The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“The data shows that we’re taking care of our people”
[ By Katherine Nettles ]
While armed services veteran population numbers appear to be decreasing within Gunnison County, the rural services and support systems available to them appear to be improving in recent years. Officials are hoping to make increasing resources more appealing for those who have served and return or migrate to the valley—and help them feel they can stay here and thrive for the long term.
Gunnison County Veterans’ Services officer Stephen Otero met with county commissioners this week to discuss veteran services and how they have changed in the past few years since Otero took the role on in 2017.
According to federal data, in 2016 the Gunnison County veteran population was 826. Three years later that population was 759, and yet the total expenditures in federal dollars brought into the community relating to those citizens went up by $796,000.
“Even though my case count as a whole is lower, we as a team have been able to deliver more services to the valley,” said Otero. “This illustrates how our efforts on the ground can alter the dollars being brought in and help our economy in general.”
Services include retirement and disability benefits; education support; medical care; and care related to what Otero refers to as “unique patients” who need specialized mental health or physical health care. A new program has brought in a monthly mobile medical unit, which provides everything—mental health care, physical health care and even prescription filling. That has been very successful, Otero said.
The largest number of referrals Otero said he gets for veterans come from the county’s health and human services, and the second largest number comes from the Adaptive Sports Center. The relationship to Adaptive may help to grow and better support the population even more, said Otero.
The recently passed Veteran’s Compact Act contains an initiative related to rural recreational and therapeutic opportunities as well as educational opportunities and research potential. The new law will create a task force to study outdoor therapeutic opportunities for military veterans to design and then design and leverage public lands for those specific uses.
“Seeing that Gunnison County houses one of the oldest adaptive therapeutic outdoor institutions in the nation we are, I dare say, at the tip of the spear for potential action and potential data sharing to these federal agencies. I know Adaptive is involved in collecting some of their own data and they have been for a while,” said Otero.
He estimated that last year, Adaptive hosted around 6,000 individual lessons. “If we could even capture 20 percent of those persons within our research study, we’d have some really valuable data to share with these agencies, and show them that these tactics work,” said Otero.
That in turn, can bring in more federal funding.
“We reduce negative outcomes. We reduce suicide. It’s that simple,” he said. And with veterans, that achievement relies on fewer pharmaceutical interventions, he said. “Veterans for some reason or another … are proving to be less treatable with standard pharmaceutical intervention. They just seem to be more complex.”
Commissioner Roland Mason asked why there has been a decrease in veterans living in the valley in the last few years.
“It has to do with politics, money and access to services,” Otero answered. He said he fields a number of calls from local veterans, many with passionate opinions.
“We also have a lot of transients who show up in the summer, and they last between 30 to 90 days. Even though many of them conclude that they want to move here permanently, then things change for them over time.”
For example, many need to see a specialist every two weeks for things like spinal cord injuries. Then, Otero said, the realities of the harsher winters and cost of living also come into play.
“Until we have more resources, we can’t offer those special needs aspects,” Otero says.
Otero said he is trying to be creative with supporting the small business owners that hire veterans and help veterans maintain one focused job versus the typical two or three jobs it takes for many people to live in the area.
Western connection
Otero said he has been excited to see other veteran students like himself at Western Colorado University, although a high percentage of those students have left during the pandemic.
“I see folks who are very interested in being scientists, and studying veteran citizenry and how we can heal from challenges that may have been presented to us while on active duty.”
There are reportedly 18 veteran students heading into the spring semester, but there were another 48 who recently left, according to the registrar on campus.
“Five or six of those did graduate, but many of them did not want to engage in online schoolwork. As far as we know, they are not returning,” said Otero. He hopes to change that through his outreach.
“I’d say I’m kind of an oddball. No other veteran services officer is running around their college and interacting with these people. No one is,” says Otero.
Otero said he has a few ongoing goals for his position, including building up the services that make veterans able to stay and thrive in the valley. He encourages others to seek out positions like his and to get involved in what he considers very fulfilling work.
“Our community can be an example. The data shows that we’re taking care of our people. Even though the population isn’t very dense, we have a few hundred people who have complex medical needs,” he said.
He also acknowledged that he does not expect to remain in this position forever, and welcomes outside input.
“I encourage every vet who becomes a client of mine to take a position like mine here. I firmly believe that there are many minds that could contribute to the position, or take it in a different direction.”
