Twice a year, the ACS Employment Readiness Program staff transforms the Centennial Banquet and Conference Center at East Fort Bliss, TX, into a hiring event for military spouses and service members transitioning out of the military. Photo by Michelle Gordon, Fort Bliss Public Affairs
WASHINGTON — In recent years, both VA and DoD have worked to create transition services designed specifically for women servicemembers with the goal of providing information about VA care and closing the gap between when a servicemember is discharged and when they enroll for VA healthcare and benefits.
Those services are usually optional, however, and can easily get overlooked in the flood of information and pre-discharge activity that comes with DoD’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP). Some legislators and veterans advocates worry that, while these programs might be effective, they are not reaching the women who need them.
“Too many women come to their transition exhausted, mentally broken, physically depleted and in need of a lifeline,” declared Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA) at a House VA Economic Opportunity Subcommittee hearing last month. “We owe it to our women veterans to spare no effort or expense. Step one is to acknowledge … in a very honest way the unique needs of women. And step two is to simply take action. No more surveys. No more pilot programs that never seem to scale up. No more research. All we need to do now is action.”
Exactly what that action should be is where opinions are at odds.
DoD officials believe one of the strengths of the TAP program is that servicemembers can, to a certain point, choose their own path through the transition process. A self-assessment by the servicemember, followed by a meeting with a transition counselor, provides an opportunity for that servicemember to set transition goals. Along with the five mandatory courses from DoD, VA, and the Department of Labor, they can decide to take optional courses.
However, as many have testified in the past, servicemembers approaching separation can develop tunnel vision. Their goal becomes simply getting through the process, and the barrage of information they receive in their final months of service can become an obstacle rather than something they can use to make their transition easier.
One of those optional programs is the Women’s Health Transition Training (WHTT) program. Prior to the pandemic, it was an in-person class specifically for women servicemembers where they could learn about the VA healthcare system and ask questions they may not have the opportunity to in the standard VA TAP course.
The program was originally piloted through the Air Force and data showed that women who went through the WHTT program were 85% more likely to enroll in VA. During the pandemic, the program moved to an all-virtual environment. Plans are underway to transition the program to an instructor-led virtual platform in 2022.
While DoD recognizes the success of the WHTT program, officials are resistant to making it a mandatory part of TAP for women servicemembers.
“It’s not necessary for it to be mandatory,” explained William Mansell, director of DoD’s Defense Support Service Center, which oversees the TAP program. “If a servicemember needs it, as determined by the servicemember’s [self-assessment], the servicemember will get the training. That’s the bottom line.”
“I strongly disagree with you on that,” responded Brownley. “It should be a mandatory program where women veterans are gathered together in a safe place to talk about some of their issues. I personally will work hard to make this program mandatory.”
No Website Information
Brownley also challenged Mansell and other officials’ statement that DoD is working diligently to get information about programs like WHTT to the women servicemembers and veterans who could benefit from it. A quick check of the TAP website during the hearing yielded no mention of WHTT.
“I think one of the issues is that women don’t even know about the program or have access to it,” Brownley said. “They might miss it altogether.”
Mansell said they would add that information to the website.
Representatives of VSOs who work with transitioning women servicemembers testified that the failures of TAP to meet the needs of transitioning women go far beyond the healthcare arena.
“Servicewomen can be better served through comprehensive financial education and planning that addresses the financial realities and challenges of transition,” explained Jodie Grenier, CEO of the Foundation for Women Warriors. “TAP fails to express the reality of family budget planning, childcare costs, insurance, and pay gaps after service. Delays in benefit payments make budgeting a challenge. This only compounds as women veterans in all age cohorts earn significantly less than women veterans and suffer from higher unemployment rates.”
Grenier and others also testified that TAP is failing to inform servicemembers about the VSOs and other community programs that are working to help bridge that transition gap. They urged DoD to open its doors to the nonprofits who already have successful programs in place.
“We need to get to these women before they transition,” declared Ginger Miller, president of Women Veterans Interactive. “Once they transition out, it’s too late. We’re knocking on the doors of DoD to let us in with the programs that have been most effective.”
