North Central Indiana Vet Center Feasibility Assessment: From Federal Review to Local Actions **September 2026 Update**

Since the publication and distribution of the North Central Indiana Regional Vet Center Feasibility Assessment, the initiative has continued to move forward. What began as an effort to document a regional access concern has now resulted in continued congressional engagement, external review of the assessment methodology, renewed engagement with the Department of Veterans Affairs Readjustment Counseling Service, and the beginning of a formal process that could establish a Community Access Point in Kokomo.

These developments do not mean that the work is complete, nor do they mean that the Department of Veterans Affairs has approved a new Vet Center for North Central Indiana. They do, however, represent meaningful progress toward the central objective of the assessment: improving practical access to readjustment counseling services for veterans, service members, and eligible family members throughout North Central Indiana.

Clarifying the Assessment and Its Purpose

The North Central Indiana Regional Vet Center Feasibility Assessment is an independent, community-based assessment that I researched and developed after concerns emerged regarding geographic access to Vet Center services across North Central Indiana.

DAV Chapter 28 subsequently adopted a position supporting the initiative. The Chapter’s support has allowed the issue to be elevated through veteran, community, governmental, and congressional channels while maintaining an important distinction: the assessment was not commissioned or conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it should not be interpreted as an official VA feasibility study.

The assessment examines a 17-county region containing more than 45,000 veterans and evaluates geographic access to existing Vet Center services, transportation and travel considerations, community-provider observations, veteran population characteristics, and other indicators relevant to readjustment counseling access.

Its purpose has never been to predetermine what the Department of Veterans Affairs should ultimately establish. Rather, the assessment was intended to provide sufficient evidence to justify a serious examination of whether the current service configuration adequately meets the needs of veterans in North Central Indiana and, if not, what service model could improve that access.

Federal and Congressional Engagement Continues

Following completion of the assessment, copies were distributed to VA officials, congressional offices, state and local stakeholders, veteran-serving organizations, and other community partners.

Senator Jim Banks’ office subsequently forwarded the assessment for review within the Department of Veterans Affairs, including VA Central Office and the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center. Other congressional offices have also received or requested information concerning the assessment and the regional access issue it documents.

This congressional engagement has been important because decisions concerning the structure, location, staffing, and expansion of Vet Center services ultimately belong to the Department of Veterans Affairs and its Readjustment Counseling Service.

The objective of the community effort is therefore not to substitute a local assessment for the VA’s decision-making process. It is to ensure that the regional access issue is sufficiently documented and placed before the officials who have the authority to evaluate it.

Readjustment Counseling Service Reengages

The most significant development since the previous update has been renewed engagement with the Department of Veterans Affairs Readjustment Counseling Service and the Fort Wayne Vet Center.

RCS has initiated the formal process associated with potentially establishing a Community Access Point at the DAV Chapter 28 office in Kokomo.

A Community Access Point is not the same thing as establishing a new, independently staffed Vet Center. It is an additional mechanism through which Readjustment Counseling Service can extend its reach into a community and improve access to eligible veterans, service members, and families.

DAV Chapter 28 has offered suitable space within its Kokomo office for this purpose. The proposed space provides a private area for counseling or outreach activities, a separate entrance that can provide additional privacy, internet connectivity, and weekday availability.

The administrative process, including the appropriate site documentation and revocable-use agreement, is now being addressed with RCS.

It is important to be precise about the status of this development. A Community Access Point has not yet been formally established. RCS is proceeding through the process necessary to evaluate and potentially establish the location, and decisions regarding approval, staffing, frequency of service, and the specific services provided remain with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In the meantime, veterans can continue to be connected with existing Vet Center resources, including telehealth and other services available through the Readjustment Counseling Service system.

Why a Community Access Point Matters

The feasibility assessment was developed around a straightforward question: Does geography create a meaningful barrier between veterans in North Central Indiana and the specialized readjustment counseling services available through the Vet Center program?

Community information collected during development of the assessment indicated that this concern extends beyond mileage on a map.

Information provided by the Howard County Veterans Treatment Court indicated that approximately 80 percent of its veteran participants traveled more than 30 minutes for counseling services, with an average counseling distance of approximately 30 to 45 miles. The Treatment Court also identified a lack of local providers with military-cultural expertise and noted that distance can become particularly significant when a veteran is experiencing a crisis.

Community-provider input similarly identified transportation, insurance, stigma, and the difficulty of maintaining follow-up care when individuals must leave their community for treatment as barriers affecting access.

Telehealth is an important component of modern behavioral health and readjustment counseling services, and it can substantially improve access. At the same time, community feedback collected for the assessment indicated that telehealth does not necessarily replace the need for accessible face-to-face services in every circumstance.

That is why the Community Access Point process is significant.

Even though a Community Access Point would not itself constitute the full community-based Vet Center originally examined as one possible model in the assessment, it represents a practical mechanism through which Readjustment Counseling Service may be able to bring services closer to the population identified in the report.

It also provides an opportunity to better understand actual local demand.

If veterans use locally available Vet Center services when they are offered, that utilization can provide information that is difficult to obtain when the nearest physical service locations themselves present an access barrier.

Independent Methodology Review Underway

Another important development concerns the methodology used in the assessment.

The Purdue University Military Family Research Institute has agreed to conduct an external review of the assessment methodology. Dr. Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth has agreed to review the work as her schedule permits.

This is an important distinction from traditional academic peer review.

The feasibility assessment was developed as a community-based access and feasibility assessment, not as an academic research study. The purpose of the external review is therefore to obtain an independent examination of the methodology, assumptions, analytical approach, and reproducibility of the work.

That review remains pending. I will not characterize the methodology as externally validated unless and until that review has been completed and supports such a conclusion.

Preparing a Second Version of the Assessment

The external review also provides an appropriate opportunity to prepare an updated version of the assessment.

During post-publication quality-control review, an internal inconsistency was identified between two summary presentations of the report’s access-tier totals. The underlying county-level information will be reconciled and the affected tables and figures corrected in the next version.

At this point, the correction is not expected to alter the assessment’s overall findings regarding the existence of a substantial regional geographic access issue, but that conclusion will be confirmed as part of the reconciliation process rather than assumed.

The second version will also provide an opportunity to incorporate appropriate clarification regarding authorship and organizational support, document subsequent developments, and, if available, include the results of the independent methodology review.

Transparency is important in a project of this nature. A community-based assessment should be subject to examination, correction, and improvement when warranted. Identifying and correcting an internal numerical inconsistency strengthens the record rather than concealing an issue that readers should be able to evaluate for themselves.

From Assessment to Action

Perhaps the most important development since the assessment was released is that the conversation is no longer limited to whether an access problem exists.

The question is increasingly becoming what can practically be done about it.

The assessment has been placed before congressional offices and VA officials. Community stakeholders have contributed information regarding local access barriers. The methodology is being submitted for independent external review. Readjustment Counseling Service has reengaged locally. And a formal process is underway that could result in a Community Access Point being established in Kokomo.

None of those developments, standing alone, guarantees the eventual establishment of a permanent community-based Vet Center.

Nor should the Community Access Point process be portrayed as the final resolution of the broader 17-county access question examined by the assessment.

It is, however, a concrete step.

The original objective was to document the regional access issue well enough that the appropriate federal officials would examine it and determine what service configuration could best meet the needs of veterans in North Central Indiana.

That process is now moving beyond the report itself.

What Comes Next

The next phase will focus on several parallel efforts.

We will continue cooperating with Readjustment Counseling Service as it works through the Community Access Point process in Kokomo. We will continue documenting veteran and community experiences involving access to readjustment counseling services. The external methodology review will be allowed to proceed independently. The numerical corrections and other improvements will be incorporated into Version 2 of the assessment.

Once that work is completed, the updated assessment will be redistributed to the appropriate congressional, VA, state, veteran, and community stakeholders with a clear explanation of what has changed.

At the same time, the larger regional question remains open.

The assessment covers 17 counties, not simply Howard County. A Kokomo Community Access Point could represent an important improvement in access, but the long-term objective remains ensuring that veterans throughout North Central Indiana have reasonable access to the specialized counseling and readjustment services they have earned.

The appropriate long-term service model must ultimately be determined by the Department of Veterans Affairs based upon need, utilization, resources, statutory authority, and the Readjustment Counseling Service’s professional assessment.

Our responsibility at the community level is different.

It is to identify the problem accurately, document it responsibly, bring credible information to the appropriate decision-makers, cooperate when opportunities for improvement emerge, and continue advocating for reasonable access without overstating what has or has not been accomplished.

The North Central Indiana Regional Vet Center Feasibility Assessment began as an effort to determine whether the concerns being expressed locally represented an isolated problem or a broader regional access issue.

The evidence indicated that the issue warranted further examination.

That examination is now occurring.

And for the first time since this effort began, the work is moving from documenting the access problem toward the possibility of putting additional Vet Center services physically within the community.

That is meaningful progress.

It is not the end of the assessment process.

It is the beginning of the next phase.