04/26/2023
The Honorable Denis R. McDonough
Secretary
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20420
VIA EMAIL: Denis.McDonough@va.gov
Dear Secretary McDonough,
I am reaching out to you only because maybe you can get the answers to the questions that I have been asking. Since there seems to be no one in the New Mexico Veterans Administration that has the answer, not the answer I want to hear, just an answer.
I moved out to New Mexico to help my aging father, who turned 80 in December 2022 and is a 20-year Army veteran. That works out to approximately 175,200 hours of active-duty service at 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. My father applied for and was approved for home health care but was denied the V.A. caregiver program by the V.A.
Now here is where it gets confusing. The V.A. approved my father for 20 hours a week for home health care, but he is allotted only 9 hours a week. So, the Veterans Administration is telling him that 168 hours a week for 20 years of fighting for one’s life and one’s country, is not worth 20 hours a week of Home Health Care?
My father is asked questions by the nurse at our local clinic in Santa Fe about health, bathing, dressing, feeding himself, and so on. Then his answers are sent to the V.A. hospital to another nurse, who has never even seen my father in person and would not know him from Adam mind you. That nurse looked over the answers and by some sort of point system, awarded him 9 hours a week. This equation comes out to 1.28571429 hour(s) a day. This does not even cover travel time even for doctors appointments, let alone if he has to go shopping for basic necessities.
I have asked several nurses at the Santa Fe clinic and the workers in Community Care at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center, and they informed me that NONE of the veterans that have been approved for home health care ever gets awarded 20 hours a week. I was also told that regulations and qualifications have been changed and it is now even harder to get approved for the V.A. caregiver program.
My question is, why is that? 20 hours a week comes out to 2.85714286 hour(s) a day. Which if you really think about it, isn’t an adequate amount of home health care for my father. Most of the home health care companies work in 8-to-12-hour shifts. Which means that if I were not here to take care of my father, he would have a person come out to help him 1 day a week and the rest of the week he would be left alone to fend for himself.
This is home health care through the Community Care program and not through the V.A. Care Giver program. They are 2 different programs and I was informed by V.A. sources, that not very many veterans are approved for the V.A. Care Giver program.
Community Care Overview
VA provides care to Veterans through community providers when VA cannot provide the care needed. Community care is based on specific eligibility requirements, availability of VA care, and the needs and circumstances of individual Veterans.
Veterans Caregiver Program
In order to be accepted into the VA caregiver program, you must meet the following requirements:
• The veteran must have a service-connected disability rating of 70% or higher.
• The veteran’s care needs must be rated as “substantially” due to their service-connected disability, and
• The veteran must have received six months of continuous, in-person personal care service.
Under the definition for the Veterans Caregiver Program my father qualifies for that program. My father is rated 100% I.U.
Since I have been here in New Mexico, I have met several of the veterans in my father’s PTSD group. And as I got to know them better, I found out that would call each other for help and assistance, such as running errands, helping around the house and so on. They are and always be there for each other no matter what may come. This is due to the fact that getting approved for any sort of home care is getting harder and most do not have family that can be there for them, or just don’t have family at all except for their brothers and sisters in arms.
When my father and I are out and about doing errands, he likes to wear his ballcap with the 5th Special Forces patch on it, there would always be someone that would come up and shake his hand and say, “Thank you for your service”. Which he would reply, “It was my honor to serve”.
Every time I hear “Thank you for your service” I also hear…
Thank you for your service….
Thank you for getting doused with Agent Orange and getting some sort of cancer.
Thank you for your service….
Thank you for getting shot at and getting wounded or killed.
Thank you for your service…
Thank you for getting captured, tortured, and maimed.
Thank you for your service…
Thank you for having nightmares and night terrors for the rest of your life.
And if you would ask most of those men and women that are suffering, if they would serve again knowing the outcome, most say they would, because it was their “Honor to Serve”.
So again, I ask, is 20 hours of Home Health Care a week really that much?
Sincerely,
Kasie Garrison
U.S. Army
Disabled Veteran
