to provide oversight for this initiative to move the process forward expeditiously in a focused manner to ensure challenges, issues, or concerns are addressed and resolved.  This task force is accountable for reporting progress in hiring of mental health professionals in these occupations: psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurses, social workers, mental health technicians, marriage and family therapists and licensed professional counselors.

 

VHA anticipates the majority of hires will be selected within approximately six months and the most “hard-to-fill” positions filled by the end of the second quarter of FY 2013. VA has an existing workforce of 20,590 mental health staff that includes nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers.

 

Interested mental health care providers can find additional information about VA careers and apply for jobs online at www.vacareers.va.gov.  To locate the nearest VA facility or Vet Center for enrollment and to get scheduled for care, Veterans can visit VA’s website at www.va.gov.  Immediate help is available at www.VeteransCrisisLine.net or by calling the Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 (push 1) or texting 838255.

Unemployed Veterans Signing Up For Job Training Program By The Thousands

By ASHLEY HOPKINSON 07/04/12 11:08 AM ET


ATLANTA — Unemployed veterans may be heading back to school in mass under a federal program to get out-of-work veterans trained and back in the job market.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs say there has been an enormous response to a new skills-based program that pays for up to a year of education toward an associate degree or a non-college-degree or certificate.

In fewer than seven weeks since the VA began accepting applications for the Veteran Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP), 27,080 unemployed veterans have applied. That's more than half the maximum amount the VRAP program will allow in its first year, VA spokesman Randal Noller said this week.

The VA introduced the program on May 15 and received 12,000 applications within the first two weeks of the announcement. But while the response is encouraging, Noller said they will continue to promote the program until every slot is filled.

"We are hopeful that we leverage all 45,000 `slots' for FY (fiscal year) 2012 but are not letting up on our outreach efforts until all 99,000 slots through the end of the program are approved," Noller said in an e-mail.

The program is first-come, first-serve for qualifying veterans between the ages of 35 and 60 who are unemployed at the time of the application. Veterans who are currently receiving unemployment benefits or are enrolled in a federal or state job training program do not qualify...

COMPLETE STORY HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/04/veteran-retraining-assistance-program_n_1648907.html

Labor Department Announces Grants to Train Homeless Vets

From a Department of Labor News Release

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2012 – The Labor Department today awarded 90 grants totaling more than $20 million to fund job training and support services that officials said will help more than 11,000 veterans succeed in civilian careers.

The grants are being awarded through the department’s Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.

“Americans who have served their country should not find themselves without a home,” Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said. “The grants announced today will help these heroes find good jobs and take us one step closer to the goal of ending veteran homelessness altogether.”

The grants are second- and third-year awards to state and local workforce investment boards, local public agencies and nonprofit organizations -- including faith-based and community organizations -- that demonstrated satisfactory performance during the past year, officials said. Some of the grants are set aside to serve formerly incarcerated veterans, female veterans and veterans with families who are homeless.

Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program grants provide occupational, classroom and on-the-job training, as well as job search and placement assistance, including follow-up services. Grantees are expected to maximize available assistance and find good jobs for veterans by coordinating efforts and resources with the Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development department, as well as other national, state and local agencies, in accordance with VA’s five-year plan to end homelessness for veterans and their families, officials said.

Last month, Solis announced the award of 64 grants through the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program. Those grants -- which are separate from the 90 receiving funds today -- are first-year awards totaling more than $15 million, aimed at providing about 8,600 homeless veterans nationwide with job training.
 

SOURCE: http://www.defense.gov//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=116996

Grants to Connect Veterans, Families to Local Transportation

From a Department of Transportation News Release

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2012 – Veterans and their families will have better access to local bus, vanpool and other transportation options with $29 million in grants, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today.

During a conference call with reporters, LaHood said the grants will fund 64 projects in 33 states to help veterans, wounded warriors and their families find affordable rides to jobs, and job training, education, and health facilities.

“Ensuring that our veterans and military families have access to quality, convenient transportation is just one way we can thank them for their service,” LaHood said. “With these transportation grants, we will help connect veterans and military families with the jobs and training opportunities they deserve, as well as the medical care and other services they need, all located close to home.”

The Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative, funded and managed by the Federal Transit Administration, supports efforts by local governments and transit agencies to implement technologies -- ranging from smartphone applications to real-time transit bus locator information -- that make it easier for veterans and others to access and schedule rides on available buses, vans, taxis and other transportation systems.

The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is more than 12 percent, more than four percentage points above the national average.

“America’s war heroes deserve a chance to support their families, participate in their communities, receive job training and get to work,” said FTA Administrator Peter M. Rogoff, who was in Lee County, Fla., for the announcement. “It’s vitally important that we remove barriers to success by making transportation available wherever our veterans choose to live, work and receive care.”

For example, Lee County, Fla., is receiving $1.4 million to fund information kiosks at locations that include a new Veterans Affairs Department outpatient clinic in Cape Coral, where veterans can readily obtain real-time information on rides and schedules, day or night.

Also, a $450,000 grant for the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority in Dayton, Ohio, will make it easier for returning and retired veterans and those who have disabilities to arrange for rides by phone, smartphone or on the Web, officials said. Dayton is home to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and 80,000 veterans, officials noted.

Rogoff said the transit administration received 81 eligible proposals requesting $41 million for this second round of the Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative grants, reflecting strong demand for the program. In fiscal 2011, FTA awarded $34.6 million for 55 veterans’ transportation projects around the country.

LaHood said the Federal Interagency Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility, which he chairs, is a partnership of federal departments working to better coordinate federal programs on behalf of people with disabilities, older adults and individuals with lower incomes. The council developed the Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative, he added.

SOURCE: http://www.defense.gov//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=116990

States ease job licensing rules for spouses

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 2, 2012 10:55:16 EDT

Twelve more states have adopted laws to make it easier for military spouses to have portable careers, more than doubling the number since February, when first lady Michelle Obama began to draw attention to the issue.

That means 23 states now have laws to address problems spouses can face when they try to bring one state’s license or certification to another state when they move with their service member. Those problems affect an estimated 100,000 spouses: teachers, child care workers, nurses, speech pathologists, physical therapists and counselors, to name a few.

“It’s a major headache and even a disincentive to work in a profession that a spouse sometimes trains to work [in] for years,” said Brad Cooper, executive director of Joining Forces.

“We’re just thrilled,” said Karen Golden, government relations deputy director for military family issues for the Military Officers Association of America. “The Joining Forces initiative, DoD state liaison office and all the partners are making great progress in securing legislation to help military spouses. Career portability is an issue for spouses. It can have an impact on retention.”

The Defense Department’s state liaison office has been working on this issue since 2008. By February, 11 states had adopted legislation supporting license portability in different ways. For example, Illinois’ legislation, signed June 26 and taking effect Jan. 1, offers six-month temporary expedited licenses for spouses and veterans who have separated in the past two years when they move to the state. This allows them to work while they fulfill the requirements of a permanent license.

COMPLETE STORY HERE: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2012/07/military-state-ease-job-licensing-rules-for-spouses-070212w/