So I'm sitting at the VA Clinic in Lafayette (1 Viewer)

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I'm at the VA clinic sitting in the waiting room for my FIL to get some blood work done. I'm not sure how I feel right now. Honored to be among so many veterans but saddened by their condition. Most of them are elderly. Many can barely walk and many have lost their mind long ago.

They do seem to be treated nicely here and it is a decent facility. They spend very little time in the waiting room which is very clean. Hopefully this is representative of most of the VA facilities but from some of the stories I have read, it is not.

I love some of these outfits some are wearing. Remind me to let my kids pick out my clothes when I get old.


I would like to walk around and shake the hand of everyone here but that would be awkward I guess.


Oh, and the coffee is not bad.
 
I was given the privilege of being allowed to sit and listen to a group of WWII Marine Veterans reminiscing one day. All I can say is that it is one of the experiences in my life I will never forget. God bless them all.
 
I work at the the VA facility in Wichita and Ive been to the one in San Antonio. Both are well maintained and clean. I really think in the past 10 years the VA has really put an emphasis on upgrading their image.
 
I'm at the VA clinic sitting in the waiting room for my FIL to get some blood work done. I'm not sure how I feel right now. Honored to be among so many veterans but saddened by their condition. Most of them are elderly. Many can barely walk and many have lost their mind long ago.

They do seem to be treated nicely here and it is a decent facility. They spend very little time in the waiting room which is very clean. Hopefully this is representative of most of the VA facilities but from some of the stories I have read, it is not.

I love some of these outfits some are wearing. Remind me to let my kids pick out my clothes when I get old.


I would like to walk around and shake the hand of everyone here but that would be awkward I guess.


Oh, and the coffee is not bad.
The VA has cleaned up its act in the last decade or so.

My grandfather had a massive stroke and no medical insurance because we had no money to have any and he worked as a day laborer. He was a WWII vet so only option was the VA. But this was in the late 80s.

The VA was a travesty back then.

I know. I was there as a child and went back with him repeatedly through the years so I saw it all first hand. Poor facilities, poor care, lying in excement for hours. We often had to do the work the nurse should do because we couldn't find one -- and if you didn't have family to pick up the slack for you, you were screwed.

Those days is why the bad rep got established.

There was a movie made about it: Article 99 with Ray Liotta.
 
I work at the the VA facility in Wichita and Ive been to the one in San Antonio. Both are well maintained and clean. I really think in the past 10 years the VA has really put an emphasis on upgrading their image.
The trick will be, should they wrap these wars up ever, to keep the standards up going forward.

I think it's no coincidence that they cleaned everything up in the last 10 years during Iraq and Afghansitan, because politically you can imagine what families would start to say if they had to go to the old VA to get care for their wounded.

Priorities. It shouldn't be allowed to slip when there isn't active combat going on.
 
sounds a lot better than Lafayette's VD Clinic
 
When I am around my FIL (Marine) and his war buddies (He fought Vietnam)... all they talk about is how crappy the government is LOL
 

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