Arapahoe County veterans get expanded services

Military veterans in Arapahoe County can receive more services following the recent expansion of the Veteran Services Office in Aurora, such as a weekly alternative pain therapy clinic and a space for mental health practitioners.

The county has two Veteran Services Offices that carry out the federal mandate of helping veterans file their disability claims, one in Littleton and the one in Aurora, but that task isn't all they do, and now the Aurora office can provide "a more holistic kind of approach to our veterans," said Arapahoe County Veteran Services Supervisor Josh Medina, a Marine Corps veteran.

"About five years ago we only had the office in downtown Littleton and there were only two veteran services officers there, the supervisor and one other person," Medina said. "It had the waiting room and a front desk for the admin staff and then two offices."

But with 37,000 veterans in Arapahoe County, it was obvious that the need for services would outstrip the small space available in the Littleton office, and a second office was added in the Arapahoe County Community Resources space in Aurora's Altura Plaza, with a total staffing of six people across the two offices.

And now Community Resources has consolidated its services, creating even more room to serve veterans at the Aurora office in Altura Plaza.

One of the providers stepping up with services in the newly enlarged space is Fort Collins-based Healing Warriors, which provides a weekly alternative pain therapy clinic.

"Once a week we give them a big room here that they can use for non-narcotic pain therapies," Medina said. "So they do craniosacral therapy, healing touch therapy and acupuncture, and they do that in our office every Wednesday."

Craniosacral therapy is a gentle massage technique for the head, neck and back that is used to relieve musculosketal tightness and physical/emotional stress.

A homeless services coordinator works out of the Aurora office at least once a week, and other frequent referrals are to the Colorado Springs-based Home Front Military Network, which connects military and veteran families to resources and emergency financial assistance, and the Denver Regional Council of Governments' Area Agency on Aging. The office's resource hub also has a wall of brochures for referrals that veterans might need.

"We have a veterans assistance grant," Medina said. "That's a state grant, and a lot of organizations get it in the area. … If a veteran says 'I need boots for a new job,' stuff like that, you can give them that."

The office's federally mandated duty to help veterans file disability claims isn't just a dry bureaucratic task. "Ninety percent of the time when someone walks in our office it isn't just a 'My pinky toe's starting to hurt 20 years after service and I decided that I needed to come in here and get it taken care of,'" Medina said. "Although that can be the case, it's usually more of a 'I just got laid off and I don't know what I'm going to do, so I'm looking at things I know may get me more money while I'm trying to find a job' or 'My wife just left me and I need to figure out how I'm going to survive on my own,' things like that. So when they come into our office we don't want to take the approach of 'Well just let me turn in this piece of paper and move on,' but we want to look at that holistic approach" involving referrals and other services.

The office is making arrangements with mental health practitioners to offer services in one of its rooms, and Medina expressed his gratitude to American Furniture Warehouse, which donated all the furniture and wall art for the therapy space.

Greeting veterans as they arrive at the office is a new mural of saluting figures. Medina said the goal of the mural is to "make people feel appreciated and wanted as they're walking down there."

"It's supposed to be representative of community members, not necessarily just veterans but all the people in the community, saluting you," Medina said. "So hopefully people feel seen before they even walk into our office."

The Aurora office of Arapahoe County Veteran Services is located at 15400 E. 14th Place, Suite 501, and the Littleton office is at 1690 W. Littleton Blvd., Suite 110. Services are by appointment only and can be scheduled by calling 303-738-8045. For more information, go online to tinyurl.com/arapahoe-veteran.