By Chris Caraveo
Twitter: @ChrisCaraveo31

Arizona is not one of the worst when it comes to retirement locations for military veterans, but the state has certain areas to improve on for it to be considered a hot spot, according to a report.

With May being Military Appreciation Month, personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on the best and worst states for military retirees.

Arizona middles out at No. 24. Virginia and Florida are the Top 2 while Oregon and Washington D.C. are Nos. 50 and 51, respectively.

The study is a way for veterans to compare the 50 states and D.C. on their friendliness towards retired military members. WalletHub used 29 metrics across three main categories: economic environment, quality of life, and health care. Included in the metrics are quality of VA hospitals, suicide rate of veterans, job opportunities and share of homeless veterans.

Arizona fares well in job growth, with the best at 3.43%. The state is 11th in dollars in defense department contracts per capita, at $1,847. It is above average in share of veterans, share of veterans not receiving SNAP and share of VA Benefits-Administration Facilities per number of veterans.

The state is also third in idealness of weather.

“Mild weather contributes to a person’s quality of life,” WalletHub Analyst Jill Gonzalez stated. “Especially in retirement, and if they have health issues in particular, people tend to seek places with good weather to ease their living.”

However, Arizona is near the bottom in some of the more heavily weighted metrics. It is 37th in share of homeless veterans at 0.17%, 44th in quality of VA hospitals — which is the most weighted metric of all 29 — and 44th in veteran suicide rate.

Job opportunities for veterans in Arizona is also lacking, with a -4.35% rate calculated as veteran eligible jobs per capita minus veteran unemployment rate.

“If the percentage is negative, it means that the unemployment rate for veterans is higher than the share of job openings suitable for them,” Ms. Gonzalez stated.

Jim Eyler, an Arizona resident since 2010 and a veteran who manages the Facebook group “Arizona Veterans Helping Veterans,” agreed with WalletHub’s ranking of the state.

“It’s definitely not the worst state to live in if you’re a veteran, but the help we receive seems to be based more in talking points and feel-good discounts,” Mr. Eyler stated via Facebook Messenger. “It is extremely difficult for many veterans to reintegrate back into society for a single fundamental reason — we forgot how to be a civilian. Many veterans simply don’t feel like they fit in society anymore. Our humor is crass and vulgar, we tend to be a little rough around the edges, and we’re known to have mental issues from war which causes people to walk on eggshells around us. It really doesn’t make for a good recipe for reintegration. But what can be done? That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?”

Mr. Eyler said people can help veterans by appealing to their “intense sense of pride and brother/sisterhood.”

“Start community Veteran Appreciation Cookouts where veterans eat free,” Mr. Eyler stated. “Provide coffee shops that provides services for veterans (i.e., a place to perform, veteran-only veranda, etc.); start community beautification programs that employ veterans to clean their neighborhood so they can feel a sense of pride again; offer free classroom/office usage for veterans to teach classes; provide entrepreneurial incentives and opportunities.”

Mike Brown, director of the Office of Veterans and Military Service Members at Villanova University, said the government can help military personnel transition to civilian life by providing resources throughout their years of service, and not just prior to their exit.

“If we prepared our men and women for exit, as well as we do upon entrance, I believe the perception of the military within the civilian community would be higher, and our men and women would be better equipped to make decisions that lead to more desirable outcomes,” Mr. Brown told WalletHub.

He also recommends military members to start looking at where they want to end up when they are two years from retirement. This includes looking at states that tax military retirement, TRICARE eligible facilities, veteran-friendly communities and employment opportunities, family needs like schools for children and a spouse’s employment, universities with programs for veterans.

“Regardless of those choices upon exit from the military, it is important to realize that retirement is not an event, it is a process that must be undertaken long before your date of departure hits,” Mr. Brown stated. “The goal should be to make your transition as smooth as possible, and there are steps that can be taken in order to make that a reality.”

Resources for veterans

As of May 14, the White House Veterans Affairs Hotline has answered more than 250,195 calls since it went live June 1, 2017, according to a release.

The hotline, 855-948-2311, serves veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors with a direct, non-emergency, contact line available all day with agents — the majority of whom are veterans or from a veteran family — who are trained to address general and common VA inquiries.

More than half the calls to the hotline are general inquiries about VA’s care, benefits and memorial services. Concerns that cannot be resolved immediately are entered as cases, accessible to VA Offices of Client Relations.

To date, 94% of the total 157,346 cases created have been resolved. According to recent data from April, the average wait time to speak to a live agent was 9 seconds, with calls typically lasting about 15 minutes. About 1% of all calls were compliments.

Two major issues in the veteran community are homelessness and suicide.

According to a 2018 report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there were more than 6,000 veteran suicides each year from 2008 to 2016. When comparing veterans and non-veterans, from 2005 to 2016, suicide rates increased 25.9% and 20.6%, respectively.

From 2015 to 2016, veteran suicide rates decreased from 30.5 per 100,000 people to 30.1 per 100,000 people.

The VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, and the VA Midwest Health Care Network (Veterans Integrated Service Network 23) have been working with academic researchers from the University of Pittsburgh’s Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) in 2019 to spearhead a community-based program as one of many efforts aimed at lowering the rate of veteran suicide.

VISN 23 has deployed 10 education and outreach specialists who have received formal training from VA leadership and PERU on how to:

Assess community readiness for increased engagement efforts;

Build local coalitions to facilitate wider and more frequent touchpoints with veterans;

Use community-specific public health data to tailor interventions to population needs; and

Provide metrics on program effectiveness to inform national implementation strategy.

One of the main issues Mr. Eyler’s AVHV tries to help with is veteran suicide.

“Mitigating veteran suicide isn’t going to happen overnight, and it’s not going to happen in cloistered, smoke filled buildings, or parades,” Mr. Eyler stated. “We have to work in solidarity — veterans and civilians — with no less determination than our fight against terror.”

Click here to learn more about VA’s suicide prevention resources and programs.

Veterans who are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, and those who know a Veteran in crisis, can call Veterans Crisis Line for confidential support at all hours of the day. Either call 800-273-8255 and press 1, send a text message to 838255 or chat online here.

“Unfortunately, we’ll never help everyone,” Mr. Eyler stated. “But we can help as many as we can.”