Local vets enjoy food and each other’s company during the Springfield Vet Center’s summer cookout on Sept. 6.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Lederer
WEST SPRINGFIELD — For Bryan Doe, outreach specialist for the Springfield Vet Center, the organization’s summer cookout on Sept. 6 was not just a fun event, but a community building exercise and foot in the door for local veterans.
“It’s a way for veterans to, first, get out of their house, meet other veterans in their local community, meet other veterans service organizations, but then, also have this warm introduction to a vet center instead of kind of coming right in for their first appointment,” he said.
By “appointment,” Doe was referring to the outpatient counseling services at the center, which is in West Springfield.
“We’re an outpatient counseling program that falls under the Department of Veterans Affairs, or, more specifically, the Veterans Health Administration,” he said.
That means the entire program is federally funded.
The Springfield Vet Center offers individual and group counseling to veterans and current servicemembers, including National Guard and reservists, and all their family members in all four Western Massachusetts counties. These groups may need counseling to cope with the struggles of reintegrating to civilian life, post-traumatic stress — “we like to refer to it as post-traumatic growth,” he said — or sexual abuse, which he said was a problem in the military.
The center keeps the records for its 600 clients separate from the Department of Veterans Affairs, ensuring their confidentiality.
“We would rather [clients] get the treatment that they need and the services and support they need instead of worrying about the things that might happen to them if they voice that they are struggling,” Doe said.
Doe said a lot of veterans wait until their conditions are really bad before getting treatment.
“The majority of veterans that we work with here at the vet center are Vietnam veterans, but it took them — many of them — about 40 to 50 years to realize that there was something that was going on in their lives that was making them struggle,” he said. “They needed to find some relief and a way to do that is to talk through their experience in order to live their life to their full potential, become the best version of themselves.”
Doe also said part of his job was letting people know it’s “OK not to be OK.”
“It’s actually a sign of strength to talk about these things and work through this stuff,” he said. “We’ve seen so many veterans, young or old, grow and thrive in this environment.”
Richard Messenger had been in the Air Force for 33 years. Between 2006 and 2013, he was deployed four times to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he would spend months “working like a dog” on 12-hour shifts.
Asked what he gets from the Springfield Vet Center, he said he benefits from the camaraderie. The cookout, for him, was “veterans helping veterans.”
“It’s a therapeutic thing,” he said.
All Vet Center services are free, and don’t require enrollment in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care, just a copy of the discharge paperwork. Services are also available virtually.
Those interested can reach out to the Vet Center at 413-737-5167. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays to Fridays at 95A Ashley Ave., Suite A, West Springfield. Those interested in helping support the organization can make out a check to the Friends of the Springfield Vet Center and mail it to the Vet Center. The Friends group is a nonprofit organization that helps pay for services not in the Vet Center’s budget.
Doe said that veterans can reach out for other services besides counseling.
“If a veteran needs help with housing, financial assistance, getting enrolled in VA health care, getting introduced to their veterans service officer in their local community, we have those local relationships established and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of doing that, too,” he said.
