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WITH VIDEOS: Veteran services available, despite shortages, but vets need to ask

ALPENA -- Grappling with needs ranging from health crises to utility shut-off notices, Northeast Michigan's aging military veteran population can find help from local Veterans Affairs offices and vets groups -- if only they accept that help, officials say.

Military veterans make up a big part of the Northeast Michigan community, with one in 10 residents having served in the U.S. military, twice the share of the statewide population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

But, with 10% of the region's veterans living in poverty, two in three 65 or older, and a service-connected disability rate higher than the statewide rate, Northeast Michigan's former military members increasingly rely on advocates to connect them to local and state resources.

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Local veterans service agencies could use more volunteers, more space, and more money to help veterans, officials say.

But, more than anything, they need more veterans willing to speak up when they're struggling.

"Unless they walk in the door, we don't know where they are or who they are," said Bill Stypick, assistant veterans services officer for Alpena County. "Come on in and talk. There's a lot of possibilities."

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HELP AT HOME

Advocates say veterans hesitate to seek help because they don't know they qualify or don't feel comfortable asking for help.

Only a third of Alcona County veterans seek services from the county's veteran services offices.

The same holds true in Montmorency County.

In Alpena County, about a quarter of veterans use the county office's services, Stypick said -- and that number concerns him.

In Alpena County, 14% of veterans live in poverty -- twice the state and national rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About 5% of Presque Isle and Montmorency county veterans live below the poverty line, slightly more in Alcona County.

With so many veterans struggling financially, veteran services offices provide crucial connections to everything from pensions for veterans or their surviving spouses to help with fuel for heating costs or even replacing furnaces, depending on the veteran's income. Veterans Affairs also covers car repairs, house repairs, and utility bills, if veterans qualify.

The more than 6,000 veterans who call Northeast Michigan home can also find help accessing home-based care, physical therapy, mental health screening, laboratory services, prescriptions, and other health care needs through local Veterans Affairs offices, according to Dan Perge, veterans service officer for Alpena County.

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But, whether impeded by pride or the belief they don't qualify, veterans don't always ask for health care services, Perge said, though nearly two in five Northeast Michigan veterans report a service-related disability, higher than the national and state rate of about 30%.

In Montmorency County, nearly half of veterans report a disability, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Alpena VA clinic, which serves veterans in all of Northeast Michigan, offers basic care such as general practitioner visits, blood work, rehabilitation services, and hearing tests.

When veterans need more care than they find in Alpena, veterans services officers coordinate transportation to the nearest VA hospital, in Saginaw, and to multiple downstate medical centers -- a difficult task, especially when volunteer drivers are hard to come by, Stypick said.

The state Veterans Administration currently offers medical rides to veterans along the I-75 corridor. The VA hopes to extend such services to the east side of the state, but that help is years away, according to Stypick.

A bill recently introduced by U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, would strengthen telehealth access to veterans, which Bergman called critical in rural areas like Northeast Michigan.

Veterans historically struggle to ask for help, said Stypick, who served in the military 20 years himself.

"That's part of your training," he said. "Shut up, buck up, get your work done."

Such stoicism needn't carry into civilian life, he said.

"Come on in," he said. "Sit and talk and tell us a story, and we'll see what we can do for you."

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'DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO PUT THEM'

Local veterans services offices face some challenges of their own, including limited staff and space.

In his small office at the Alcona County Courthouse, for example, Tony Atkinson, Alcona County veterans service officer, finds little room to speak to veterans in private and has few employees to help him care for the county's 1,325 veterans.

If the county were to hire more employees, "we don't have anywhere to put them," he said.

The county is seeking a larger space for Atkinson's office, and tax money will make that possible soon, he hopes.

In Montmorency County, Mike Burzynski is the sole Veterans Affairs employee.

When he gives veterans rides to out-of-town medical appointments, his office sits empty, with nobody left to help others, he said.

Montmorency County funds its veteran support with a $51,400 Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency grant. The county board is considering levying a 0.1-mill property tax -- about $5 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house -- that could generate about $50,000 per year for Burzynski's office.

Alpena County residents pay a 0.21-mill property tax -- about $10.50 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house -- that raises about $190,200 each year. That millage expires next year.

Presque Isle County takes in about $18,000 per year from a veterans millage. Alcona County residents contribute about $155,300 through a millage for veteran support.

'PATRIOTIC AS THEY'VE EVER BEEN'

Organizations such as Veterans of Foreign Wars offer another form of support for veterans, said Robert Hunt, commander of VFW Post 2356 in Hillman.

But, busy with jobs and families, younger veterans rarely join the VFW, Hunt said.

"I think they're just as patriotic as they've always been," Hunt said. "But, one of the problems, I think, is, back in my time, one income could supply a family. Now, it takes two incomes to even keep them going."

Fewer than 20% of Northeast Michigan veterans are younger than 55, according to census data.

The VFW only accepts combat veterans, but Hunt hopes that will change. For every military member in combat overseas, nine servicemen or servicewomen serve stateside, Hunt said, and, "without that nine, there wouldn't be one on the frontlines."

The VFW's primary goal is to "take care of our veterans in the community, and help anyone who needs help," he said.