Staff Writer
In every city and town there are veterans. Those who served in campaigns many years ago and those who only recently returned from a military theatre. These men and women served to protect the freedom of this country, they did so unselfishly and without question but not without concern.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Terry Moore, a member of the Maine Advisory Commission on Women Veterans, inspects a digital picture frame displaying female military personnel from wars, both present and past. The picture frame was just one of many items donated to the VA Clinic in Caribou, by members of the Maine State Grange, Junior Department. Other products delivered by Moore and Sylvia Morrill, pictured in back, member of the Women Veterans of America Maine Chapter 23 in Cannan, included a variety of toiletries, baskets, and a mirror; all placed in the women’s examination rooms at the clinic. With Moore and Morrill is Gary Michaud, R.N. at the VA Clinic.
Upon returning some of these veterans from battle eras past and days present find themselves in need of medical care, some in a routine way that most of us do, others facing more pronounced needs and often times without the realization that medical care is available or in many cases, unsure of the route that must be taken in order to receive this medical attention they have earned.
We frequently hear of purchases made by medical facilities to improve the healthcare of their patients but seldom do we come to understand that in the small VA Clinics around the country even the small things are hard to come by — the simplest of things — such as a privacy curtain.
Over the next two weeks in the Aroostook Republican, a continuing article will attempt to explain how the VA Clinic in Caribou has grown from one very small room to its current location, examine the needs and concerns of staff members, veterans and those who work closely with the Maine Advisory Commission on Women Veterans as well as give insight to the day-to-day needs of this type of facility and the simple items that often are missing.
