Less than half of Allen County veterans take advantage of available benefits, including health care, furthering their educations, long-term care, survivors’ benefits and pensions.
That gap oftentimes correlates with a veteran’s do-it-yourself mentality, said Sheli Sweeney, director of public affairs for the Kansas Office of Veterans Services.
Veterans are stubbornly independent, she said, sometimes to their own detriment.
They are also a unique clientele.
“Vietnam veterans, for instance, could likely have been exposed to Agent Orange and may have connected health conditions. The VA doctors are going to know that,” said Sweeney. The same goes for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and were exposed to toxins.
Hearing aids, even for young veterans harmed by artillery fire, are a common request.
“We can provide for Bluetooth-compatible hearing aids,” Sweeney said, which typically cost thousands of dollars.
Accessing the right care, is like “applying for worker’s comp,” when injured on the job, Sweeney said. 
Sweeney and William Turner, director of the Office of Veterans Services, were in Iola Monday to promote the office’s services, along with Amanda Furgeson-Ponce, administrative officer for Turner.
Thrive Allen County hosted Sweeney in the afternoon while Turner briefly addressed Iola Council members that evening.
The Office of Veterans Service is a state agency while the Veterans Administration, which oversees Iola’s VA clinic, is under the federal government’s umbrella.
With only 47% of Allen County’s 891 veterans signed up for benefits, Sweeney said the office is on a mission to boost those numbers.
That number represents an “all-across-the-board,” demographic, Sweeney said. “Which is shocking.”
The biggest hurdle?
“Paperwork,” said Furgeson-Ponce.
Many veterans don’t know how or are unwilling to navigate the required forms to access the benefits.
As a military spouse, Furgeson-Ponce knows the military lifestyle.
“I take care of everything on the home front. That’s why I’m my husband’s power of attorney. All he has to do is grab his boots and walk out the door,” knowing she has the necessary paperwork completed in case of an emergency.
“I tell him he needs to make his friends aware of all that’s available, but a lot of them have always had someone else, someone higher up, take care of such things,” she said.
