Nova Southeastern University’s Veterans Resources Center is working with the Health Professions Division to create a Veterans Access Clinic. The Veterans Access Clinic will work to provide veterans and their immediate families access to interdisciplinary health practices.
According to Matthew Chenworth, the director of Veteran Affairs at NSU, “As soon as they really knew this was going to be a reality, one of the first things the Veterans Access Clinic did was reach out to me. They know that we already have a Veterans Resource Center on campus and they know that we have a lot of connections in the community. They wanted to collaborate with the services and the relationships that we developed as we are going through this together as one NSU.”
The Veterans Access Clinic will provide all clinical services that NSU offers, including general medical practice, dentistry, optometry, audiology and speech-language pathology, psychological counseling, occupational therapy, physical therapy and family therapy. The Veterans Access Clinic will allow veterans effective health care efficiently.
According to Leonard Pounds, NSU’s Vice President of Clinical Operations, “Being a veteran, I’ve been with [NSU] for 12 years, I really think this is something that NSU can be known for. I believe the veterans deserve this care and not only are we going to be seeing the veterans, but we wanted to differentiate ourselves from the [Veterans Affairs healthcare system.]”
If the child or dependent of a veteran does not have access to healthcare elsewhere, NSU’s Veteran’s Access Clinic will also provide them with services, unlike the Veterans Affairs healthcare system. “We decided that we could do that by not only offering these services to veterans but their dependents as well. So if [a veteran] comes here and their child [or]dependent doesn’t have healthcare, we can see them as well, [which] is something the VA doesn’t do today,” said Pounds.
The starting funds for the Veterans Resource Center were provided by the Florida Department of Health. “We are really hopeful that this initial round of funding from the state is going to be seed money to be kept funded. This will be a first-of-its-kind clinic. I don’t believe there is another one like this in the state of Florida, or anywhere [else],” said Pounds.
Veterans can make appointments over the phone starting the first week of December by calling 954-262-FLAG. Appointments will be open as early as January.
Photo: J. M. Smith
