When the 2021 Defense Spending Bill was passed in December of 2020, the bill included adding three conditions to the VA’s Agent Orange Presumptive List. Bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, and Parkinsonism. This decision will not only allow our veteran’s who are currently suffering from these conditions to receive compensation but will also provide an opportunity for any surviving spouses to receive the death benefits that they are entitled to as well.
If a veteran had previously filed a claim for one of these conditions due to Agent Orange exposure there is the possibility that the veteran will be entitled to significant backpay. Your Nevada County Veterans Services Office encourages any veteran or surviving spouse to please contact our office if the veteran served in the country of Vietnam or on a ship that was floating out in the harbor to obtain the benefits that you are entitled too.
You may be asking how do I contact or schedule an appointment with the Nevada County Veterans Services Office? I am excited to inform everyone that recently we just released our new online booking feature for ease of access to our office. We know that during this pandemic it has not always been easy to connect with us despite our best efforts and therefore this feature was developed. If you would like to schedule an appointment with us to discuss possibly filing a claim for one of these three added conditions or any other benefit please access our website at: https://www.mynevadacounty.com/976/Veterans-Services
We also know that discussing VA benefits over the phone can be difficult for some of our veterans as well. To provide more options for services we also developed the “Virtual VSO”. We use the ZOOM platform to provide face-to-face services for our customers while we continue to work remotely. This has been highly successful, and we have received some great feedback on this feature as well. If you would like to meet with one our staff virtually, please communicate this with us, and we schedule your appointment in the manner that best suits your needs.
We would like to let everyone know that we do miss seeing our veterans face-to-face and working from our offices. Hopefully, the current surge in the pandemic will slow as more people receive their vaccinations and we can return to our offices. Please know that in the meantime, we are doing all that we can and will continue to implement new or existing technology to provide the best services possible to our veteran community.
David West is the Nevada County Veterans Service Officer. Reach him at (530) 265-1446 or david.west@co.nevada.ca.us. The Nevada County Veteran’s Services Office, 988 McCourtney Rd, Grass Valley, CA, is open from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.