FORT BELVOIR, Va. -- On January 9, the U.S Army announced opening of two community care units at Fort Belvoir as part of a restructuring of its Warrior Transition Units (WTUs) as the service prepares for a scheduled withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and a continued decline in the number of combat wounded.
The Community Care Units here, or CCUs, will realign the management of Soldiers healing in their home communities to the Warrior Transition Battalion here. Soldiers assigned to the CCUs have non-complex medical issues.
According to Maj. Gen. M. Ted Wong, commanding general, Northern Regional Medical Command (NRMC), CCUs will improve the care and transition of Soldiers through standardization, improve span of control and better access to resources.
"Community Care Units are good for the Army and more importantly the wounded, ill and injured Soldiers and their families, Wong said. "Soldiers will not move as result of being assigned to a CCU, will remain in their home communities, receive care from their current providers and will not have their care plans changed."
Under Community Care, Community Based Warrior Transition Unit (CBWTU) Soldiers - those healing at home - will be assigned to CCUs at Warrior Transition Units located at Army installations. As part of the restructuring, NRMC will also add two CCUs at Fort Knox, Ky., and one at Fort Bragg, N.C. All CCUs will be operational no later Sep. 30.
The transition to CCUs will result in the inactivation of NRMC's three CBWTUs located at Virginia Beach, Va., Concord, Mass., and Rock Island, Ill. These community-based WTUs will continue to provide outpatient care and services for Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers who do not require day-to-day care until the CCUs are open.
During the transition of Soldiers from CBWTUs to CCUs, there will be deliberate transfer of authority interactions between losing and gaining cadre, military leadership and civilian personnel to ensure 100 percent accountability and continuity of oversight.
"Our goal is to make this transition as seamless as possible for our wounded population and their families, so they can continue to their road to recovery, which is always our priority."
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