Veterans Benefits Specialist Heidi Palmer with Lewis County Public Health and Social Services poses for a photo Wednesday morning in Chehalis.
The Lewis County Public Health and Social Services building is located at 360 NW North Street in Chehalis.
A former Army E4 specialist’s own reintegration into the non-military world after six years of training and deployment has given her first-hand knowledge she now uses to help others through the same process.
As the Department of Public Health and Social Services Community Outreach rep for Worker-Veterans Services, Heidi Palmer assists a wide variety of former military members she meets with daily at her Chehalis office.
Many of them struggle with a broad spectrum of issues when it comes to securing employment, receiving adequate health care or even being able to pay their utility bills.
“Under deployment, you are exposed to a different culture, different people, a different lifestyle than what we’re used to here in the states,” said Palmer, who was stationed in Afghanistan during her tour of duty. “So, when you’re coming back to the civilian side, it’s hard to adjust.”
Her brethren in the armed forces, she explained, are conditioned to a spartan regimen that often leaves them ill-equipped to handle the world of options presented to them as everyday adult citizens with unfamiliar obligations and responsibilities.
One of the ways Lewis County is supporting many of these individuals re-entering civilian life is through their Veterans Relief Fund, which contributes to the payment of funeral expenses, utilities, rental/housing fees, emergency medical services and food/gas vouchers.
The annual amount of dollars allocated into the fund is determined by a Veterans Advisory Committee, which is then presented to the Lewis County Board of Commissioners for final approval, according to Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Ed Mund, who operates as Palmer’s supervisor.
“Her job here is based on the Veterans Relief Fund. She’s really prescribed in what she can do one-on-one with a veteran by the decisions of the Veterans Advisory Board,” said Mund. “With her background, there’s much help she can offer by saying, ‘We can give you a voucher for this or we can help you with your rent or your transportation to a medical appointment, but for those other seven things you need to deal with, here’s who you can call and talk to.’ What she’s able to provide directly is a very small piece of what she actively does for them.”
A major area of focus in helping people a number of veterans released under honorable discharge, is furnishing them with the proper resources that will lead them to landing full-time work.
One particular service she frequently endorses to her clients is WorkSource, a statewide partnership of state, local and nonprofit agencies that can show veteran job-seekers how to put their skills to best use.
On that note, Palmer cited the efforts of WorkSource Thurston County and Lewis County outreach specialists John Moysiuk and David Gray, who train aspiring job hunters in translating military vocabulary and acronyms into civilian language when updating their résumés.
As a single mother of a 13-year-old daughter, Palmer shared how important it is for every young person considering enlistment to be aware of everything they’ll learn during their service commitments and later applying those abilities as members of the regular workforce.
“”Because you were trained to be a leader, you were trained to be organized, to run on a schedule and you (were taught) loyalty, duty, respect, honor, integrity, personal courage, selfless service, all that stuff. You can use all that stuff in civilian life,” added Palmer, who successfully parlayed her experience as a prison guard in the Army to getting hired as the VetCorps Navigator at Centralia College in 2016 before taking on her current role with Public Health.
The Montana-born daughter and granddaughter of former service members had an early start in familiarizing herself with the many aspects of being a veteran of the Armed Forces and some of the struggles that can often result from years of duty and combat.
“There are people who have served before and after me who have gone through a lot more stuff and a lot more trauma than I have,” observed Palmer. “Patience and empathy are the two biggest things I would ask of people when they deal with veterans of any era. We all have experienced war differently. Even our soldiers who haven’t deployed can have dealt with trauma as well.”
Local veterans or spouses of veterans in need of assistance can contact Palmer at heidi.palmer@lewiscountywa.com
