Beyond the safety of his own family, there’s probably nothing more important to Putnam County Manager Paul Van Haute than helping U.S. military veterans survive and thrive upon returning home.
Van Haute’s dedication to the cause was recognized recently with his appointment to the vice chairman’s position for the National Association of Counties (NACo’s) Veterans and Military Services Committee.
Van Haute is among 18 Georgia county officials appointed to leadership roles on policy steering committees by NACo President Mary Jo McGuire. These Peach State officials will serve as chairs and vice-chairs of NACo committees and subcommittees seeking to affect federal policy changes.
Van Haute, a U.S. Army veteran himself, said he spoke in April with NACo CEO and Executive Director Matthew Chase and they discussed the tragic problem of veteran suicides and how “it’s just got to be a solvable problem.”
“The level of frustration I felt from 23 veterans a day (committing suicide) after coming home from the war is just something that has bothered me for years,” Van Haute stated on Aug. 3. “I mean, the services can teach you how to fight and defend and do your job, but they can’t teach you how to deal with it when you get home, and that’s awfully frustrating.
“So, the Veterans and Military Services Committee at NACo and its members develop and highlight some of the county’s best practices and policies to promote innovative programs and services and benefits for the nation’s military veterans and their families.”
Van Haute said he’s been involved in veteran’s rights groups for many years, including working with them through the United Way’s Veterans Education Career Transition Resources (VECTR) Center in Macon. VECTR offers veterans job training for varied careers, such as welding, commercial truck driving, I/T work, and airframe and powerplant repair, among others.
But while he remains active with VECTR, after Putnam County joined NACo “five or six years ago,” Van Haute said he recognized the advantages of membership for both him and the county.
“NACo always had interesting policies and they always had good policy analysis, so I was excited to be in the organization because you’re getting a nationwide perspective,” he said.
“And that’s where I always found NACo to be pretty interesting. You’re not reinventing a solution.
There are a lot of counties out there that have gone through things, so I’ve always kind of been plugged into what NACo is doing.”
Van Haute said working in a leadership position on the Veterans and Military Service Committee is a great honor but represents an even greater opportunity for him.
“The suicide issue for me was always the biggest issue that we’ve got to try to figure out how to slow down,” he said. “And then the next step is the families. Everybody’s talking about the service members, and then you talk about their families two or three sentences later. Well, these poor people are dealing with it every day, so something’s got to give for them, too.”
Van Haute also pointed out the advantage of being in Georgia with so many military bases nearby and a strong Veterans Administration in place.
“They’re so helpful to just try to make sure that the service members are taken care of after the fact. Personally, I use the VA services and they have been really good. I’ve had positive experiences with the VA and I want to make sure that continues for the new folks. But it’s like most federal government stuff. How do we cut through the paperwork in the quickest and easiest way to make stuff happen? That’s always an ongoing mission or quest.”
He also plans to use his new role to learn about best practices to help vets from various counties nationwide and then try to implement them at the federal level.
He also wants to use the much larger pool of data and knowledge collected across the country to help focus on identifying those veterans who may be most susceptible to suicidal thoughts upon returning home.
“I mean, it’s some of your more special operators that have a tougher time transitioning back, so I want to try to make sure attention is paid to some of those men and women,” Van Haute said. “One of the passions that keep me going is to make sure that the young men and women who come home get to fully come home, with their mind, heart, and soul, and be just as good as they were or even better than when they left.”