Gloria Newmiller, LMFT, Readjustment Counselor presented at the 2016 Hidden Wounds of War Conference.

1. Vet Center
Readjustment Counseling Services for Veterans

2. Readjustment Counseling Service
We are the community-based professionals
within the VA who welcome home the war
veteran by providing top-quality, compassionate
readjustment assistance to the veteran and their
family in order to facilitate a successful return to
civilian life within their community.

3. Vet Centers’ History
• First organized by veterans for veterans
• Storefront outreach to Vietnam Vets
• Significant numbers still having readjustment
issues.
• Main idea was peer to peer counseling
• Enacted by Congress in 1979 – PL 96-22
• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
• Separate charter and scope of operation

4. Veterans serving Veterans

5. Mission of
Readjustment Counseling Services
Vet Centers serve veterans and their families by providing a
continuum of quality care that adds value for veterans,
families, and communities. Care includes professional
readjustment counseling, community education, outreach to
special populations, the brokering of services with
community agencies, and provides a key access link
between the veteran and other services in the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs.

6. Vet Center Goals
• Provide a broad range of services to Veterans
and their families
– Counseling
– Outreach
– Referrals
• Promote a satisfying postwar readjustment to
civilian life

7. Services Provided
•Individual and group counseling
•Marital/family/couples counseling
•Spouse/significant other counseling/group
•Grief/bereavement counseling for family
members of military personnel who die
on activity duty (including reservist and
national guard personnel)

8. Services Provided
•Counseling for military sexual trauma
•Referral to alcohol/drug counseling
•Employment opportunity referrals
•Benefit and assistance referrals
•Liaison to other VA facilities/services

9. Transition from Warrior to Civilian

10. Mobile Vet Center

11. Cost/Eligibility
• How does the veteran pay for these services,
and who is eligible?
The veteran or active duty service member has already
paid for this service with his or her sacrifice to our
country. They only need to provide a DD 214 form
showing service time in a combat theater.

12. Keeping the Promise
“…to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and
for his widow and his orphan” – Abraham Lincoln.

13. Grand Rapids Vet Center Staff
Darryl P. Plunkett, Ph.D. Jennifer Dean, MA, LPC
Team Leader Readjustment Counselor
Gloria Newmiller, LMFT Joe Martinez, MS, LPC
Readjustment Counselor Readjustment Counselor
Brian Gripentrog, LMSW Brucina Mayfield, BS
Readjustment Counselor Program Support Asst.

14. How to Contact Us
Grand Rapids Vet Center
2050 Breton SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
Phone: (616) 285-5795
Fax (616) 285-5898

15. Questions?