{"id":307992,"date":"2019-09-16T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T20:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=307992"},"modified":"2019-09-16T06:00:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T20:00:56","slug":"working-to-improve-services-for-cnmi-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/working-to-improve-services-for-cnmi-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Working to improve services for CNMI veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_307994\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-307994\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/CNMI-VA-HI-VA-1.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-307994\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CNMI Veterans Affairs executive officer Stanley T. Iakopo, center, meets with, left to right, Tri-West Pacific regional director Karl Kiyokawa;\u00a0VA Pacific Islands Health Care System director Jennifer Gutowski;\u00a0VA Honolulu regional office director Sergio Chao;\u00a0VA Honolulu regional office program analyst Aiko Shibuya; and\u00a0executive assistant to VA director\/facility strategic planner Craig Oswald. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The CNMI Office of Veterans Affairs recently met with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials in Honolulu to discuss collaborations on improving health care services for veterans, service members, reservists, and their families on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to CNMI VA executive officer Stanley T. Iakopo, the meeting with the Honolulu VA officials was a\u00a0productive one that underscored the unique needs of CNMI veterans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Gov. Torres and Lt. Gov. Palacios\u2019 leadership, the CNMI\u00a0Office of Veterans\u00a0Affairs is committed to providing veterans and their families the support that\u2019s long overdue. They have earned and\u00a0deserve quality care and benefits through their service to our\u00a0country.\u00a0Over the last several months, we have been\u00a0continuously seeking\u00a0better access and services through partnerships with our Honolulu partners. These meetings are significant because our administration is looking to establish a closer and consistent dialogue with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs directly so that our local veterans are heard. It is imperative that we continue to listen and learn directly from\u00a0our veterans,\u201d Iakopo said.<\/p>\n<p>Iakopo also said that they talked about having health\u00a0care professionals\u00a0visit the CNMI more regularly to treat\u00a0CNMI\u00a0veterans,\u00a0service members, and their families. Future visits by these health care professionals will be provided at a later date. He reiterated the CNMI\u2019s request for assistance with\u00a0Veterans ID Cards, especially for veterans on Tinian and Rota.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also requested that visiting\u00a0health care professionals must be aware of\u00a0the\u00a0patient\u2019s military history and be able to recognize suicide-risk factors, regardless of age. Health care professionals must be able to address physical safety concerns and emotional health of veterans,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cContinued and consistent dialogue with our federal partners is important, but even more so for our veterans who have expressed their concerns with our VA office,\u201d said Gov. Ralph DLG Torres. \u201cThe goal is for consistent dialogue, and we took great steps this last year to really make sure our CNMI veterans get the services they deserve.\u201d <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CNMI Office of Veterans Affairs recently met with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":307994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,55,1164,10200],"class_list":["post-307992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-health-2","tag-va","tag-veterans-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}