By AMY ADAMS
news@readthereporter.com
Though women have served since the American Revolution, it wasn’t until 1923 that the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the predecessor to the VA, first approved hospital space for women veterans. Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Administration Medical Center commemorated this milestone last Thursday, Sept. 14, celebrating 100 years to the day of health care for women veterans.
Westfield furniture maker Roy Adams, retired Army lieutenant colonel and director of the nonprofit Chairs of Honor, presented a rocking chair handcrafted from Indiana hardwoods.
“Chairs of Honor exists for two reasons,” Adams said. “It exists to preserve the art of chairmaking. But, more importantly, it exists to preserve the stories of veterans.”
Presented to the Women Veteran Program in commemoration of 100 years of VA health care for women, this rocking chair was handcrafted from Indiana sycamore and white oak by craftsman Roy Adams of Chairs of Honor. (Reporter photo by Amy Adams)
With craftsmen in Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Colorado, and Maine, Chairs of Honor craftsmen build and present individually funded chairs to veterans, record their personal stories of service, and attach video digitally to the chairs for families and for future generations.
“This chair is different,” Adams said. “It represents a history. There are stories upon stories in this gathering today. I encourage you to sit down, hold up your phone, and share your story with us so that your stories will not be lost.”
The rocking chair will be on display in the atrium of the VA medical center for women veterans to do just that.
“As a woman veteran and as an advocate, I see that chair as representative of how women are being given a seat at the table,” said Lisa Wilken, an Air Force veteran from Westfield and a board member of Indiana Veterans Support Council.
Roudebush VA Medical Center Director Michael Hershman spoke at the ceremony about the history of women’s healthcare in the military. Despite progress, it wasn’t until 1992 that gender-specific services such as pap smears, breast exams, and birth control became available through the VA. The National Maternity Care Coordination Program was not established within the VA until 2012.
Two years ago, Dr. Christie Lodics was selected to fill the role of Women Veteran Program Manager in Indianapolis.
“In two years, we have taken it from a single role to an entire department with four employees, and we are about to hire another,” Lodics said.
VA employee Kiyaana Anderson shared her perspective as a women veteran choosing to receive health care from the VA. (Reporter photo by Amy Adams)
Now, the VA in Indianapolis has a fully staffed gynecological clinic offering reproductive health care services for women veterans including contraception, maternity care, and fertility treatment. The clinic has a separate waiting room, providing a feeling of security for women with PTSD and MST (Military Sexual Trauma). The medical center has streamlined the process for pap smears and mammograms and even has plans to open an after-hours clinic once a month. In addition to these services, the Women Veteran Program has hosted 52 outreach events to make women veterans aware of the benefits available to them, such as no-cost childbirth. Now other VA facilities are looking to replicate what Lodics and her staff are doing here.
Sheila Corcoran, the first female Commander of the Indiana Department of Veterans of Foreign Wars, served as guest speaker for the event.
Sheila Corcoran, first female Commander of the Indiana VFW, spoke at the ceremony last Thursday. (Reporter photo by Amy Adams)
Corcoran compared how she felt coming home from deployment in Iraq to how a lot of people felt during the COVID-19 shut down.
“The VA really helped me get over my isolation and anger as did the VFW,” she said.
Corcoran retired from the Army Reserve after 24 years of service and has been receiving the majority of her health care from the VA for about 15 years.
“When I first started, you hardly saw any female patients here,” Corcoran said. “Now there is an entire female clinic.”
Kiyaana Anderson, an Air Force veteran and VA employee, talked about how women veterans have paved the way for the improvements she has seen in women’s care at the VA over the past few years and encouraged other women to speak up.
“As female veterans, we have to come to the table with solutions,” Anderson said. “So share your story, good, bad, or indifferent.”
Over 33,000 women veterans reside in Indiana. Yet many concur that they often don’t receive the recognition they deserve. The next time you see a woman get out of a vehicle with a veteran sticker, don’t be too quick to assume she is the spouse of a veteran and offer her the honor she deserves.
For appointments at Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, call (317) 554-0000. If you have questions about the VHA Women Veteran Program, reach out to Dr. Christie Lodics at Christie.Lodics@va.gov or call her at (317) 459-0521.
To learn more about Chairs of Honor, visit ChairsOfHonor.com and follow on Facebook and Instagram @chairsofhonor.
One event guest commented that the striations in the sycamore of the chair seat represent the beauty that can come from challenges in the lives of women veterans. (Reporter photo by Amy Adams)