The Pasco Vet Center will begin offering its mobile services in Wesley Chapel this week.
The center will be bringing its 38-foot mobile unit to Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus, 2727 Mansfield Blvd., on Fridays, effective Jan. 20.
“It’s like an RV. It’s got two offices inside and a satellite. Everything you can do in a brick-and-mortar office, I can do onboard,” said Frank (AJ) Jones, a veteran outreach program specialist.
The weekly readjustment counseling services will be offered, with appointments available at 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., Jones said. “If the need is there, we’ll stay there, and we’ll make longer hours,” he added.
“We provide readjustment counseling to combat veterans. We also provide services to veterans who are struggling with military sexual trauma, male or female,” Jones said.
Counseling will be available for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Bereavement counseling is available for families who lost someone, who was in the military when he or she died, combat or not. Family counseling is available, too, Jones said.
The vet center also helps veterans who are suffering from other kinds of trauma, too.
“We see mortuary teams. These are the morticians in the military, who are here in the states. When the bodies come back to the states, they normally come back the way it was when they were over there. When they open the casket to prepare the bodies, they’re dealing with the combat trauma,” Jones said.
The center also serves drone teams, Jones said. “They’re in the war during the day, and then they go home at night. It’s different for the soldiers that are over there, everything is focused on being there and where they’re at in the moment. They’re not,” he said. Instead, they’re fighting in the war during the day and going home to their family at night.
“It’s a whole different dynamic there, for the drone teams,” Jones said.
Resources are available to help veterans who are searching for employment, who need assistance with benefit claims, he said.
Referrals also are available for suicide prevention.
All services are confidential and provided at no cost to the veteran and family members, Jones said.
The idea is to make the services more convenient, so veterans don’t have to drive into Tampa to receive help, Jones said.
To schedule an appointment or to find out more, call the Pasco Vet Center at (727) 372-1854.
Published January 18, 2017
