Origin & History of Department of Veteran Affairs

The United States has the most comprehensive system of assistance for Veterans of any nation in the world. The Continental Congress of 1776 encouraged enlistments during the Revolutionary War by providing pensions for soldiers were disabled. Direct medical and hospital care given to veterans in the early days of the Republic was provided by individual States and communities. George Washington stated; “ The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”

In 1811, the first domiciliary and medical facility for Veterans was authorized by the Federal Government. In the 19th century, the Nation’s veteran’s assistance program was expanded to include benefits and pensions not only or veterans, but also their widows and dependents.

Congress established a new system of veterans when the United States entered World War I in 1917.Included were programs for disability, compensation, insurance for service persons and veterans. By the 1920s, the various benefits were administered by three different Federal agencies: the Veterans Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.

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After World War I, the readjustment problems of servicemen returning to civilian life, especially those with neuropsychiatic disabilities were turned over to the American National Red Cross workers stationed by the Red Cross in government offices of the War Risk Insurance Bureau, The United States Public Health Service, and the Federal Board of Rehabilitation. In 1921, Congress established the Veterans Bureau by consolidating the administration and functions of those three agencies. The World War Veterans Act of June, 1924 authorized the furnishing of hospitalization so far as existing government facilities permitted to veterans of any war, military occupation, or military expedition since 1897 not dishonorably discharged and without regard to nature or origin of their disabilities.

In 1926, the Red Cross withdrew its social workers from the Veterans Bureau neuropsychiatric hospitals and casework positions in the regional offices. However, many former Red Cross psychiatric social workers remained on the job until 1927

The establishment of the Veterans Administration came in 1930 when Congress authorized the President to “consolidate and coordinate Government activities affecting war Veterans.” The three component agencies became bureaus within the Veterans Administration.

During the twenty years after World War II, services to Veterans were expanded to include out-patient care, foster home care, trial visits, and increased work with the blind. Patients with chronic illnesses, and tuberculosis patients, who had been properly discharged, caused particular concern. Recruiting social workers from schools of social work and increasing the educational standards and salaries of social workers are continuing concerns of the Veterans Administration. The Social Work Service also works with the community to which a veteran returns following hospitalization. It attempts through education and counseling of the patient and his family, to make the physical and personal home environment as favorable to the patient as possible.