Town hall for veterans helps them with health care, toxic exposure screenings
By Madison Smith
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Multiple veterans affairs groups organized a town hall Saturday, April 1, at the A-B Tech Conference Center to help veterans right here in the mountains.
Western North Carolina VA Health Care System partnered with Vietnam Veterans of America and the North Carolina State Council to host a Toxic Exposure/PACT Act Veterans Town Hall to Asheville, and veterans from across western N.C. made their way to Asheville to receive the offered help.
They provided assistance to veterans by helping them sign up for healthcare benefits, file disability claims and complete toxic exposure screenings — and even included a presentation on what kind of exposure to be aware of.
“The veterans who were exposed to toxic chemicals while they were serving prior to the PACT Act had to prove that their condition, their illnesses were relate to those toxic exposures,” said George Hoover, health benefits assistant with the Veterans’ Health Administration. “Now the VA is admitting that those conditions were presumptive to the toxic exposures.” Having this kind of local support adds to the new national law in a way that will help bring veteran health to the forefront like been before.
“We’re getting older — all of us,” said veteran Thomas R. Whetstine, the event coordinator, with a laugh. “A lot of times people will do the bumper sticker saying, ‘Thank you very much,’ and genuinely they mean it in a sense, but they don’t actually look at the person and realize that, ‘Hey, this is a real individual, this person quite possibly has health issues, this person is getting older.’ There’s an urgency out there, and everybody can help with this.”
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