Welcome to the Family

For many service members, Beth Washburn is the first face and voice they see and hear when they learn about VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (TVHS).

Washburn’s charm and kindness, developed over an 18-year career at VA, assist her in connecting service members who are separating from active duty, both pre- and post-deployment, with vital VA resources. She has used her candor to help thousands of service members as a social worker and Military2VA (M2VA) case manager with TVHS.

“Lots of [service members] come through [M2VA]. We also go back and pick up service members that do not get referred to us when they’re getting out of the military,” she said.

If a service member who exited active duty within the past 10 years has an initial care visit at a VA clinic or medical center, their information is sent to M2VA to contact and orient them with VA health care.

“We give them a call and say, ‘hey, we see that you made contact with VA. Welcome. This is who we are and what we do,’” she said. “We sort of see where they are in their journey with VA, and oftentimes it's the first contact they've ever made.” 

With their unwavering dedication, Washburn and her co-workers at M2VA provide key education to service members from all different military branches and components, generations, and economic lifestyles. Coordinating and contacting service members who have already separated and preparing current service members about to separate soon is a hefty workload, but one they handle with utmost care and professionalism.

“I contact well over 100 [service members] per month,” she said, referring to both groups of current and separated service members.

Another valuable asset to the team is John Page, M2VA transition patient advocate with TVHS. As an Army Ranger and infantry officer with three combat tours in Afghanistan, Page completed the Integrated Disability Evaluation System medical board process and was medically discharged after serving more than 23 years. His personal experience enables him to relate to the challenges faced by separating service members, making him a particularly empathetic and understanding resource.

“I am both a [VA] facilitator and user. I’ve utilized the VA system before working with M2VA. So, I understand some of the frustrations. I know which ones are useful and which ones you have to be patient with,” said Page. 

M2VA is designed to help ease the transition process of service members from their service to enrollment in VA health care. It's a challenging task, especially when working with service members separating in middle Tennessee from Fort Campbell, the National Guard, Reserves, National Guard/Reserves, and other states.

“About 300 to 400 service members [Expiration – Term of Service] from Fort Campbell per month, but that's only one part,” said Page. “Everybody across the DoD, from all of the services, coming to live in middle Tennessee after they separate from medical boards or retire, are referred to our VA liaisons. We get notified, and they are referred to our case management.”

Five M2VA case managers and one polytrauma case manager are spread geographically across middle Tennessee to help support the needs of service members separating from their service. These case managers support the local community by making presentations to retirement briefings, soldier readiness process, yellow ribbon deployment and redeployment events, and more. Each meeting is vital for the service members to understand what benefits they will be eligible for when they separate from their service. The true benefit of these meetings is that these service members have an M2VA point of contact for their questions and concerns.

However, Page, Washburn, and the other case managers, do not stop supporting these service members after the events. They continue to provide assistance and guidance, ensuring that the service members are not left to navigate the system on their own.

“We case manage them for a minimum of 90 days. Our case managers have a system to help service members register and start the appointment process. We help them learn how to utilize the tools that the VA has,” said Page.

One of the hardest groups of service members to reach is those that choose not to visit a VA. Washburn said that some service members separating from the service do not believe they need the benefits or they might take VA health care from other service members who need it more.

“We do hear from service members coming into Veteran status that they do not want to take up space,” said Washburn. “I always try to make sure that they understand the perspective that they earned these benefits. Come and let us help you – and welcome to the family.”