Downtown vet center may be
headed for the suburbs

Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) experiment with having a center for veterans in downtown St. Paul may be coming to an end as it considers relocating to a nearby suburb. In 2021, the VA moved its New Brighton center to the US Bank building to better serve the high number of veterans and active military members living in the city. Outreach program specialist Paul Peterson said it’s unusual for a vet center to operate in the heart of a downtown and in the same building as other businesses.

“Normally we’re close to an urban area but in a standalone setup with a little bit more ease of access,” he said. “The parking and street construction makes it just a little more work to come here… We’ll be here at least another two years, though, and a lot can happen in that time.”

The center has five full-time licensed counselors who provide one-on-one and group counseling services for veterans and active military members who are experiencing trauma from their service. Commonly addressed are post-traumatic stress disorder, military sexual trauma, addiction, general anxiety and depression. The downtown center is not a medical facility. Those needing medical care are referred to the Veteran’s Medical Center in Minneapolis or other specialized care providers. The VA is also now serving downtown St. Paul with a mobile clinic staffed by a nurse or nurse practitioner and clinical social worker. They operate from a specially equipped van parked 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Tuesday by the Catholic Charities’ St. Paul Opportunity Center near Seventh Street.

Those using the counseling services at the downtown center attend 5-10 sessions on average, but there’s no limit to how long they can receive counseling. It’s always free for eligible vets, regardless of how they were discharged. Each visit is about an hour long and new visitors generally have their first session within two or three weeks of making an appointment. They can work with a variety of counselors, each of whom specializes in areas such as combat trauma or family counseling. Most people who have been deployed to war or called to action to respond to an event such as a natural disaster or riot are eligible.

“We’ll get a lot of currently serving members in the guard or reserve, or veterans who have been out for a little while and they’ll come in and say, ‘things are fine, I’m back in school or at a job and my family seems to be okay, but I just have some issues I need to talk about, or there are still some things I think about that I need to get past.’ It’s typically folks who aren’t a threat to themselves or others but just need some tools in their toolbox to thrive and keep going,” said Peterson, who served in the Air Force for 33 years.

Peterson said they have seen a spike in recent years with the lessening of stigma surrounding mental health counseling among the younger generation and because commanders of local Army National Guard and Army Reserve units have been helping increase the awareness of their services. Overall, the St. Paul center serves 100-150 people annually. Other major centers in Minnesota are located in Anoka and Duluth. Counselors also provide weekly care at county buildings in St. Cloud, Rochester, Mankato and other cities.

The downtown center offers counseling groups found at all vet centers – Vietnam veterans, women veterans, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and more – but it also has had specialty groups such as gardening and guitar. Notably, since relocating, the center offers equine therapy where people can work alongside a licensed social worker to care for a horse in Lakeville and eventually learn to ride it.

“It [vet centers] started out heavily focused on the Vietnam vets and has now moved into the next era with the longest war in our country’s history, which is Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom,” said Peterson. “Over time, the vet centers moved from just a place to hang out and be with other vets to a place that really focuses on clinical counseling.”

Veteran centers were officially adopted as a funded form of outreach under the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in 1979. Today, more than 300 centers are located across the country. Last year nearly 287,000 veterans, service members and their families received counseling.

“From a personal standpoint it’s really pretty amazing [seeing the members healing process],” said Peterson. “There’s a handful of individuals that are here all the way back from the Vietnam era and they’re very candid. I’ve heard them say the vet center saved their lives. That can sound pretty melodramatic, but their spouse will be shaking their head yes right beside them. Clearly it meets a need, and sometimes enough of a need where people can find their balance again and keep going.”

The center is located in suite #101 in the US Bank Building, 374 N. Minnesota St. To get validated parking from the center, enter the US Bank ramp from Minnesota Street and park on levels 3-6. The center is open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri., and has a 24/7 call center that can be reached at 877-927-8387. A Veteran’s crisis line can be reached by calling 988 and pressing 1. For more information on the St. Paul Vet Center, call 651-644-4022 or visit va.gov/st-paul-vet-center.

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