Page 7 - Desert Oracle July 2020

Phoenix Service Office; COVID 19 Crisis

As most of you know by now, the COVID 19 crisis has changed a lot
of the way things are done in our lives. One of the most notable

changes nowadays is that it is not as simple to connect easily with a
real person over the phone. Everything seems to be centered around

computers and the internet. I for one am not very “computer-smart”,
so I really do sympathize with those of you who are also having a hard
time trying to connect with the different services.

Unfortunately, the veteran service organizations will be the last to be

able to enter the VA Regional Office to once again work from our
offices there. We have been told that, due to the COVID 19 crisis, it
could be as late as August or September before we are permitted
back in the building to work. Hence, we will not be able to answer

your phone calls to our office, as we are still working from home.

In order to be able to assist you, please email myself or Michael
Wilson (Senior National Service Officer), and one of us will call you
back as soon as possible. Please note that since we are using our

personal phones to call our clients, the phone number will register as
an unidentified phone number. Michael’s PVA email is

michaelw@pva.org and mine is jackieb@pva.org.

My heart goes out to those of you who do not have a computer or an
email address. If that is the case, please try to see if a relative or
friend can help you so that you may possibly use their email address

to communicate with our office so that we may then call you.

Hopefully, we’ll be back in the office sooner than later, which will
hopefully make it a lot easier for our clients. Until then, please know
we’re here to help as best we can.

Jackie Berkshire, Senior Secretary