Saipan Veterans Clinic encourages NMI vets to reach out to them

Saipan Veterans Clinic administrator Ruth Coleman is urging all veterans in the CNMI to enroll in the clinic’s services and learn more of their benefits under the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs.

“I would love to have our veterans come in so we could enroll them. A lot of them don’t know that they do have benefits, but we can only tell them about it and do what we can to help them,” Coleman said.

Last year alone, Coleman said, about 646 veterans, including returning appointments], were provided services. This year, a total of about 300 veterans have so far been served by the clinic but she estimates there are actually about 1,500 veterans in the CNMI alone.

Coleman said the services they provide to veterans are primary care and mental health services.

“For primary care services, our clinic is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the veterans are seen by Dr. Norma Ada. She is the only VA doctor on the island,” she said.

“We also do mental health services via video conferencing once a week—usually Tuesdays— and is seen by Dr. Ruby Manalastas, a psychiatrist from Guam,” she added.

The Saipan Veterans Clinic also does video conferencing for therapy every Tuesdays and Wednesdays from different psychologists from Honolulu, Hawaii.

Coleman said that Fridays are when veterans go through the issues they are having. She noted that this also happens on Thursdays. Tramautic brain injury cognitive rehabilitation is also done on Fridays.

“Every quarter we have visiting neurologists meeting with the veterans for TBI and he does testing so they could recommend the veteran if care is needed. The primary care providers then work hand in hand with the neurologist where the doctors helps the veterans if the neurologists comes up with a diagnosis,” she said.

Coleman said the clinic also has a prosthetics chief and technician on a regular basis to see veterans with amputations and provide the prosthetics when they are seen.

“Although we are only seeing about 300 veterans, we are looking to expand more clinics as the video conferencing needs rose up so if they need help after the video conferencing they could then meet face to face,” she said.

“We are urging all veterans in the CNMI to come to our office so we could enroll them and they could see that they do have benefits and that we are here for them,” she added.

The clinic is located in Puerto Rico, at the MH II building near Bank of Hawaii.

For those wanting more information on the Saipan Veterans Clinic, contact Coleman at 322-0035.