Boston veterans happy centers will stay open

Veterans happy VA facilities stay open
Say four centers in area necessary
By Emily Sweeney
Globe Staff / May 7, 2008
Local veterans welcomed yesterday the US Department of Veterans Affairs decision to maintain its four Boston-area campuses, saying the centers offer critical and accessible services to people who are often distressed.

VA officials had considered closing facilities in Bedford, Brockton, Jamaica Plain, and West Roxbury and consolidating services.

Among the options the agency considered was closing all four campuses and building a large state-of-the-art medical center in Boston. Other possibilities included merging the Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury facilities or shifting some services from Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford to the VA campus in Brockton.

Ultimately, the VA decided to scrap those ideas.

"The potential benefits to be gained from any consolidation do not justify the disruption to veterans or to our first-class healthcare system in Boston," Dr. James B. Peake, secretary of veterans affairs, said in a statement Monday.

The decision to keep the four VA campuses was a relief to George Egan, deputy commissioner of Boston's Department of Veterans Services.

"We need all these places open," he said.

Egan said his office regularly refers veterans to the four Boston area VA facilities.

"These kids coming home now, these kids need a lot of help," he said. Post-traumatic stress disorder "is coming into play a lot. Where they're fighting, there are bombs, we see lots of head trauma. They have a hard time coming back and have a horrible time adjusting."
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