When Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed Tom Applegate to run the Indiana Department of Veterans’ Affairs in 2005, the state office was lacking support for one major group of veterans: women.
“If you were in front of a crowd of people and asked the veterans to hold up their hands, the women didn’t do it,” said Applegate. “(Women) didn’t consider themselves veterans and we felt that there was a huge problem there. The first thing we did was establish the women veterans program in 2006.”
The main purpose of the program said Applegate was to encourage women to acknowledge they were veterans and to be proud of their veteran status. With more than 33,000 women veterans residing in Indiana, the office also wanted to ensure they were aware of the many benefits and services available.
“We call women the invisible veterans and we wanted to change that,” said Applegate. “We felt that there were some issues that women needed to be assured that their service in the military was just as valuable as their male counterparts.”
Applegate added the office recognized that women had health issues that male veterans do not have and services were needed to address such problems.
One such program is the Hoosier Women’s Veterans Conference where women can connect with fellow veterans and receive beneficial information in one location. There is also the National Women’s Health Information Center for women seeking answers to critical health questions.
An important program offered is the Women Veterans Coordinator Directory for women who have experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault during their military service. Women can receive counseling and assistance filing a claim.
“We recognized because of military sexual trauma that takes place within the military, women had special issues that wasn’t necessarily post traumatic stress disorder,” said Applegate. “We wanted women to get the assistance they needed.”
Although there have been programs set up to assist women veterans in Indiana, they were not sanctioned by the state. By the office being authorized by Indiana, the programs and benefits offered to women veterans have expanded a great deal.
“We’ve opened the door for women veterans to have a free atmosphere to discuss their problems,” said Applegate. “We’ve also given them an avenue to talk about their military service and issues that may have bothered them that they hadn’t had the opportunity to talk about before.”
