Director's Veteran Message October 31, 2025

Whether you live in the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, or anywhere across the Pacific region, we are here for you. I appreciate you and am grateful for the trust you place in the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System (VAPIHCS).

Maui Veterans Town Hall & PACT Act Community Call

We invite all Veterans in Maui to join us on Tuesday, November 4th, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. 395 Waena St, at the Velma McWayne Santos Community Center in Wailuku for our Maui Veterans Town Hall and PACT Act Community Call event. This is an opportunity to take care of important needs in one place — including VA ID cards, PACT Act enrollment, health care registration, health screenings, flu vaccinations, and beneficiary travel assistance. From 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., our Executive Leadership Team will be available to speak directly with you, listen to your questions, and hear your experiences. Your voice matters, and we hope to see you there.

2nd Annual TOA Games – American Samoa

We are excited to share that the 2nd Annual TOA Challenge Veteran Games will take place next week, November 5th through 7th, in American Samoa. Our Center for Development and Civic Engagement (CDCE), in collaboration with the American Samoa Office of Veterans Affairs, offers an opportunity for Veterans to come together for camaraderie, connection, and recreation. Activities will include golf, billiards, table tennis, pickleball, cornhole, chess, and checkers. These games support recreational therapy and rehabilitation while also promoting mental health, suicide prevention, and a strong sense of community. We look forward to another great year of fellowship and fun.

Survey Spotlight – How you help VA Improve   

This week, I want to continue to focus on access to care. We understand that the VA is not perfect, but improving access to care is a priority because it is essential to ensure that every Veteran receives the timely and efficient medical attention they deserve. One key question from our SHEP survey asks: "When you needed care right away, how often were you able to make an appointment as soon as you needed it?"

We know that when a Veteran reaches out for care, it signifies that something important is happening with their health, and they are placing their trust in the VA to respond. Your feedback on our surveys is invaluable as it helps the VA see how well we meet your needs and where we can do better.

Our aim is for every Veteran to feel confident in saying, "Yes, I got in when I needed to." We are actively working across all our clinics and services to make accessing care smoother and more reliable.

We deeply value your time, your health, and your peace of mind, and we are committed to using your feedback to improve and address any shortcomings we may have. Thank you for helping us strive to be better.

Thoughts from Chaplain Richie Charles

It’s been said, “A person who wants to lead the orchestra, must first turn their back on the crowd.” The imagery behind this quote pictures a conductor standing on stage before a vast audience. With so many people gathered, there are just as many opinions. Every note the orchestra plays will be judged by someone in the audience. Each rise and fall of the melody will be weighed, every missed beat magnified, and every imperfection dissected. By the end of the performance, each person will walk away with their own impression of how it all went. The conductor, of course, wants the audience to be pleased. But if he tries to lead the orchestra while constantly turning around to read the audience’s expressions, he’ll lose focus and direction. Ironically, the only way he can truly please the audience is by turning his back to them, so he can give his full attention to the music he was called to create. While it’s often true that we must sometimes tune out external critics if we want to achieve new heights and accomplish new feats, I’ve learned that the loudest and most persistent critic is often not the one in the crowd. It’s the voice within — the voice of self-doubt.

Self-doubt whispers when no one else is speaking. It questions our abilities, minimizes our accomplishments, and can even magnify our mistakes. Self-doubt causes us to endlessly second-guess ourselves, preventing us from ever taking action and bringing our ideas into reality. Yet throughout history, many of those who were able to make great strides and advancements were not free from fear and internal apprehension. They were plagued with inner conflicts of both vision and fear, desire and doubt – but they moved forward in spite of the inner whirlwind of emotions. The reality is the novel idea may never seem perfect enough, you may never feel completely ready, and the timing may never feel just right – but the key is to recognize when conditions are good enough, and to simply move forward.

So, the next time self-doubt whispers, recognize it for what it is, but like the conductor, keep your eyes focused ahead so you can produce the “music” you were uniquely called to create.

One Team, One Ohana!

Thandiwe Nelson-Brooks, MPH, FACHE 

Interim Medical Center Director

VA Pacific Islands Health Care System