Rep. Austin Scott addresses a packed house at the UGA-Tifton Conference Center during Wednesday’s Veterans Town Hall. To his right is Maryalice Morro, director of the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, who answered many of the questions posed by veterans during the event, and Al Bocchicchio, director of the Regional Office in Atlanta.

TIFTON – Veterans from throughout South Georgia flocked to the UGA-Tifton Conference Center Wednesday afternoon for the Veterans Town Hall, hosted by U.S. Congressman Austin Scott. Also on hand to answer questions were Maryalice Morro, director of the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, and Al Bocchicchio, director of the Regional Office in Atlanta. 

Scott addressed the audience first, commenting that the same issues that faced his grandfather, who had been prisoner of war, are still faced by today’s veterans.

“We still seem to have problems. We want to resolve these issues,” he said. “The key to resolving these issues is putting good leadership in place, and giving them the ability to do their job, and give us the system that we all want for our veterans.”

Morro, who has been at Carl Vinson for just over four months, served in the Navy as a nurse for 29 years, and said it was good to be “home,” serving veterans. She spoke about the new clinic planned for Tifton.

“We’re finally getting moving on a clinic in this neighborhood. You will see a facility coming down on 20th Street, and shortly thereafter, you will see a facility going up. That will be the new community-based outreach clinic that will serve you. We hope to have that built and staffed and ready to go sometime in 2016. A lot of things have to come together, but we’re really excited to finally move forward with this plan that’s been in the making for quite a while now, and now will come to fruition.”

Morro said the VA has a “long way to go,” but said they are currently working on a telephone assistance line, and are handling a large number of walk-in patients. 

“We continue to struggle with timely access, many of you are well aware of that,” she said. “We are working very hard to try to mitigate that. I have been successful with recruiting a couple more doctors. We’re committed and we’re working very hard.”

The Tifton clinic will be located at 20th Street and Ridge, at the site of the old Northside Baptist Church, and near where Journey Church has been meeting. Deconstruction has already begun.

Wednesday’s event featured a question and answer session during which questions penned prior to the session were read by moderator Chris Beckham, communications manager for the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce, and answered by the panel. Questions centered mostly around the amount of time it takes for veterans to be seen by a physician, and the amount of paperwork involved. 

Veterans were also afforded the opportunity to receive individual assistance from VA representatives by visiting various outreach tables that featured information on housing, mental health and medical care. All three members of the panel were also available afterward to answer questions and discuss issues.

The Dublin VA hosts town hall meetings for its stakeholders quarterly to provide local veterans an open forum and for VA officials to hear directly from beneficiaries as a step toward improvement while rebuilding trust among veterans and to learn what VA needs to improve as well as what is working well.

The Carl Vinson VA Medical Center is one of 153 around the country using such meetings as part of their effort to meet the needs of veterans by providing personalized, proactive, patient-driven health care that honors veterans’ service and empowers their health.