By CHRIS VAUGHN FORT WORTH — The Veterans Affairs Department is doubling the number of Vet Centers in the Metroplex next year to serve the growing number of men and women who may need readjustment counseling after multiple tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. One Vet Center each is planned for Tarrant and Dallas counties, according to the VA. Nationwide, the government is adding 39 Vet Centers to ramp up its counseling and mental-health services, including facilities in Harris and Bexar counties. Vet Centers, created in 1979 after the Vietnam War, are not medical facilities and are not staffed by physicians or nurses. Counselors provide help — called "talk therapy" — with readjustment from combat and family issues and bereavement of relatives of service members killed on active duty. The services are free to veterans and their families. Most veterans who go to counseling in Fort Worth are Vietnam-era, but the percentage of young men and women is growing annually, officials said. The existing Vet Center in Tarrant County is on Magnolia Avenue in the medical district. The one in Dallas is north of downtown on Central Expressway. VA officials in North Texas said they could not be more specific about the new locations, but they said they will not involve construction. "We’re going to lease space," said Jessica Jacobsen, a spokeswoman for the VA’s regional office in Arlington. "Tarrant and Dallas county is as specific as we can get right now. ...
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