MANCHESTER — Marc Levenson has helped guide the Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center in improving treatment for veterans during his 23 years working at the center.

“I think the biggest accomplishment is we're providing more services to more veterans,” Levenson said in a recent interview.

When Levenson arrived in 1989, there were about 8,000 veterans using the Manchester center. Today, it surpasses 22,000, the growth partly fueled by more liberal enrollment criteria for people to become eligible for services.

“The challenges are basically keeping up with the changing demand of the veteran population,” he said. “They're getting older and transportation is a big issue for them. The biggest challenge is to get as much care locally as we can.”

Today, there are four community-based, outpatient clinics — in Tilton, Conway, Portsmouth and Somersworth — providing mostly primary care and mental health services.

This month, Levenson, 60, wraps up more than a quarter century of service with the U.S. Veterans Administration (now called the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs), including 23 years in Manchester.

“He did a great job at the VA,” said New Hampshire Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander Greg Lynch, who is getting follow-up care after undergoing triple bypass surgery at a VA hospital in San Francisco.

In April, Levenson went to work at the VA in White River Junction, Vt., to help up there, where he is acting director.

Levenson has spent 27-plus years working for the VA. His Manchester tenure included serving as chief of staff from 1989 to 2000 and as director from then through last April.

The Manchester VA center serves Hillsborough, Rockingham, Merrimack, Strafford, Belknap and Carroll counties, as well as western Maine and northern Massachusetts.

Lynch called the four clinics “The greatest asset. It makes it so much more convenient for anybody to get care in their own area, to not go any great distance.”

Lynch also said it's helpful to be able to go to Concord Hospital, or other designated hospitals for care.

New Hampshire is home to about 125,000 veterans. Approximately 22,000 use the Manchester VA system. About 8,000 more access the facility in White River Junction, according to Levenson.

Medical demands, he said, have shifted over the years. Many of today's warriors “have significant issues with mental health issues and traumatic brain injuries,” Levenson said.

The Manchester VA started a traumatic brain injury program in 2007 and has treated more than 325 veterans. “We needed to deal with those issues,” he said.

The mental health staff, counting the VA center and four community clinics, has jumped from 10 to 30 since 2004.

He said there also is more VA funding for caring for veterans at home.

Veterans also can communicate with nurses in Manchester via webcam. Their conditions, in some cases, can be electronically monitored while other veterans can take their own blood pressure and sugar readings.

Manchester is not a full-service VA hospital, but the VA pays for such services by sending veterans to designated hospitals.

Additiobally, between 10 and 20 Granite State veterans head to the VA in West Roxbury, Mass., most days.

“The remarkable thing is we've more than doubled the population over the last decade, but the number of veterans traveling out of state hasn't increased. It's still higher than we'd like,” Levenson said.