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Ad blitz aims to inform vets about benefits

The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking at using the Internet, podcasts and social networking Web sites in an all-out effort to tell veterans about available benefits.

But there are concerns about information overload because Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans, a group VA is hot to reach, may ignore personal phone calls and e-mails and never even read pamphlets and brochures about services and benefits.

Wisconsin Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Elizabeth O’Herrin, who testified at a July 15 hearing of the House Veterans Affairs oversight and investigations panel, said VA needs to tailor its outreach programs.

O’Herrin, who ended her third Iraq deployment earlier this year and plans to leave the Guard in September, said the VA benefits pamphlets she received after her first deployment are “collecting dust under the guest bed” at her parent’s home, and letters from VA have been lost along the way as she changed addresses five times in the last seven months.

O’Herrin, a munitions systems technician in the Guard and executive director of Student Veterans of America, also is no fan of another program in which VA calls newly discharged vets to see if they need any help.

“While I appreciate VA’s effort on this matter … calling me is actually not the best way to make sure I am informed,” she said.

E-mail is more convenient, but she acknowledged a potential downside.

“There’s nothing more annoying that irrelevant e-mails clogging my inbox,” she said, suggesting veterans be allowed to tailor e-mail to cover subjects in which they have a particular interest.

Rep. Ginny Waite-Brown, R-Fla., said she was surprised to learn VA does not collect e-mail addresses as a primary method of communication. But Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., said he still worries that e-mails could become the modern-day version of the box of brochures under the bed.

Lisette Mondello, assistant VA secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, said VA will try almost anything.

“We are also looking at social marketing and Internet-based nontraditional media,” she said. She mentioned YouTube, MySpace and Facebook as venues VA can use to get its message out.

But, she noted, VA must reach several generations of veterans. “Facebook might work best for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but not [for] our Vietnam-era veterans,” she said.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is developing its own ad campaign that will launch in November, said Vanessa Williamson, IAVA policy director.

IAVA will launch public service announcements on television, radio, in print, on billboards and online, encouraging veterans to seek help, especially for mental health problems, she said.