Stories | VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care

Every day, registered nurse and Marine Corps Veteran David Shay sees the realities of homelessness firsthand. His patients are the most vulnerable of Veterans and have often experienced extreme trauma through their time in the military or from their life on the streets.

Screening for breast cancer can be scary, and it’s okay to be afraid. Waiting on results can be especially frightening.

Sarah Viboolkitvorakul (left), mammography technologist and Dr. Stephanie Lee-Felker (middle), dedicated breast imaging radiologist, at a breast cancer awareness event with the women’s health team at the West LA VA campus. Candice Williams (right), mammography technologist, reviews images before forwarding to the radiologist for diagnosis.

A howl echoes through the air at Lockwood Animal Rescue Center (LARC) as a group of Veterans gathers around the enclosure of a wolf who’s been rescued from troublesome circumstances.

(Left) Marine Corps Veteran Jared “Red” Velasco meets a rescued horse at the Lockwood Animal Rescue Center (LARC), a sanctuary where Veterans can interact with enclosed wolves, horses, raccoons, coyotes and more as part of their Recreation Therapy. (Right) Wolfdog Huey is another rescue that lives at the LARC and engages with Veteran visitors.

Veterans and Veterans Administration employees came together for fun and exercise in the 13th annual National VA2K Walk & Roll at the Wadsworth theater on the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System campus, on May 17 at approximately 11:30 a.m.

The lights in the theater lobby flicker. People file in, chatting and laughing. Soon the lights go off. The theater falls into darkness, silence and anticipation.

Am I going to survive this? Am I going to be able to function as a man?

Virgil Corbin, an Army Veteran and passionate playwright, smiles from ear to ear while watching his fellow Veterans take center stage at the cozy Brentwood School Theater. He is fully immersed in the captivating performance unfolding before him.

She was driving when the familiar feeling hit her: crushing chest pain, dizziness, sweating, a certainty that she was going to die.

Members of the Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (HPACT) have one very important thing in common: a powerful shared commitment to ending Veteran homelessness and ensuring this special population gets the comprehensive care they need and deserve.

The Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team’s (HPACT) Dr. Peter Capone-Newton (left) talks to Veteran John Raposa (right) at Care, Treatment and Rehabilitative Services (CTRS) on the West LA VA Campus. HPACT offers wraparound, integrative care for unhoused Veterans, helping them get healthy and housed.

Want to learn tai chi? Interested in cooking healthier meals? Trying to quit smoking? We have a class for that!

Navy Veteran and Integrative Registered Nurse (RN) Patricia Hasen performs Healing Touch on Army Veteran Harris Johnson during a Whole Health Walk-in Battlefield Acupuncture Clinic for Pain session at Building 220 on the West LA VA campus.