VA Announces Plan for New Counseling Resources in Northern New Jersey, Expanding Access to Care for New Jersey Veterans

WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced the plan to add a new Vet Center Outstation to expand access to care in the communities focused on Warren and Morris Counties. This new Vet Center Outstation will be in Hackettstown, New Jersey, with the exact opening date and location to be determined. In addition to the creation of this Vet Center Outstation, VA will soon add a Vet Center Community Access Point, or satellite location, in Morristown, NJ.

Vet Centers are community-based counseling centers that provide a wide range of social and psychological services, including no-cost professional counseling to eligible Veterans, service members, and their families. Services include counseling for needs such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and the psychological effects of military sexual trauma. Vet Centers also provide referrals to connect Veterans with their VA health care or benefits. In Fiscal Year 2023, more than 115,000 Veterans, service members, and their families received counseling at VA’s 300+ Vet Centers nationwide.

Vet Center counselors and outreach staff, many of whom are Veterans themselves, are experienced and prepared to discuss the tragedies of war, loss, grief, and transition after trauma. Vet Center teams proactively work in the community, reducing barriers to care and improving access to care.

“Vet Centers provide Veterans with high-quality counseling, community engagement, and referral services in nearby and comfortable environments,” said VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D, who announced this at an event today. “Expanding this program throughout Northern New Jersey reaffirms our commitment to meeting Veterans, service members, and their families where they are and improving the overall mental health and wellbeing of those who served.”

VA also recently approved the Vineland (NJ) Vet Center Outstation which is in the leasing phase with the anticipated opening date to be announced. Four Vet Centers are located in New Jersey; Bloomfield, Egg Harbor Township (South Jersey), Ewing (Trenton), Lakewood, and Secaucus.

Vet Center Outstations are locations where at least one Vet Center counselor is permanently assigned to provide full-time services in a community distant from a Vet Center. Vet Center Outstations are established in leased space as an adjunct to an existing Vet Center. The Hackettstown Vet Center Outstation will be administered by the Bloomfield (NJ) Vet Center. These locations are generally staffed with a minimum of one to two Vet Center counselors providing services in a 40-hour work week and are designed to increase access to services by taking the Vet Center services to the communities where Veterans, service members, and their families live.

A Vet Center Community Access Point (CAP) or satellite location is typically located in donated space established in conjunction with a community organization to provide readjustment counseling services to eligible Veterans, service members, and their families. These may be staffed from one day per month up to several times per week depending on demand.

###