Roughly 22,600 veterans live north of the Golden Gate Bridge in rural areas with 60 percent enrolled in the San Francisco VA Health Care System, or SFVAHCS.

Seventy-three percent of enrolled rural veterans are aged 65-plus and are likely to face complex health care issues that require frequent and ongoing appointments. Eleven percent served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan and 9 percent are women.

Each of these groups face diverse health care needs, and many experience challenges accessing health care while living in rural areas.

Veterans may also experience typical rural health care challenges that are intensified by their combat-related injuries and illnesses.

So how are community partnerships helping the way we serve our rural Veterans?

SFVAHCS is working to improve the service we provide our rural veterans while partnering with our surrounding communities.

SFVAHCS has four community based outpatient clinics, or CBOCs, north of the Golden Gate Bridge: Santa Rosa, Clearlake, Ukiah and Eureka. Each one of these clinics takes tremendous pride serving veterans and their surrounding communities. Community partnerships are fundamental because they allow us to reach more veterans.

Countless staff at various levels collaborate with local community services, hospitals, small clinics and skilled nursing facilities.

“These collaborations allow us to support our Veterans using a holistic approach while sharing information with key community stakeholders and supporting each other,” said Carol Brown, clinic director of the Clearlake CBOC.

Often our veterans’ needs go beyond what we think of as traditional health care.

“A veteran recently moved to the area from out of state. He needed money to register his car so he could apply for a job and find housing, so I reached out to the Lake County United Veterans Council using our emergency veteran support plan. We were able to get his car registered, and a local business provided four new/used tires. With this support, he was able to find a job and get back on his feet,” said Amanda Celli, member services representative at the Clearlake CBOC.

Celli is part of our patient experience/member services team and is often the first person veterans meet when trying to navigate the VA system.

She is deeply rooted in the Clearlake community both as a VA employee and as a community member, serving on the Lake County United Veterans Council as the coalition’s secretary. She is also a Lake County Vet Connect member, providing community services, social networking, benefits and health care resources to our veterans.

“I get to listen to our Veterans with issues or concerns and help set up a game plan to be successful,” said Celli. “Supporting rural veterans is challenging because of the environment and limited resources, but because of our profoundly rooted community partnerships, the community and the VA can work together in supporting our Veterans’ needs.”

These partnerships and passion from staff echo across all our CBOCs. You will often see veterans stopping by their local clinics just to say hello. As much as staff are checking in on our veterans, you will find Veterans are stopping by to check in on our staff. There is no better example of the power of our community partnerships than what happened during the 2017 wildfires.

Within the SFVAHCS - encompassing the Santa Rosa, Eureka, Ukiah and Clearlake VA Clinics - 793 veterans were affected by the fires. Of those, 117 veterans lost their homes or reported fire damage, and 16 SFVAHCS staff members had lost or damaged homes as well.

SFVAHCS staff made more than 5,846 welfare calls to check on veterans throughout the affected communities.

SFVAHCS established phone numbers for veterans to call in for information and to refill medication lost during the evacuations while the Santa Rosa Clinic was closed.  

Social workers and mental health staff began moving into the affected fire areas working with county veterans service officers and visited local shelters to provide mental health services, gift cards and information on temporary housing as they assessed the needs of veterans.

Voluntary service began collecting donations and other items needed to help support our evacuated veterans.

“Each time I help our veterans, I’m helping a family member,” said Alta Thurman, a Registered Nurse at the Clearlake VA Clinic.

SFVAHCS would like to thank all of our community partners, including veteran service organizations, community agencies, and the countless community volunteers for their ongoing support.

These collaborations ensures that our rural Veterans receive the help they are looking for when they need it the most.

Jeremy Profitt works for the San Francisco VA Health Care System.