VETERANS INFORMATION

Department veterans affairs
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is convening a four-day meeting in Washington, D.C. in July, 2007 of mental health clinicians and researchers from across the country. VA will also hire 100 new employees to provide readjustment counseling at the Department's 209 community-based Vet Centers. VA also recently hired 100 new Vet Center employees, who are combat veterans, to conduct outreach to veterans of the Global War on Terror. VA operates one of the largest mental health programs in the country, with an annual budget of nearly $3 billion solely for mental health services. About 1 million of VA's patients have a mental health diagnosis.
The rate of community-acquired MRSA skin and soft tissue infections increased from 24.0 cases per 100,000 people in 2000 to 164.2 cases per 100,000 in 2005. Risk factors for infection included incarceration, African-American race, and residence at a group of public housing complexes. Older age was also tied to a increased risk of infection.
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