Dignity – We love our Veterans!

Everyone is born with dignity. Sometimes we lose it along the way. Seeing persons who have lost their dignity is heartbreaking, and I see it occasionally at the VA. Veterans experience trauma that can worsen underlying mental health disorders. It can cause mental health disorders (e.g., traumatic brain injury and PTSD). And Veterans experience high rates of substance use disorders. These problems many times lead to a loss of dignity. We all want to be treated as something of value and feel that we have worth as human beings.

What does VA do for Veterans? We don’t just provide health care. We restore dignity by caring for the whole person. Everything at VA is focused on that singular Veteran’s life and improving the quality of that life. We don’t just pass out prescriptions and bill insurance. We aren’t focused on profit.

We treat each Veteran with respect. Recently while visiting a clinic, I noticed a flurry of activity in the nurse’s area. A disabled Veteran had arrived – he had not bathed or performed any personal hygiene in weeks. The staff immediately took him to the inpatient area to bathe him; they trimmed his hair and nails; they obtained new clothes and toiletry items. He was also given some food to take home and set up with home services. He was grateful and thanked every member of the team. His mood was completely different leaving us that day than when he arrived. We restored his dignity.

This made me think about how often we do things like this. Many of our programs help restore dignity. One of our major missions over the past few years has been to eliminate Veteran homelessness. We believe in housing first – when a person has a home, substance abuse treatment and mental health treatment are much more successful. I meet with Veterans who have been through our programs – they are so proud of their success. Many of them now have their own apartments or homes and are successfully employed and substance-free.

Our Mental Health programs surpass anything available in the private sector. We offer the full spectrum of care, and are constantly increasing our offerings, while the private sector continues to lose inpatient beds and programs. A Veteran can go from being homeless and abusing substances to owning a home and having a rewarding vocation. Our programs (again, we make no profit on this) include Compensated Work Therapy, which gives Veterans a job at the VA medical center while they undergo substance abuse or mental health treatment. Many of these Veterans complete their programs and then continue working for VA. Our Peer Support specialists are employed Veterans who have been through our Mental Health program and are now supporting other Veterans in the process. Our inpatient Mental Health unit works directly with our outpatient programs to keep Veterans at home and safe.

Home Based Primary Care is a program in which we send providers, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, and dietitians to a Veteran’s home to provide care. This program benefits those who have difficulty traveling – they can avoid waiting rooms and discomfort. VA also pays for help in the home that varies from nursing visits to light housekeeping, bathing, and meal preparation. This keeps Veterans at home where they want to be.

Back to the patient we took care of in clinic that day. We didn’t bill for this service. We do these types of things every day, because it is our mission. You won’t find this type of comprehensive care for Veterans anywhere else.

DAVID ISAACKS, FACHE