Honoring Veterans by Providing Help

[Upbeat Guitar Music]

Mike: Welcome everybody. This is Avoiding the Addiction Affliction, brought to you by Westwords Consulting, the Kenosha County Substance Use Disorder Coalition, and by a generous grant from the state of Wisconsin's Dose of Reality: Real Talks reminding you that opioids are powerful drugs and that one pill can kill.

Mike: I'm Mike McGowan.

Mike: Yesterday was Veterans Day a day we honor the service of those who have served our country. The impact of that service has at times real effects on the health and mental health of those veterans who are served. Recently in Wisconsin funding for the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program, VHRP, was removed from the two year state budget, and as a result, two transitional homes for veterans in were closed.

Mike: My guest today, Wisconsin State Senator Jeff Smith, has introduced legislation to keep open and reopen those homes. We're gonna talk about that effort and other mental health and substance use issues facing veterans today with Senator Smith. Senator Smith currently serves as the 31st Senate District state senator and his Senate Democratic assistant leader.

Mike: He serves as a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health. Welcome Senator Smith.

Jeff: Thanks, Mike. Glad to be here.

Mike: I'm glad you could join us. Senator, what is, for those who don't know, and or what was the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program?

Jeff: The Veterans Housing and Recovery program still exists, but it doesn't cover as many veterans as it did.

Jeff: So in Green Bay, there was a facility, I think was 17 beds, 18 beds, and in Chippewa Falls, 48 beds. It was the largest one that's in my district. And then the one they've left open is it's southeast Wisconsin.

Mike: Yep.

Jeff: And I think it has 40 beds. And so we were left with one facility in one spot in Wisconsin.

Jeff: What it was is exactly what this podcast is about. Is addressing the issues that veterans specifically may have with addiction, mental health, and of course even homelessness. So they had those beds, they had the shelter, but they also provided those services of rehabilitation and whatever they needed to be able to get their feet back on the ground and and help themselves.

Jeff: But now for whatever reason the Republicans chose to strip that out of the budget, and we have tried to restore it. I wanted to think at the beginning that it was just an oversight because they just randomly strip everything out of the budget. We've gotten used to that. But they have not responded the way I had hoped. And we have not been able to fund those facilities and at this point the veterans that were there are gone and dispersed. And hopefully they are finding what they need somewhere else. And, but I think it's not the way we want things to do. We don't wanna rest what is important to them on hope rather than actually providing what we should be providing for those who have served us in the military.

Mike: We don't know where they went?

Jeff: I don't, and I know that the officials that were at the facility did what they could to find other locations for them to go as far as shelter, but I'm not so sure that means they're also getting the services and counseling that they needed to get their life back on track.

Mike: Why was the program started to begin with? Why is it needed?

Jeff: It's absolutely, it's needed. And don't quote me on this, but I know that in the past I've heard these numbers like this, that out of the homeless population in our state and in our country, 30% at least, are veterans.

Mike: Yeah.

Jeff: And yet only 6% of our population serve in the military. What does that tell you when it's so outta whack like that? It means that we really owe them not just rehabilitation, but all the services that they need to when they come back into civilian life after serving us in military, who knows what they've seen, what they've gone through.

Jeff: And we need to be able to get them back into a regular civilian life and do everything we can to make sure that they are not left homeless. They're not left on their own to fight with the battles that they have to fight with.

Mike: Let's talk about the why. Mental health and substance use issues are not unusual among veterans.

Mike: And they do occasionally do the homelessness. We've all seen the ads on tv, how there's difficulty coping. The one I'm thinking of right now runs pretty regularly, talking about a mom who said when she came back from overseas, she heard booms constantly. It made it difficult for her to be a mom.

Mike: We need to help them.

Jeff: Yeah, we sure do. It seems so obvious, right? And Mike, I'm just I know you are. I think everyone is, whether no matter how they vote, tired of politicians rhetoric and no action, always wanna wrap themselves in the flag and say how they support veterans.

Jeff: And I'm so tired of talking about veterans and not actually doing things that support their efforts to, live a normal life. It's embarrassing.

Mike: What are we talking about cost-wise? How much would it have cost, or how much will it cost to do the homes?

Jeff: That's a great question.

Jeff: We could have kept this facility open in Chippewa Falls of 48 beds and the Green Bay one. Just by making sure that $1.9 million stayed in the budget. Now that would've been just one cycle, it's not a permanent fix. But it would've kept the counseling services and what they needed available to them for another cycle.

Jeff: We could do better. I have met at the facility with the directors and counselors there. They would've liked to have built a new facility. And having toured it, I get why they needed to do that. The location wasn't ideal. The building was getting old and the cost of keeping it going was really getting out of reach for them.

Jeff: So they had the possibility of getting some federal funding, but it was not enough to do what they needed to do, and they couldn't meet the federal standards that were being asked of them because that building was just, was not adequate. And that's part of the problem. And I couldn't get Republicans to understand that because one of the excuses they were giving, oh, they didn't use that federal funding, they must not need it. No, it wasn't that. It's that we were not as a state willing to help them find that new location. And then meet those standards that they needed to meet.

Mike: Suicide is the second leading cause of death for veterans under the age of 45. I think I read it's something like 17 a day in across our country.

Jeff: Yeah. Isn't that it? That's incredible. And that's incredible. And it's preventable in so many ways.

Mike: And as long as we're talking numbers let's talk about alcohol, because I found that staggering when I look that up. Substance use disorders, alcohol is a primary substance for 65% of the veterans entry in treatment centers.

Mike: That's nearly twice the rate of people who did not serve.

Jeff: Mike.

Mike: Yeah, I know.

Jeff: We're, I know. But we're both quoting numbers that should just shock people. That why there's reason why veterans come back and have more troubles with substance abuse, with mental health, with holding a job, hanging on, family life.

Jeff: All those things and it's because we put them in dangerous situations, things they weren't prepared for and worse than that, we have not prepared for them to come back into civilian life.

Mike: Yeah I read a study that said upwards of 50%, 37 to 50% of veterans coming back from Afghanistan reported some form of mental health concerns or substance use concerns.

Mike: That's almost half which is staggering. I'm gonna ask you a few things and just ask you to comment on these when veterans are surveyed. They report that the reason for them not reaching out because clearly they're having issues, include difficulty accessing services, right? Due to long wait times.

Mike: Having a hard time reaching providers, not having reliable transportation, fear being stigmatized or looking weak, et cetera, et cetera, or just having trouble finding it because they're in rural areas. You talked about, for those of you not familiar with Wisconsin, Chippewa Falls is in one part of the state.

Mike: Green Bay's in another part of the state, and Senator Smith mentioned southeast Wisconsin. You had a triangle going and now you've lost the upper two thirds of the state for services.

Jeff: It makes it worse if you are having to find those services far away from family, you need family to be able to really get a grip on what's going on in your life.

Jeff: That's such an important piece of that to, here we are having to send them away to find the services and basically on their own, good luck!

Mike: I would imagine that a lot of the staff that works there are attuned to veterans' issues.

Jeff: Yes they were. And of course they're not there now either.

Jeff: Mike, I gotta tell you, when I was touring this facility, we call it Klein Hall. There's a wall the width of the whole building that one of their clients asked, could I paint a mural on that wall? Was part of his, I think his own getting his act together.

Jeff: And he did. And it is the most, I actually took a video of it, it's actually two walls, 'cause it goes down two hallways. And it really was obviously what a veteran has to go through from signing up, coming out and going and standing in line, signing up for the military, thinking they're getting into something really incredible.

Jeff: And for some people that certainly is. And then, it just through war scenes and then the struggles and then falling into desperation when they get out. And it is so clear when you go through this mural and then this mural goes into finding this help at this facility and what a change it made for this person in life. This was an incredible piece of art. I'm sure it's still there and I hate to see it destroyed. But everyone should look at that and realize, wow, this was at the hands of somebody who actually needed that help and got it.

Mike: Amazing.

Mike: If I'm correct, I read that you introduced, and here's my two favorite words, standalone standalone bill to restore the funding. What does your bill seek to do? And for those of you who don't know, a standalone bill means that's all that's in there. It's not a bunch of projects for something else.

Jeff: Yeah, exactly. So yeah, standing alone outside the budget, because it was gone, it was not in the budget any longer. 'Cause by the way, first of all, we tried to amend the budget on the day that we were voting on the budget. It was one of the amendments we introduced. But that was not acceptable by the Republicans as well.

Jeff: Everyone voted against it. Then we needed, then we next step was to introduce a standalone bill once the budget had already been passed. That was also here's, this is, goes into a bigger issue, Mike, that I've been, that as an example, I have introduced well over 120 bills since I've been in the state Senate.

Jeff: Second highest number of bills of anyone that has introduced bills. I have had one hearing on one bill out of those bills, and in seven years. Now the issue is connected because I'm the one introducing this standalone bill. So boy, they got a policy here, that, boy, you can't let a Democrat introduce a bill and have a hearing, and I'm more than happy to hand it to somebody else.

Jeff: Senator Jacque over in the Green Bay area, introduced a bill separate from mine. But it was not just this issue, it added two other veteran issues, which I would certainly vote for by the way. But we also know that those two issues are not particularly favorable to Republicans. They did not wanna do those things, so that just made it more convoluted.

Jeff: And they have had a hearing on that bill. I don't know if we'll see it on the floor yet, but we might. But I am under the understanding that it isn't gonna make it through both houses because it's not just the funding for these facilities, which I'm gonna be honest with you, Mike, it's too late for those two facilities.

Mike: Yeah.

Jeff: That funding is not gonna help anybody right now. We need to start from scratch. We need to re-evaluate how much it really will cost to build a new facility in both, like you said, that triangle, in both of the areas that have been closed and get this thing going again.

Mike: I'll be a little cynical here. I bet we got some empty buildings somewhere that would fit. (laughs)

Jeff: (laughs) Yeah. You think? Yeah, I think so.

Jeff: I know hospitals. I know, is that where you are going Mike?

Mike: We've closed a number of different facilities because of that part of the pulling the funding. And especially in the part of the states that we're talking about up north and rural areas.

Jeff: Yeah, in Chippewa Falls.

Mike: They're hurting right now, right?

Jeff: Yeah. In fact, where Klein Hall was, the hospital that closed, is probably a mile away. That spot. And then in Eau Claire hospital, a large hospital, been here for 120 years, closed a year and a half ago.

Jeff: That's a whole nother issue. We could certainly talk about that if you want, but we have access to healthcare issues for everyone.

Mike: Yeah.

Jeff: But we have just exaggerated it for veterans now.

Mike: You have had, I don't wanna leave without emphasizing this, you have had some bipartisan support for this.

Jeff: Like I said, Senator Jacque has his bill. I have had, I think we had a couple of Republicans who signed onto my bill as well.

Mike: Yeah, you did.

Jeff: And yep. And but their job is to get the, 'cause they're in the majority, their job is to get their majority leaders to get it to the floor. But that's not happening.

Mike: Yeah. So it's not a question of they don't support it. They can't get their leadership to move on it.

Jeff: Yeah, still it's only a couple. And it's actually shameful. But if it isn't in someone's district, oftentimes they're just, they're neither not aware or they put blinders on, or they pretend they don't understand and they're not gonna help.

Mike: I'll ask the typical call-in radio question here . You said that there's unlikely to be a hearing, but what can people do if they support stuff like this? How do they go about voicing their support?

Jeff: It never hurts to make those phone calls and write those emails to your legislators.

Jeff: If some things do happen when they're bombarded with constituents that say, Hey, quit playing politics with veterans, just let's get this done. I'm not gonna hold my breath. I've been around this a long time now and know how things are working. And we are running outta time in this session as well.

Jeff: The Republican majority is not particularly enthusiastic about meeting anymore or very much more before they go on the campaign trail next year. So it's not looking good for really getting anything done right now.

Mike: And we'll have an open governor's race coming up too.

Mike: And I would imagine making that an issue wouldn't hurt either.

Jeff: It wouldn't, yeah, no kidding. At least make these governor candidates aware of what's happening in the rest of the state. Typically there's a lot of attention where the population is, and you mentioned slightly Mike, about how rural areas.

Jeff: It is really difficult for people who have substance abuse issues and mental health issues to find the help that they need. And I think it's really important to start paying attention or getting our candidates to pay attention to the fact that, hey, we're out here in rural areas, and need that extra help as well.

Mike: Yeah. Senator, thank you so much for doing this with us today. When I read about it and my heart just broke for those people who actually need the help. So thanks a ton.

Jeff: Yeah, you bet. Mike. Thank you.

Mike: For those of you who are listening and watching, you know that I'll put links to Senator Smith's contact information attached to the podcast. And you can certainly look up your own legislature in whatever state you live in, because my guess is this is happening in more than just Wisconsin.

Mike: As always, thanks for listening. Be safe and thanks, because yesterday was Veterans Day. To those of you who served, we're still trying to help.