On May 5, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010. This particular act under law established a program of “comprehensive assistance for family caregivers of eligible veterans.” It also established and provides programs for “general caregiver support services” for those who are not living with a post-9/11 veteran yet are providing continual care and support to their special serviceman who returned with serious mental or physical injuries — our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters — all soldiers who marched off to war unmarked, whole beings, who dedicated their lives to fight for our country. Many have returned with severe physical disabilities or traumatic brain injuries, and deserve every bit of aid and comfort our government and citizens can give back to lessen their burden and make the lifelong road ahead as painless and functional as possible.
Our government recognized that the sacrifices made by our veterans are debts we will never fully be able to repay. However, we as a nation could at least provide whatever help might be necessary to the recovery and adjustment process for the all too many who will need long term and ongoing medical supervision — for those veterans who sustained at least “one impairment in one or more of seven activities of daily living or require supervision or protection based on symptoms or residuals of neurological or other impairment or injury.”
IMPLEMENTING THE WHO’S AND HOW’S
More often than not, family members are the people providing the crucial support our injured post-9/11 veterans are receiving. Until now, families have been left on their own to find caregiver assistance within their homes for their injured veterans. But now with the enactment of the VA’s CAREGIVER SUPPORT program, they can choose the person they want and who will commit him or herself to taking care of the injured veteran as well as finding a secondary helper. The Caregiver Support Program will help them to afford it with a stipend and, if necessary, health benefits as well. Like any other government agency, rules and regulations followed by mounds of bureaucracy have made finding adequate health care, supervision and respite help for those who are caring for injured veterans difficult. Hopefully, the Caregiver Support Programs available for both the injured post 9/11 veterans and their caregivers will find the Rules of Implementation for the Caregivers Support Program much less complex to navigate than other programs designed to offer aid and comfort to disabled veterans in the past.
The VA began accepting applications from seriously injured post 9/11 Veterans and their family caregivers for the all new Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers Program May 9, 2011. Eligible enrollees for the program will begin training in early June, 2011.
WHO QUALIFIES FOR ELIGIBILITY
Prior to qualifying for the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers, a veteran must first be enrolled for VA health services. If the veteran is not enrolled currently, both VA forms for the health services and the application for the Caregiver Program need to be completed, signed by both the veteran (or their legal representative) and their primary caregiver. These forms are: VA Form 10-10 EZ for VA health services and VA Form 10-10 CG for the Caregiver Program. These applications can be hand delivered to the local VA Medical Center; if an expedited processing is needed, it may be mailed to:
Family Caregivers Program Health Eligibility Center, 2957 Clairmont Rd. NE, Ste. 200; Atlanta, Georgia, 30329-1647. These applications can be downloaded at: www.caregiver.va.gov.
A clinical team from the VA will coordinate all the arrangements needed with the veteran to complete the clinical assessment eligibility, that will include evaluating and determining the veteran’s needs involving daily living activities such as eating, bathing, grooming, and a need for supervision and/or protection from accidental injury.
Once these issues are completed, the family caregiver training will need to be completed. There are multiple ways for this particular training to be completed and each caregiver will be able to determine what manner of training will be the best path to take.
Upon completion of the family caregiver training, a VA clinician will visit the veteran’s home with one clear purpose in mind: to ensure that the family caregiver and the veteran have everything they need to feel as safe and confident as possible in their home setting.
Based on the level of the veteran’s need and the assistance required, a monthly stipend for the family caregiver will be allotted to the caregiver. If the family caregiver has no health insurance benefits due to quitting a job they previously had in order to become the full-time family caregiver, they are eligible and can receive benefits through CHAMPVA. Both benefits are retroactive to the date of initial application.
For more information regarding caregiver services for veterans of all eras, go to: www.myhealth.va.gov or call Katie Smith at the Fargo VA Medical Center at: 701-239-3700, ext. 3559 or Kristin Swenson at ext. 3940. For more information on any and all OEF/OIF programs and any social-work related issues, Deb Kunkel is the Program Manager and can be reached at 701-239-3787.
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR VETERANS AND TROOPS NOW SERVING. WITHOUT YOU NONE OF US WOULD BE ABLE TO SHOUT “ENJOY AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE!”