Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette 3 service providers were present at Vet Fest this year to bring attention to a diverse set of services veterans may or may not know are at their disposal.

HOUGHTON — Vet Fest 20205 was held at Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex Wednesday afternoon to make veterans aware of assistance opportunities and to inform them of their eligibility of other services. The event featured more than 70 service providers with a diversity of services veterans could speak with representatives from each group to learn about.

Among the participants were Honor Flight, the Veterans Health Administration and Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. The U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service provided lifetime access passes for veterans to federal lands including National Parks.

Now in its third year, Joe Battisfore of the Houghton County Veterans Service Office, said the event allows access to information that can greatly benefit veterans. “The most important thing is you don’t know what you don’t know,” Battisfore said. “So we have a lot of veterans that do tend to disqualify themselves and say, ‘You know what, I didn’t serve in this place for this time,’ or ‘I was only in reserve component.’ Well, there’s lots of different programs and lots of different rules. Let us talk to you. Let’s see what we can do for you. If you’ve been turned down before, it’s good to check back every every couple of years, because laws and rules change and we might be able to do something different now.”

Battisfore said it is not only important for veterans to check in on potential benefits, but benefits for their survivors as well. He said as a public servant it is his job to connect veterans with their benefits and Vet Fest provides maximum outreach.

The Oscar G Johnson VA Medical Center from Iron Mountain was among the participants. The medical center’s Public Affairs Officer Timothy Ellison was there to provide veterans with information they requested regarding hospital services.

“The VA has a pretty comprehensive healthcare system,” Ellison said. “We’ve got Optometry [which] a lot of people don’t realize, we have a full line of orthopedic prosthetic items and many other prosthetic items that are absolutely free of charge. There’s no co pay for prosthetic items. There’s no co pay for eyeglasses. There’s no copays for CPAP machines, stuff like that.”

Ellison said the hospital also has a health suite which offers chiropratic services, massage, acupuncture, Tai Chi and yoga. Tai Chi and yoga classes are always full and are very popular according to Ellison. He said another benefit people are not aware of is travel pay.

“If vets are 30 percent service connect or more, they can actually get paid 41.5 cents per mile to their appointments. They do have to make sure that they bring proof that they went to the appointment. If it’s not at a VA facility and we’re paying for on the community, we have to get proof from them. But other than that, it’s a solid benefit,” Ellison said.

Ellison explained the VA can pay for emergency room care for vets out in the community, but with one stipulation. The veteran has to be enrolled and they have to call the 72 hour notification line. This will also give the veteran’s primary care doctors a heads up that the veteran was in an emergency room and to aid in follow up afterward.

Ellison said transportation services to the Iron Mountain facility exist. If a veteran has a significant medical need, transportation companies will be hired. Resources are also available to those who are wheelchair bound or need oxygen. The hospital is also partnered with the Disabled American Veterans organization and other volunteers that run from every single clinic the VA has to the main facility. A bus is also run from Iron Mountain to Milwaukee twice a week for higher levels of care, free of charge.

“This is our 75th anniversary. So Iron Mountain’s been a hospital for 75 years. We’re really proud of the fact that it doesn’t look like it’s 75 years old, but we are running events periodically throughout the year to kind of celebrate that opened in 1950,” Ellison said.

Another service at Vet Fest was Smiles on Wheels, a nonprofit organization based out of Jackson, MI which goes to schools and senior centers to provide cleanings, sealants and fluoride for children and seniors. Smiles on Wheels was at Vet Fest for the first time and gave out toothbrushes, toothpaste and oral screening assessments. Brandi Roundau of Smiles on Wheels said the group was present to answer questions on oral health and to refer them to services if they were to have abscesses.

Upper Great Lakes Family Health (UGLFH) also addressed oral health. Jamie Goff is a dental hygienist with UGLFH and was giving veterans free oral cancer screenings. She said veterans have difficulty going to the dentist at times, and the screenings are a normal part of a dental appointment. Goff said the mobile dental hygienic center was a way to provide the screenings for those who have not seen a dentist in some time. “It’s a great opportunity to be able to connect with this population that might not have access to care,” Goff said.

The Upper Peninsula Commission for Area Progress (UPCAP) Veterans Program Manager Frank Lombard said UPCAP was present to inform veterans of the services the organization provides. UPCAP has assisted with food security since COVID, and Lombard said surveys sent out found gaps in services with home repair and dental being the biggest ones. Lombard explained dental care through the VA is a large issue within the veteran community because its coverage is not applicable unless a veteran has 100 percent service connected disabled.

“We were going to make an advocacy push using the data we collected from our oral health surveys and feedback from those forums to provide to legislators policy makers, to display for them what the challenges are within our region and ask for their help in trying to solve those problems,” Lombard said.

Lombard shared stories regarding veterans and their dental health, with several saying some veterans have not been to the dentist in over 10 years, with abscessed teeth and worse. “We’ve even had reports of numerous veterans saying they’ve had to pull their own teeth during or after military service because they couldn’t get into a dentist in time,” Lombard said.

He said the problem is a shortage of dentists and oral hygienists nationwide and some have backed out of participation in network dental services.

“They don’t participate with insurance anymore. So veterans and civilians will go to the dentist. They’ll be told, ‘You have to pay up front out of pocket, 100 percent then after we provide your care, you can submit to your dental plan and try to get reimbursed.’ And some veterans just don’t bother with insurance in the first place, and by the time they get to the dentist, they’re being told, ‘Hey, to pull all your teeth and get you dentures it’s gonna be 10 grand, and they don’t have that money.”

Lombard said UPCAP wants to analyze what the issues are, the root causes and then try to figure out what solutions can be found. UPCAP has applied for grants to try to help some veterans, but Lombard said it cannot cover every veteran’s needs.