u/HMR2018

Spoke to a veteran trying to pursue adaptive sports for his health, was a competetive road cyclist pre military service, serious limits on what he can do now due to injuries/disabilities but has been to a few adaptive sports clinics for cycling and has had a lot of success with a recumbent trike/bike. Was told several times at these clinics that the VA can provide him access to a decent recumbent trike style cycle and he needed to speak to his primary care team to get a referel to the Recreation & Rehabilitation program where they could help him access this. Veteran contacted primary care doctor who said "I dont know anything about that program" but instead of trying to help find out if this is a thing or how to get veteran involvdd offered "a fitness coach" knowing the veteran has serious limits to traditional exercise due to injuries. Is there any other direction the veteran can turn for these programs as the primary care doctor seems sort of indifferent to his request?

While it's believed that around 4 in 10 veterans have clearly service-connected disabilities/injuries/illnesses only around 3 in 10 ever file for benefits and even less in some states like here in Michigan where its closer to 2 in 10. If this applies to you what's kept you from filing for benefits?

We've heard here in our county that our office hours aren't conducive to working veterans, so we are looking at expanding our office hours to some weekends. We've heard that we are too busy to answer the phone (which some days is very true), so we added an administrative clerk so we are able to take as many calls as possible, so people are being heard and someone is contacting them when voice mails are left.

What can State/County VSOs do to assist you better in your pursuit of VA benefits? I'd love to know and I suspect it's something other VSOs may be trying to figure out.