LEWISTON — The particular health needs of Maine’s thousands of women veterans will be discussed Friday in a live video conference across Western Maine.

Tri-County Mental Health Services plans to open its offices throughout the region for the midday talks, largely aimed at getting women who have served to take advantage of the services they have earned.

“They go without medical care,” said Jerry DeWitt, a worker at Tri-County who specializes in military aid. “They go without medicines they need.”

The percentage of women veterans in Maine is surprisingly high.

Of the roughly 150,000 veterans in Maine, 10,000 are women, DeWitt said. More than 60 percent of them have never enrolled in the VA for medical aid.

And when they do come, women need to be treated with more understanding, DeWitt said. Too many VA facilities in Maine lack the simplest privacy screens, since the rooms’ layout reflected the increasingly mistaken assumption that the patients would be men.

There are other tougher matters, too.

Alanna Gallagher, a 27-year-old veteran of two Iraq deployments, said she would like to have the chance to have a woman doctor, particularly for her annual gynecological exam.

But there’s a you-get-what-you-get attitude that comes with medical treatment in the military, she said. When she enlisted at 18 years old, there were no choices when she was given a physical. The doctor was male and saw everyone.

It’s a situation that makes sense in a war zone, but it seems less understandable back home, she said. Few women’s health professionals are available in Maine’s VA system, outside of the flagship hospital in Togus.

For some women, the choice becomes whether to accept the VA help or pay a premium to see a doctor that’s more comfortable, she said.

“I have a reliable vehicle, and I can afford to go up to Togus if I really need to,” Gallagher said. “But there are some people who really need to do that. Extending women’s services to all the (VA) offices will make a big difference.”

Gallagher also believes women and men would be helped by a less bureaucratic system, she said. Though she plans to help with Friday’s discussion, Gallagher, the daughter of Tri-County’s executive director Catherine Ryder, has had trouble getting the care she needs. 

While serving on active duty in the Air Force, she injured her back. She was treated in Washington, where she worked, but when she moved to Maine, she was denied coverage for her regular chiropractic visits. Her VA files were never sent to Maine.

She no pays for appointments herself and gets additional care from co-workers at a spa in Windham, where she works as a massage therapist.

Gallagher believes she has the proof to convince the VA to help her, but she dreads the bureaucratic process, she said.

“It’s on me to follow up with that,” she said.

It’s a story that’s too common, DeWitt said.

“Rather than fighting with the VA over something that is supposed to be theirs for the asking, they end up doing it for themselves,” he said.

Friday’s meetings are planned for noon at Tri-County’s offices in Lewiston, Rumford, Farmington and Bridgton and at 1:30 p.m. in Oxford and Windham. Anyone who wishes to attend is asked to call Jerry DeWitt at Tri-County Mental Health in Lewiston at 783-4663, ext. 228.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link