The Tuscaloosa Veterans Administration Medical Center will open an outpatient clinic in Selma to improve access and quality care for veterans in this area, and Demopolis has been selected as the site of a future VA outpatient clinic.

The new outpatient clinic, located at 206 Vaughn Memorial Drive in Selma, will have its grand opening on Thursday at 9 a.m. It will operate Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Something similar could be headed to our county in the near future.

“Demopolis has been selected as a future site of a VA outpatient clinic,” said Lee Belcher of Demopolis, the commander of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 31. “During a short visit with Alan J. Tyler, the director of the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center, he stated that when the Selma outpatient clinic is fully operational, they will then focus on the Demopolis location.”

The Tuscaloosa VA awarded about $1.1 million to establish a home-based primary care team and $334,000 to establish a mental health outreach team, with both teams operating from the Selma clinic. These teams will go out the veterans’ homes in order to provide health care to eligible veterans who are unable to get to a VA medical center or clinic.

The Tuscaloosa VA was awarded $2 million in rural health outreach initiatives, and will use this money for additional outreach in the Selma area and selected rural areas in Alabama.