Veterans Affairs offers tips on helping veterans

Sunday marks Veterans Day and there are 278,000 veterans in Louisiana. The state's Veterans Affairs Secretary, Colonel Joey Strickland, says its important to remember our country is still at war and when our soldiers return to civilian life, it's important the transition is seamless as possible.

"We need to help them with jobs. We need to help them to get into colleges and universities. If they are struggling financially, we need to help them. We have programs to do that here in the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs," said Strickland.

Strickland says if Louisiana Veterans and their families are experiencing financial hardships, he advises them to apply for help through the state's Military Family Assistance Fund. Go to vetaffairs.la.gov.

Strickland said Louisiana is great about taking care of the needs of vets when it comes to medical treatment.

"We're lucky that we have three VA medical centers and 19 community-based outpatient clinics here. We're concerned about suicide prevention. We just held our first statewide summit to address that," said Strickland.

Strickland adds it’s important for education to be more accessible.

"We're encouraging colleges and universities to put veteran centers in every campus for veterans returning back to school. We actually got a $100,000 grant from the AmeriCorps Foundation for that," said Strickland.

Categories: Acadiana News, State News

Louisiana Dept. of Veterans Affairs offers tips on helping veterans