The Birmingham Vet Center is working with University of Alabama veterans groups to provide services and support to student and local veterans.
“We are providing readjustment counseling to combat veterans,” said Natalie Williams, a counselor at the Vet Center.
Counseling is available to veterans every Friday and by appointment at Canterbury Chapel, located at 812 5th Ave in Tuscaloosa. Services include individual and group counseling, as well as family therapy.
Jo Pryce is an associate professor at the school of social work and faculty adviser to the Campus Veterans Association. She has been prominent in coordinating a location for the counseling services following a request from the program’s team leader, Alicia Stanton. Pryce’s husband, David, is a Vietnam veteran.
“I had become aware that we had students who would benefit from vet center outreach,” Jo Pryce said. “I called [Stanton] up, she was looking for a place and [Canterbury Chapel] was willing to do it. The Vet Center is one of the legacies of the Vietnam War, and it is hugely successful. Part of it is that the centers have counselors who themselves are combat veterans.
“My husband benefitted greatly by the Vet Center. I think they’re wonderful, and I think other universities and colleges should welcome them because they are good at outreach.”
The Vet Center is only beginning the process of being more visible on campus.
“We are in the process of establishing a memorandum of understanding with the University so they are aware that we are here and to make sure we are visible on campus to be able to provide services for veterans,” Williams said.
Williams said she has been meeting with different departments on campus such as the Women’s Resource Center and the Counseling Center.
The University’s Campus Veterans Association president, Will Suclupe, said it is beneficial and a great thing for the Birmingham Vet Center to visit Tuscaloosa.
“The way the CVA has been involved is by supporting Natalie and the Veterans Center and getting the word out,” Suclupe said. “I think it’s a great benefit that they’re coming out here and I appreciate them for doing that because it allows student veterans not to have to go all the way to medical center, and if they don’t want it documented in their medical records it’s beneficial if they have the fear or the stigma of getting treatment.”
Like Pryce, Suclupe said it’s great for veterans not to have to document receiving services.
“What I like about it is that it’s really not affiliated with the VA in a sense that you have to get documentation,” he said. “It’s something that’s more like undocumented in your medical records so therefore people have that less mental health stigma of getting help.”
“They’re records are completely confidential—that is extremely important. The veteran is the only person who can give them permission to let them share their records with anybody else,” Pryce said.
Vet Centers are a part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and are located across the nation providing community based services. As stated on the Vet Center website, vetcenter.va.gov, “the goal of the Vet Center program is to provide a broad range of counseling, outreach, and referral services to eligible veterans in order to help them make a satisfying post-war readjustment to civilian life.”
For more information on these services contact Williams at 205-212-3122 or Pryce at 205-348-5405.
