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PROVO — Michael Fisher was struggling after returning to the U.S. after fighting as a soldier in Iraq in 2005.
"I was in a medical hold unit where I was going through surgeries and really trying to figure out what the next step in my life was going to be," said Fisher, chief readjustment counseling officer with the Veterans Health Administration.
Luckily, he had someone who wanted to help him.
"It was a vet center counselor that wouldn't let me shut my barracks room door on him until I came and talked to him. That made all the difference," Fisher said. "In my time, when all I wanted to do was say 'no,' he helped me say 'yes.'"
Vet centers are run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and are "community-based counseling centers" that provide a wide range of counseling services to eligible veterans, active-duty service members and their families.
Often, the centers — of which there are more than 300 locations nationwide — address concerns and symptoms associated with any military trauma that may lead to mental health challenges.
According to Veterans Affairs, some of these centers are underused, including the one in Provo.
This could be due to some stigmas around service members seeking emotional help, Fisher said.
"Our focus is on reducing barriers to care. That could be not wanting to engage in services, not thinking that those kinds of services are for me. ... It could also be location or distance," Fisher said. "So it's working to reach out to find as many veterans and service members as possible to create those access points and then getting those veterans and service members into services."
The counselor that made Fisher say yes, he said, is the epitome of what veterans centers are all about at their core.
"That is what vet centers do every day. They help individuals say yes when they want to say no," Fisher said.
He acknowledged that every U.S. veteran and service member has their own unique story and challenges associated with that story, which is why the centers focus on helping individuals set and accomplish goals with the help of a support structure around them.
"They accomplish their goal and then identify another goal and it's this lifelong process of doing that over and over again," Fisher said.
Last year, nearly 217,000 veterans, service members and families nationwide benefitted from visiting their local veterans centers, resulting in 1.65 million counseling visits and outreach contacts.
Fisher said that eligibility to utilize a veteran center is based on qualifications such as service in a dangerous place like a war zone or area of hostility, or experiencing certain types of trauma.
"We do not require enrollment into (Veterans Health Administration) health care, we don't require service connection (and) we also do not charge for our services. Everything has been prepaid by their military service," he said.
Vet centers also provide services to individuals regardless of their discharge status.
People looking for more information or seeking to become involved in a veteran center can do so by visiting the website.
"Our focus at vet centers is really about building connection, camaraderie and community," Fisher said.
