Community Corner

Northport VA to Offer Free Child Care For Vets in Fall

Two-year pilot program is part of a nationwide initiative.

The will begin offering free child care to veterans in the fall as part of a nationwide intiative to improve access to health care for eligible veterans, particularly the increasing number of women veterans.

"While the number of women veterans continues to grow, they use the VA for health care proportionately less than male veterans,” said Patricia Hayes, Chief Consultant of the VA’s Women Veterans Health Strategic Health Care Group. “We hope that by offering safe, secure childcare while the veteran attends a doctor’s appointment or therapy session, we will enable more women veterans to take advantage of the VA benefits to which they are entitled.”

According to a national survey of veterans conducted by the VA, more than 10 percent of respondents had to cancel or reschedule health care appointments due to lack of childcare. A survey conducted locally by the Northport VA found that 11 percent of 85 respondents had to skip appointments for this reason. 

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Northport is one of three VA medical centers in the country, including one upstate New York and one in Washington, to receive funding for the development of a child care facility under this two-year pilot program. 

Northport VA Plantree Coordinator Margaret Rogan said that her facility was chosen among hundreds nationwide partially because they have an existing childcare center.

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The center is open to veterans, employees, and the outside community, but commands a fee. With the money offered through the new VA initiative a space adjacent to the existing childcare center and opening onto the playground will be renovated for a new childcare facility free to veterans. 

The facility will accomodate 30 children at a time for up to three and a half hours and be open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Rogan said she is not sure what criteria the VA is looking for to extend the pilot program beyond two years.

“We know it’s something that’s needed but not the level to which it’s needed and how," she said. 


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