Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon has backed the call from local veterans for face-to-face services to resume at the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) office in Newcastle\u2019s CBD.
\nThe DVA Veterans Access Network (VAN) office was closed in March last year in response to COVID-19 and still hasn\u2019t reopened its doors to the public.
\nMs Claydon said she was contacted by tireless veterans\u2019 advocate and DVA-sponsored volunteer, Gerry Bailey, about the impact the ongoing closure was having on veterans and their families.
\n\u201cMr Bailey has let me know about the distress that local veterans and their families have experienced at not being able to access this office during this exceptionally difficult time,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cHe has also told me that the ongoing closure has led to anxiety in the veterans\u2019 community that these important services may be suspended indefinitely.
\n\u201cMany veterans rely on this drop-in service, especially those with physical, mental or social issues or disabilities which make face-to-face service delivery the most appropriate and comfortable form of contact for them.
\n\u201cIndeed, the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) own website says the Veteran Access Network and Veteran Support Officers (VSOs) are two of its most important access points for clients.\u201d
\nMs Claydon said she believed the office could open in a COVID-safe way.
\n\u201cThe\u00a0Newcastle\u00a0Open Arms\u00a0Veterans and Families\u00a0Counselling\u00a0office, which shares a back-office space with the VAN Office, returned to normal face-to-face services many months ago. Similarly, the NDIS offices, along with my own, are located only\u00a0metres\u00a0away and we both resumed\u00a0walk-in constituent services many months ago.
\n\u201cI understand the need to exercise caution, but this mustn\u2019t be at the expense of access or service quality.\u201d
\nMs Claydon said wrote to the Minister after being told by the Department that there was no timeline for the reopening of the office.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve asked the Minister to put in place a firm plan for the imminent reopening the Newcastle DVA drop-in service,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve also asked him for his assurance that there is no plan to permanently close the Newcastle VAN office, change staffing arrangements or suspend services indefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon has backed the call from local veterans for face-to-face services to resume at the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) office in Newcastle\u2019s CBD. The DVA Veterans Access Network (VAN) office was closed in March last year in response to COVID-19 and still hasn\u2019t reopened its doors to the public. … Continue reading “CALL FOR NEWCASTLE VETERANS\u2019 OFFICE TO REOPEN TO THE PUBLIC”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}