Q5: VA values its commitment to women veterans

By Rimsie McConiga

Stacey Askew is the executive assistant to the director for VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System. In this Quick 5 interview she discusses the VA Women’s Health Clinic in Leavenworth.

1. Why was it important to the VA to open the Women’s Health Clinic in Leavenworth and how has the facility helped women veterans over the last year?

VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System has seen an almost doubling of our Women Veterans population in the last 10 years from a little over 1,600 in fiscal year 2005 to almost 3,200 in FY 2015. To meet the needs of our growing women veteran population at our Leavenworth VAMC and catchment area, it was important to us to build a center dedicated to caring for women to assure that they get comprehensive care to meet their needs.

The goal of the center was to create a safe, comfortable and inviting environment for our women veterans, and to staff it with providers trained in caring for women to address both their general and unique gender specific health care concerns. Since opening the new Women’s Health Center in September of 2014 over 625 individual Women Veterans have been assigned to our comprehensive primary care provider and received care.

Additional services for women provided within the center include gynecology care, mental health individual and group appointments, social work services, and additional programing and groups just for women including yoga.

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