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Serving veterans & family members

Minot Vet Center: ‘Home Away From Home’ for Veterans

Eloise Ogden/MDN Staff of the Minot Vet Center are, from the left, Shone Topham, counselor; Brad Starnes, office manager; Hiedi Miller, director; Ric Gutierrez, outreach specialist; Allison Schuetz, counselor; and Merle Gonsorowski, volunteer/intern.

An art piece with a military member saluting and an eagle along with the words, “Home of the free… Because of the brave” greets those who enter the doors of the Minot Vet Center.

Minot Vet Center is a place where military veterans and their family can visit for a range of services.

The local Vet Center has operated in Minot since 1982 and is in its fourth location, according to Hiedi Miller, director. The facility originated at a site along E. Burdick Expressway, then moved to a North Hill location followed by another move to the Metro Center Mall in southwest Minot.

Since late September, Minot Vet Center has been in its new home at 3300 S. Broadway and is just a few doors away from the Minot VA Clinic.

Staff at the Vet Center is comprised of three counselors including Miller, an office manager and an outreach specialist. Currently, the center also has a volunteer/intern.

North Dakota has three Vet Centers. The Minot Vet Center covers west to the Montana border including New Town area, north to the U.S./Canadian border, south to Washburn and east to Minnewaukan/Fort Totten. The other two Vet Centers in the state are in Fargo and Bismarck.

“There’s 300 Vet Centers in the country and they’re available for all veterans,” said Miller. She said a veteran can go to any of them.

Services

“We do what is called readjustment counseling services. That includes anything from someone trying to find out if they’re eligible for VA health care, to looking for a job and we would refer them to people that would have that information, to the more intensive counseling like individual mental counseling, marital couples counseling, family counseling, and we also have groups,” Miller said.

She said the Minot Vet Center has been getting a number of veterans who believe for various reasons they are not eligible for VA medical care. Eligibility requirements have been changed and the Vet Center can assist them if they stop in the office, Miller said.

“We are able to do that paperwork with them,” she said. She said the veteran would need to bring to the Vet Center their DD214, their military separation paperwork, and Vet Center staff will help them fill out a 1010EZ. That form will be sent to VA Eligibility, the office that will determine if the veteran is eligible for VA health care. “There’s some different enhanced eligibilities that sometimes people aren’t aware of. We’re willing to help anyone,” she said.

She said the Vet Center also does outreach which includes education in the community about veteran services. “We can do programs for different organizations that want to know more about veterans’ topics,” she said.

The Vet Center program is based on three pillars: counseling, outreach (education) and referrals.“If we’re not able to do it here, we find where that person can get what it is they need,” Miller said.

Services provided at the Vet Center includes PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and military sexual trauma.

Bereavement counseling for family members of anyone who has died on active duty – war related as well as other causes of death – is also provided there.

If a family member of a veteran asks for help, the Vet Center would assist them in finding services available to them.

Services to clients are confidential.

Eyeglasses for veterans

Due to the distance to the VA facility in Fargo, the Minot Vet Center has eyeglass frames.

“If a veteran goes for an optometry appointment in the community, then they’ll come here to pick out their eyeglass frames and we’re able to get their eyeglasses ordered for them,” Miller said. The Vet Center has been providing the service since this past July. Prior, veterans went to the Ward County Courthouse to pick out eyeglass frames.

Number of clients, staff

At any given time, the Minot Vet Center has about 120 active clients, or clients being seen at the center on a regular basis.

“We’re required to make contact with at least 500 veterans a year,” Miller said. Usually they are in contact with thousands of veterans in the area.

The Minot Vet Center takes part in various activities such as health fairs and information fairs as part of its outreach work in the local community and area including the Veterans Standdown held at the Minot Armed Forces Reserve Center each fall. The local Vet Center also hosts the annual Vietnam Veterans Celebration held in Minot. The most recent celebration held March 29 at the Grand Hotel was the eighth annual event.

Vets Center staff also attend various veterans service organizations meetings and the monthly veterans meal held in the community.

The Minot Vet Center staff has expanded over the years. Miller said when she joined the staff in 2011, the facility had three staff members.

Miller, originally from Glenburn, is retired from the North Dakota National Guard. “My dad is a Vietnam veteran, I’ve always been interested in veterans. I actually did my internship here at the Vet Center in 2008,” Miller said. She joined the staff of the Vet Center in 2011 and became director in 2015.

She said the Vet Center program was developed as a peer to peer counseling program – Vietnam veterans helping Vietnam veterans. “We try to stay with that same philosophy because for a lot of veterans it feels more comfortable to speak to someone who knows about the military,” Miller said.

The staff is steeped in military. Four staff members are veterans, including two combat veterans, and the fifth and newest person on the staff is a spouse of an active-duty military member, according to Miller.

Cost to clients

“Our services are completely free. They’ve already paid with their service to our country,” Miller said.

She said active-duty military members also can use the Vet Center.

A “significant other” of a military veteran also can be seen at the Vet Center. She said a “significant other” is anyone a veteran feels is a significant other to them.

“That person might not live with the veteran but is a neighbor, parent, boyfriend or girlfriend or best friend we’ll help because that’s just all part of building that team,” Miller said. She said all of it has to be relating to the veteran’s readjustment.

“When I started in 2011 the majority of our clients were Vietnam veterans,” Miller said. She said now the majority of the clients are Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

The Vet Centers are federal and part of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Vet Centers’ program called Readjustment Counseling Services has its own leadership and funding. “We can see veterans even if not enrolled in VA care, they can still come and see us. They don’t have to utilize anything in the VA to get the services here,” she said.

The Vet Centers’ leadership is out of St. Louis, Mo., and the chief officer is in Washington, D.C.

Visiting the Vet Center

People can just drop by to visit the Minot Vet Center but if possible, if they can call ahead to make an appointment. However, Vet Center policy is someone will see them that day but they might have to wait a little bit depending on staff members’ schedule that day.

“But they’re always welcome to come in. We always have coffee. They don’t even have to be receiving services per se but just to come in and read the newspaper or have coffee. That’s part of what we provide too is a place – kind of a home away from home,” Miller said.

The Minot Vet Center’s phone number is 852-0177.

“Any time during the hours we are open, we will answer the phone. They’ll get to talk to a live person,” Miller said. “It’s one of the Vet Center policies – we answer the phone within three rings.”

The Minot Vet Center staff works closely with other veterans offices and organizations in the local area.

“It can be really hard for a veteran to ask for help and when they find the courage and do that, we want to make that as seamless as possible for them,” Miller said. “What we’ll do if we have someone coming in here that is in crisis, we’ll ask some of the other organizations to come here and come to the veteran. That way we can rally around which is part of that military mentality of one group, one fight, one team.”

Minot Vet Center days, hours

The Minot Vet Center is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On Wednesdays, the center is open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Staff is available after hours including weekends by scheduling the visit ahead of time by calling 852-0177. If someone needs to reach staff on weekends or after hours, they can call 1-877-WAR-Vets (1-877-927-8387).

Reaching out

The Minot Vet Center covers west to the Montana border including New Town area, north to the U.S./Canadian border, south to Washburn and east to Minnewaukan/Fort Totten. The other two Vet Centers in the state are in Fargo and Bismarck. A veteran and family can go to any Vet Center in North Dakota and in the U.S.

Vet Center services

– Individual counseling

– Group counseling

– Marital/family counseling

– Bereavement counseling

– Drug and alcohol referral

– Liaison with VA and community resources

– Benefits assistance referral

– Community education career referral

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