TESTIMONY
Gus Stavroulakis on Addressing Veteran Benefits and Health Issues
1:41:26
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3 min
Gus Stavroulakis, a Navy veteran and researcher at NYU, testifies about the challenges National Guard members face in obtaining benefits and the lack of resources for veterans, particularly in mental and physical health.
- Stavroulakis highlights the struggles of National Guard members and reservists in receiving benefits, especially during state assigned duties such as the COVID-19 response.
- He details his work at NYU focusing on veterans' health issues, including preventing opioid overdoses among the veteran population.
- Stavroulakis points out the insufficiency in addressing homelessness among veterans, with many living in shelters for extended periods.
- He emphasizes the need for better mental and physical health resources for veterans, underscoring the challenges they face in accessing adequate care.
Gus Stavroulakis
1:41:26
I wanna say thank you for having this form and allowing us to speak.
1:41:30
So I wanna emphasize a few things that's already been said as a navy veteran and currently serving within the National Guard.
1:41:39
A lot of guardsmen and reserves do not get the benefits that they need, especially when they're signing on SAD, which is state assigned duty.
1:41:48
Currently, we had COVID-nineteen where we had many multiple national guard members in response to assisting nursing homes and providing vaccines to service members where they will not be eligible for any federal benefits along with assisting in the South of Mission.
1:42:07
We have I have meant multiple soldiers that are assisting in this mission that will not see federal veteran benefits at all.
1:42:15
It's something that I wanted to make known to more people as this is not an issue that that has talked about a lot.
1:42:23
2nd thing is I'm a researcher at NYU currently working with veterans health issues in preventing opioid overdose.
1:42:30
Within the veteran population.
1:42:32
This is an issue that has not been addressed.
1:42:35
I work with many veterans currently homeless or in shelters such as Borden Avenue.
1:42:41
And do not necessarily get the resources that they need, whether through mental health, or physical health.
1:42:48
And so like a lot of my other veterans have mentioned is their housing.
1:42:55
They're going 2 to 3 years without a housing address, living in the shelter for for multiple years from being passed around from one shelter to another.
1:43:05
I just wanna let the committee know that this is happening and to be aware of this issue.
1:43:10
Thank you.
Robert Holden
1:43:12
Yeah.
1:43:12
That that's what I, you know, I heard at that board.
1:43:14
And when every time I visit, we get the same real and the biggest complaint is the mental health.
1:43:20
Issue that we're not really addressing to, you know, really serious issues.
1:43:27
So we really need for certainly, I don't know if NYU has still has that waiting list to help with mental health issues.
1:43:35
Do do they still
Gus Stavroulakis
1:43:36
So the NYU is just like a lot of veteran benefits have strings attached.
1:43:42
A lot as as we are as I'm one small entity, within NYU.
1:43:48
And as a researcher, and I just wanna say I'm talking about for myself not as a representative of my university that I work for.
1:43:57
Their their mental health services are for certain types of veterans for either deployed or combat veterans such and so forth.
1:44:04
So depending on on the the facility in the organization, it it varies.
1:44:10
Part of my job and my role is to help navigate fellow veterans for for either their health needs or whatever type of services that they're looking for.
1:44:19
And what I try to do is navigate them to low threshold resources that might not certainly be a barrier.
1:44:26
If they do qualify for certain VA benefits and they're willing to navigate that way, That's how I navigate my the individuals that I work with along with either Citi benefits as well too.
1:44:38
Navigating towards that way because the threshold is lower.