(upbeat music) - Recently, I visited, along with some incredible people.

This was a health fair, a Veterans Health Fair that took place in Newark, New Jersey at Branch Brook Park.

And I sat down, you're about to see an interview with Colonel Jeff Cantor, who is in fact the CEO of New Jersey Veterans Chamber of Commerce.

Here's what we talked to the colonel about.

A whole range of issues facing our veterans today, healthcare issues, life after deployment, transitioning back into life outside the military, health related issues, physical health, mental health, a whole range of issues.

Talking to Colonel Jeff Cantor.

- Good to see you, Colonel.

- Great to see you, Steve.

- Talk about this event.

- Yeah, so this is put on by Braven Health.

So Braven came together at a strategy meeting and decided that it's really important to provide access to quality healthcare for the veterans community.

And so we just mobilized and made sure that we could get all the resource partners involved and get some of the strategic partners involved to make sure we're giving quality access of healthcare to the veterans community.

- You're talking about HIV testing, cardiovascular asthma, prostate cancer screenings, mental health resources.

Why mental health in there?

- it's really important, right?

So what's happening a lot in the veterans community is a lot of patients, veterans are suffering with PTSD, anxiety, depression as a result of PTSD and some of the exposures that they've seen during their service.

So what we're trying to do is provide resources for them so that they can get the access to the care that they need, whether it be physical health, mental health, cardiovascular health, pulmonology health, HIV.

Any type of healthcare we wanna provide them access to.

- There's another area that... You know, when I was going over the material with our producers, I looked and I saw mobile mammograms.

There are a significant number of female veterans here.

- So it's the largest- - And male.

- Yeah, absolutely.

But it's interesting you bring that up because female veterans are the largest growing group of veterans in the state of New Jersey, and unfortunately, the VA does not have a mammogram machine in the state of New Jersey.

- Does not?

- Does not.

So what we're trying to do is meet an unmet medical need by providing those resources like free mammogram services for female veterans so that they can get the care that they need.

And we're willing to give that information to them so they can take it to the VA and get the continuity of care, or come to a Braven Salute type program and they can get the care in the community where they live.

- Colonel, help us understand this.

There are hundreds of veterans here today at Branch Brook Park in Newark, New Jersey, and by the way, Essex County very involved.

The director of public health is here, a whole range of officials from the county are here as well.

So it's a collaborative effort between the veterans community, the folks at Braven, as well as the folks in government.

That being said, how did most veterans who are here today even know about this?

- So we put it out through various channels, right?

So we went to the state level of the VFW, the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, the Marine Corps League.

Let them know about the program.

We put it out on social media.

We went and visited every single state, every single VFW chapter and post in Essex County.

We went to Essex County to see if we can get their senior services involved, identify who the veterans are.

Joe D stepped up in a big way.

- [Steve] Essex County, Joe DiVincenzo.

- Stepped up in a huge way, provided free transportation for all veterans to come here.

We're working with the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

City of Newark stepped up as well, Department of Senior Services and Veteran Services.

So we put it out through a lot of channels and, you know, it's been very successful getting veterans to this event.

- Final question.

Veterans watching right now, looking for resources, not knowing exactly where to go, access is challenging, is there one place you believe, Colonel, they should be going?

- So there is one.

There's actually two places they go.

- Go ahead.

We'll put up the website.

So you talk about it.

- Yeah.

So the first one is thevfa.org.

That's the Veterans Foundation of America.

There's a number of resources for mental health and physical health.

- And by the way, the Veterans Foundation of America, one of the co-sponsors of the event, along with Feeding Our Heroes.

- That is correct.

Yeah.

Feeding our Heroes and Veterans Foundation of America helped.

They were the co-leads that put on this great event, and so they can go to www.thevfa.org.

You can find out about all the other healthcares that we're doing throughout the state.

There's seven healthcare fairs that we're doing in the state of New Jersey between now and November, so it's gonna be very effective.

And they can also go to warriorportal.com.

- [Steve] What is it again?

- Warriorportal.com.

And that's a one-stop-shop for all things veteran.

If they need any information on claims support, mental health support, how to find their closest VA facility, all that's on there.

It's a one-stop-shop for veterans.

- Colonel, well done.

Thank you for your service, and thank you for your service here and the work with your colleagues in making this happen.

Thank you, Colonel.

- Steve, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

- You got it.

- Thank you, man.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- Uplifting music.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

United Airlines.

Kean University.

Newark Board of Education.

PSEG Foundation.

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

And by Operating Engineers, Local 825.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by New Jersey Globe.

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