Dietitian Rachelle Lyons puts together an easy to make, healthy snack using peanut butter, nuts, honey, oats and coconut at a women's wellness event at the Brushes and Barstools studio on South Main Street Friday.

The focus was on wellness for women veterans Friday afternoon at an annual event attended by nearly 30 veterans who are part of one of VA Butler Healthcare’s most quickly-growing demographics.

David Cord, the system’s executive director, said he expects women veterans as a percentage of the system’s patients to skyrocket in coming years.

Cord said female veterans are already “probably our fastest-growing patient population at the (Butler) VA,” and make up about five percent of some 19,000 veterans served by the system. He said projections forecast that female population to grow two or three times in the next five to 10 years.

“To me that’s exciting, but also a challenge to make sure we’re meeting your needs,” Cord told female veterans at Brushes and Barstools painting studio on South Main Street, where the VA had its annual winter wellness event for women veterans.

The event comes during National Heart Month, so the focus is on cardiovascular health, said Nicole Thompson, the VA’s women veteran program manager.

The painting studio venue is new for the event

“Since painting is so popular now, we thought it would be something the women could enjoy,” Thompson said, “and would be able to incorporate heart health into the paintings.”

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2009, it killed nearly 300,000 women nationwide.

In Butler County the death rate from heart disease between 2008 and 2010 was 344 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.

As part of Friday’s program, veterans heard presentations from VA programming officials like Thompson; medical professionals like pharmacist Victoria Pattison, who spoke about antibiotic safety and treatment; and dietitian Rachelle Lyons, who demonstrated healthy-eating strategies and recipes.

The VA deals with more than just heart disease when it comes to women’s health, officials said. In recent years the focus has been expanding available wellness care and specialty services to VA Butler’s five satellite clinics — a goal Thompson said was recently realized.

This year will be the first time women veterans can receive full gynecological services and other specialty procedures at all the system’s sites, she said.

The system’s new health care center in Center Township will add to those improvements, Cord said, with a women’s health clinic planned for that facility, and the prospect of expanding programming for women later.

Women veterans say they appreciate the strides made by the system, but that more needs to be done widening access to care as well as the kind of services available through the VA.

Barbara Calvert of Butler, a U.S. Navy Veteran who said she moved home to Butler from Texas because of the superior health care offered by VA Butler Healthcare, said something as simple as updating the VA’s exercise center to be more women-friendly can be an important step forward. Calvert said she wants to see updates made to equipment and wellness programming.

Christina Hermankevish of Economy, who served in the Marine Corps from 2006 to 2010, said she wants to see the VA expand its programming to more pointedly address sexual violence in the military.

“That should be something more that the VA focuses on,” she said. “It’s a huge issue.”