You cannot treat a man's back if he is sleeping in his car

Valor Medica is the medical arm of Valor Villages, the St. Louis nonprofit that houses veterans. Valor Villages provides the roof, the case management and the path forward. Valor Medica provides the medicine that keeps all of it standing.

In immediate danger or thinking about harming yourself? Call or text 988. Veterans press 1. Medical emergency? Call 911.

Need care, not an emergency? Call (314) 250-5100 or text (314) 886-5902. Or tap the directory assistant, the light in the corner of the page.

Why do homeless veterans need a different kind of care?

Medicine does not work above someone's circumstances. It works inside them, or it does not work.

Every step in health care quietly assumes an address, a phone that stays on, a ride and documents proving who you are. Remove one and the system stops. Nobody refused care. Every step assumed something that was not true.

A veteran with untreated PTSD, a back injury and no fixed address does not have three problems. He has one situation. It does not respond to a prescription handed across a counter.

So Valor Medica builds backward:

• care is coordinated with housing,
• appointments account for transport,
• documentation help is part of the clinical plan,
• and when someone cannot come to the care, some of the care goes to them.

The need is measured. 14.4% of American veterans meet criteria for PTSD in their lifetime. More than 33,000 veterans were homeless on a single night in 2022, by the HUD point-in-time count.

Why does a housing nonprofit need a medical arm?

Because housing without health care does not hold.

Valor Villages kept hitting the same wall. Someone would be housed, and then the untreated condition they arrived with would take the housing back. Pain that made work impossible. PTSD that made a congregate setting unbearable. Substance use nobody had the capacity to treat. Diabetes unmanaged for a decade.

You cannot case-manage your way out of untreated disease. Valor Medica is the clinical answer.

Valor Medica is a nonprofit division of the Sevadar Foundation. Valor Villages is a separate 501(c)(3). The two work under a program partnership, and neither controls the other. Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, Medical Director, Valor Villages, directs the medical side: the serious comorbidities patients carry and the conditions stacked on top of them. His biography.

What does Valor Medica do?

Veterans medical care

Primary and specialty care coordinated with the VA and community health partners, for veterans in housing and veterans still outside. The VA is part of the care. Valor Medica works with it, not around it.

PTSD and trauma care

Trauma care fails two ways. Nobody measures, so nobody knows if treatment works. Or measurement becomes a gate you must pass before anyone believes you.

Valor Medica does the first without the second. "We start by believing you, and then we measure, because you deserve both." Validated instruments such as the PCL-5 track change over time. They never decide whether your experience counts.

The assessment covers symptom burden, sleep, startle and hyperarousal, pain, substance use, housing and one thing commonly missed: sound. Veterans with PTSD have twice the odds of a hyperacusis diagnosis, a clinical intolerance of ordinary sound (adjusted odds ratio 2.00). If noise is part of the problem, it changes which jobs and which housing will be tolerable.

Telling someone "you're safe now" does not switch the alarm off. The circuitry does not take instruction from the part of the brain that produces reassurance. Treatment works on the mechanism instead of arguing with it. Medication is one option, always a conversation, and never required.

Mental health and substance use recovery

Depression, anxiety and grief support. Medically supervised care, medication-assisted treatment and long-term recovery support through established partner programs. Active substance use never disqualifies anyone.

Chronic pain and metabolic care

Pain is a signal, not the disease. The pain that keeps someone out of work and the metabolic inflammation underneath it are one problem, assessed together.

The chain runs both ways. Poor blood sugar control impairs tissue repair, raises inflammatory load and worsens nerve pain. Pain wrecks sleep and activity, which worsens glucose control. Treat one alone and the result is short.

For the unhoused, both arrive late. Diabetes found at the foot ulcer. Hypertension found at the crisis. Pain present for years with no identified source.

And unmanaged pain is one of the most reliable ways a placement fails. A man who cannot sit, stand or sleep cannot hold a job or tolerate a shared house, and will self-medicate with whatever is available. Treating pain here is not comfort care. It is housing retention.

The evaluation:

• the pain: where, how long, what changes it, what has been tried,
• blood work for glucose control, kidney function, vitamin D and inflammatory markers,
• sleep, which is both cause and casualty,
• every medication, including what was started years ago and never revisited,
• function: what you cannot do that you need to,
• the pain generator, where one can be found.

As Dr. Padda puts it: "You cannot correct anybody's metabolism from a bus stop."

What if I am on a high opioid dose?

This program reduces opioid burden. Arrive on a high dose and the work is a safe taper with something better in place. Not abandonment. Not indefinite continuation. Abrupt discontinuation is itself a recognized harm. When the pain source is found and treated directly, the medication requirement usually falls on its own, a different mechanism from tapering by willpower. Valor Medica is not a prescriber for continuing an opioid prescription. See opioid tapering.

Street medicine outreach

Basic first aid taken into camps and under bridges. Interceptive care: catching the wound, the infection, the neglected foot, the dangerous blood-sugar swing while it is still small. Each is cheap to treat early and expensive to treat late.

• wound care and dressing changes,
• vital signs and basic assessment,
• recognizing what needs escalation, and arranging it,
• socks, water, hygiene items, weather protection,
• a route into ongoing care for anyone who wants it.

It is not a mobile clinic, and Valor Medica will not call it one. Someone who needs a physician needs a physician. The team's job is to recognize that and get them there. Outreach locations are never published, because publishing where unhoused people sleep puts them at risk.

Nothing is required after contact. Some people want a dressing changed and nothing else. That is a complete outcome.

Housing-linked care

Clinical support wrapped around HUD-VASH and transitional housing: assessment at placement, medication continuity across a move, transport to appointments, and early warning when a health problem is about to cost someone their placement.

Benefits and documentation

The ID, the birth certificate, the Social Security card, the earned benefit nobody explained. This work unlocks more medical care than any single clinical intervention, so it is treated as clinical work.

Horticulture retraining

Quiet-by-design vocational training on a restored Missouri tallgrass prairie, for people whose nervous systems cannot tolerate a loud job site. Full program: Valor Villages housing and horticulture.

Who can Valor Medica serve?

Almost certainly you, if:

• you are a veteran in the St. Louis region, in any discharge status,
• you are homeless or about to be,
• you are housed through Valor Villages,
• a health condition is putting your housing at risk,
• a condition has gone unmanaged for years because your circumstances made it impossible,
• you were turned away elsewhere for active substance use.

Veterans are the center, not the limit. Unhoused neighbors are served regardless of service history. The region is greater St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois.

These never disqualify you: no insurance, no money, no ID, no address, no phone, active substance use, a discharge that was not honorable, missed appointments elsewhere, a "non-compliant" label.

Valor Medica is the wrong door for emergency or trauma care (911), immediate crisis (988, veterans press 1), inpatient psychiatric admission, or a primary need for housing, food or case management, which is Valor Villages.

What happens after I ask for help?

1. You say what is going on. By phone, text, the care request form, or a Valor Villages case manager. A clinician, shelter worker or relative can ask for you. Be brief. No diagnosis needed.
2. They respond within two business days as a goal, and tell you plainly if your situation needs faster attention elsewhere.
3. A first assessment of 45 to 60 minutes. Longer than usual on purpose: health history, medications, pain, sleep, mood, substance use, housing. You will not be asked to prove anything, bring documents you lack, or be sober.
4. A written plan you keep. What is going on, what happens first, who owns each part, and how it connects to VA care or case management.
5. Follow-through. Follow-up is booked before you leave. Transport is arranged if getting there is the obstacle.

Miss an appointment? Say so and it gets rearranged. No explanation required. The usual reasons are transport and a phone that died. Neither is a reason to stop treating somebody.

Bring what you have: ID, medications or photos of the bottles, a DD-214, names of doctors who have seen you, an insurance or VA card. Missing any of it does not delay care.

What does care cost?

Charitable care through Valor Medica is provided without charge to the patient. No bill, no application fee. If you have VA or insurance coverage, Valor Medica will help you use it, because that stretches the donated money further. Inability to pay never decides whether you are seen.

How is my information protected?

Health information stays with the clinical team under the confidentiality rules any medical practice follows. It is shared with Valor Villages case management only if you agree, and never with donors, funders, a landlord, an employer or an immigration authority. Substance use treatment records carry additional federal protection. You can have a copy of your record.

Who does what between Valor Medica and Valor Villages?

If you need	Who provides it
Emergency or transitional housing, HUD-VASH, rapid re-housing	Valor Villages
Food, clothing, hygiene, showers, laundry, case management	Valor Villages
Replacing an ID, birth certificate or Social Security card	Valor Villages, clinically supported by Valor Medica
Medical care, care coordination, PTSD and trauma assessment	Valor Medica
Substance use recovery support, street outreach and first aid	Both
Horticulture vocational training	Valor Medica, on the partnership

Housing and tenancy sit with Valor Villages. Assessment, treatment and medical records sit with Valor Medica. That line means medical information never drives a housing decision, and a housing dispute never stops care. Unsure who to call? Call either. Nobody sends you in a circle.

How do I reach Valor Medica?

Call (314) 250-5100 or text (314) 886-5902. Texting works when you cannot talk. No reliable phone? Give any route that works: a case manager, a shelter, a relative, an email you check now and then.

Administrative office: 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 210, St. Louis, MO 63134. Care happens at partner sites and in the community, so do not travel there expecting a walk-in clinic. The line is not a crisis line.

Want to fund the work? Valor Medica accepts one-time, monthly, in-kind, corporate and foundation gifts, which pay for clinical care, outreach supplies, transport and vocational training. Gifts go to Sevadar Foundation Inc., EIN 93-2840861, and do not pass to Valor Villages.

Frequently asked questions

Will Valor Medica believe me about my pain?

Yes. Nobody has to prove their pain before it is taken seriously. They believe you first, then measure.

Can I request care for someone else?

Yes. Say how you know the person and whether they know you are calling. Nobody shows up unannounced where a person has not agreed to be contacted.

What if I asked before and never heard back?

Ask again and say it happened. Requests fall through for practical reasons, a dead phone or a full inbox. It is not a judgment about you.

How long will Valor Medica keep treating me?

For as long as recovery takes. It is written into the mission. Much of recovery looks like failure in year one, and nobody reaches for the mower.

Does a gift to Valor Medica fund Valor Villages housing?

No. Gifts to Valor Medica go to Sevadar Foundation Inc. and fund clinical and vocational programs. Housing is funded through gifts to Valor Villages Inc.

Is Valor Medica an emergency service?

No. It is not an emergency department, trauma center or inpatient psychiatric facility, and not a replacement for the VA.