National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
Veteran Sponsor Partnership Network
Veterans helping Veterans: That’s what the Veteran Peer Access Network is all about
Army Veteran Jim Zenner said he confronted a mental health issue after returning from service in Iraq.
“I was speaking to my dad the first Christmas after I got back,” Mr. Zenner explained. “I said, ‘Why am I watching my kids open presents and I feel absolutely nothing?’”
Mr. Zenner’s father, shortly before he passed away, asked his son to get him the name of the head psychiatrist at Madigan Army Hospital, so he could connect that person to the head psychiatrist at the local VA Puget Sound Health Care System.
“He said, ‘Us Vietnam Veterans just want you guys to have it better than we had,’” Mr. Zenner continued.
Mr. Zenner realizes his father’s wish in his role as the mental health program manager of the Veteran Peer Access Network (VPAN) at the LA County Department of Mental Health in Los Angeles, California.
VPAN is a community-driven support network serving Veterans and their families. Veterans act as “peer sponsors” who help connect those transitioning from military service to civilian life to the services they need. VPAN’s network includes support for mental health, substance use, housing, and employment.
“The peer sponsors are really about making a personal connection,” Mr. Zenner said. “It’s not transactional or mechanical. Peer sponsors just talk about their own military experience, their own transition experience.”
One of the goals of the program is to help Veterans get connected to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). That’s a major “protective factor” for Veterans in their first year transitioning out of service, Mr. Zenner said.
“For me personally, who got help from VA and sought mental health care from VA, VA really knows what they’re doing,” he explained. “VA clinicians are trained experts in serving Veterans. You just can’t get that level of care outside the VA network.”
VPAN is also working with VA through an initiative called the Veteran Sponsor Partnership Network (VSPN), which facilitates non-monetary partnerships between the 18 VA regions of care in the United States (known as Veteran Integrated Services Networks [VISNs]) and community partners so that both parties can better support transitioning service members, Veterans, and their families. The Veterans Health Administration’s National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships (HAP) facilitates VSPN.
Mr. Zenner also explained that VPAN collaborates with the Expiration Term of Service Sponsorship Program (ETS-SP), which matches transitioning service members with sponsors in their community. This collaboration will help programs like VPAN go even further for Veterans and service members.
This collaboration, Mr. Zenner said, “is about human beings volunteering to make sure that a transitioning service member is set up for success in their own community,” he said.
It’s also about prevention: “We’re the homeless capital of the country in LA County,” Mr. Zenner said. “A lot of that can be prevented if people are connected upstream. Veterans also disproportionately die by suicide in LA Country.” He said that the relationship with ETS-SP can help the community get in front of these issues.
“On a personal level, working with ETS-SP is a way for me to honor my dad and all his fellow service members who endured an incredible amount of suffering,” Mr. Zenner continued.
For more information on VPAN, please visit: dmh.lacounty.gov/veterans/.
For more information on HAP’s initiatives and partnerships, please visit: va.gov/HEALTHPARTNERSHIPS/updates.asp.
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Posted August 06, 2021
