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General Information Back to the top

TexVet: Partners Across Texas is the collaborative effort of organizations including the United States Department of Defense, Veterans Health Administration, Texas Military Forces, and State of Texas programs and agencies including the Health and Human Services Commission's 2-1-1 Texas Information and Referral Network (TIRN) and the Texas A&M Health Science Center.

TexVet: Partners Across Texas focuses on making it easier for military members and their families to find help. The resources identified through TexVet are meant for anyone who is serving or has served in any branch of the military, as well as the family members and others who care about a service member.

TexVet: Partners Across Texas is also a forum for collaboration between government agencies and private organizations and businesses that are serving and supporting the military and their families and their communities. Service providers, military, and veterans-related groups all are encouraged to contact TexVet: Partners Across Texas with information that might be shared to help deal with the effects of war and military service.

The Texas Information and Referral Network, 2-1-1 Texas, also is a part of the TexVet initiative. 2-1-1 is a non-emergency confidential telephone service linking callers to local services in Texas. Anyone can call 2-1-1 to speak directly with a person who is trained to help find needed services.

TexVet:Partners Across Texas' Primary Tasks Back to the top

Providing Information

Making available comprehensive information on topics of importance to military members and their families and to community organizations, churches and providers of services to the military and their families.

Reaching Those With Needs

Implementing a broad supportive and aggressive strategy for outreach to all military personnel, veterans, and their loved ones at all phases of their service and avoiding any stigma associated with the need for services.

Finding Resources

Maintaining current, updated information about, and direct referral to, all public and private community resources available to the military and their families.

Building a Team

Creating ongoing community partnerships between an effective team of public, private, and academic organizations that serve and support military personnel, veterans, and their families.

The Purpose of TexVet:Partners Across Texas Back to the top

The purpose of TexVet:Partners Across Texas is to promote the health of military personnel, veterans and their loved ones by enhancing access to health care and social services and strengthening support systems through all phases of the military life cycle (pre-active duty, active duty, reserve, all deployment phases, medically disabled/injured or ill, loss of soldier, medical or service retirement, and post-active duty/veteran) Through the collaborative efforts of the Department of Defense (DOD) , State of Texas Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Texas Military Forces (TMF), United States Army Reserve (USAR), and the academic community. TexVet: P.A.T. integrates, facilitates, and coordinates contact information, referral resources and evidenced-based research on behalf of the Texas military community and their beneficiaries.

The trauma of combat creates a variety of consequences that are manifested over time in families, jobs, and communities. As Texans return from war emerging clinical evidence and information from prior wars provide an increasingly clear picture of the needs of veterans and their families. The trauma of combat often resulting from multiple injuries creates a variety of primary and secondary consequences for veterans. The consequences of trauma are manifested in a developmental social context over time in families, jobs and communities. While federal resources are dedicated to pay for the care and rehabilitation of injured warriors, the consequences of untreated combat trauma have long been shown to create significant costs for state and local government through secondary impacts of increased incarceration, unemployment, homelessness, substance abuse, and family violence.

Physical injuries generally represent obvious trauma, but even physical injuries such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can be extremely difficult to diagnose, and trauma that impairs mental/behavioral health, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), may never be fully identified. Military personnel must find health care and social services within a complex environment of federal, state, and local private and public agencies and advocacy groups. These independent agencies often serve only a portion of the military population and often provide a limited range of services. Consequently military personnel, veterans, and their families must seek care in a fragmented and chaotic system of care with no single source of reliable, current scientific information about the treatment of veterans suffering from trauma, or about how families, employers, and the community might best support returning veterans.

At present, data suggest that relatively few eligible OIE/OEF veterans are utilizing VA medical facilities. Over the period from FY05 and FY06, Texas VA medical centers saw an increase in OEF veterans seeking care at their facilities. During this same time, the Texas Veterans Commission reported that 63,020 new OIF/OEF veterans entered Texas after military discharge. From these data, it is estimated that 10.7% of OIF/OEF veterans living in Texas are utilizing VA medical services. Privileged data from the Texas Army National Guard, based on individual post-deployment interviews, are consistent with the low VA utilization among OIF/ OEF veterans. Despite substantial reports of individual and familial distress, less than 10% of Texas Army National Guard members were enrolled in VA services. It is notable that while relatively few OIF/ OEF veterans are utilizing VA medical facilities data from VHA sources (VHA National Data Extract/ Clinical Reports/ Mental Health Co-Morbidity) indicate that in FY06, 36% of OIF/OEF veterans in utilized VISN 17 medical facilities had at least one of the following mental health diagnoses: anxiety depression, PTSD, substance abuse, bipolar disorder, mental health disorder due to brain damage, schizophrenia, or dementia. The question then becomes how to effectively outreach to OIF/OEF veterans and their families, and provide sufficient community awareness and education to identify community reintegration challenges before they become chronic, debilitating conditions.

TexVet:Partners Across Texas:

• Primarily serves military personnel, veterans and their loved ones within the state of Texas.
• Serves a secondary audience including service providers, employers, researchers, as well as civic organizations and other interested parties.
• Is a statewide resource, easily accessible to all Texans.
• Contains accurate and complete information about services available in Texas communities from federal, state, or local sources, either public or private.
• Seeks to support and strengthen local veterans organizations.
• Contains a wide variety of information of interest to service members and to organizations that serve veterans. Such information includes scientific research, medical and health care information, calendars of events information from/about local veterans organizations and other information consistent with the objectives of TexVet: Partners Across Texas
• Is overseen and directed through a governing structure composed of key stakeholders including appropriate Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and State of Texas officials including the Health and Human Services Commission 2-1-1 Texas Information and Referral Network (TIRN).
• Seeks a wide range of partners.
• Works collaboratively to avoid duplicating existing information and referral services.

If you need immediate assistance or need to talk to a representative, call 2-1-1 or if you need to talk to a representative (24 hours), please dial 2-1-1.