Let me be incredibly open here: as an aging service-connected disabled veteran, I have more than a casual interest in the following development. After years of effort by veterans with disabilities, my brother and sister veterans with disabilities will have the physical and emotional comfort of staying in their homes of choice as long as possible and overseeing their direct homecare needs.
A secondary personal satisfaction is being involved in the launch of this program as a partner with the Regional Veterans Affairs Medical Centers.
If you’ve been following my previous columns, you know that I am all about empowering citizens with any disabilities — my lifelong passion — employing the Independent Living philosophy that believes that we all have a right to live in our homes, work in our communities, and engage in society with all the responsibilities and privileges that comes with that role.
So, with that said, I could not be more pleased to tell you about this:
Independent Living of Niagara County (ILNC), and its sister agencies in Western New York, have recently contracted with the Veterans Administration Medical Centers in Buffalo and Batavia to offer another exciting choice for veterans “to call the shots” in their own home care, known as Veteran-Directed Care (VDC). While a new concept for our area, VA Medical Centers have been partnering with Independent Living Centers recently around the country in the VDC model, and it has demonstrated success in self-directed care, allowing veterans to choose their own home care aides.
A particular focus of this program is to reach the underserved rural parts of Western New York where veterans face provider shortages, geographic and distance barriers, limited broadband coverage which impairs their ability to participate in telehealth, and social determinants of health relative to rural living experiences (i.e., access to transportation, employment, etc.).
To remain true to our peer philosophy, WNYIL has employed another Army veteran, Thomas Patterson, to serve in our first counsellor role and interface directly with the veterans in assessing their needs in their homes and communities. Veterans and Tom work together to build a spending plan to identify costs for their Personal Assistants and obtain any additional goods and services the veteran requires to improve the quality of life in their home and community.
The power of this Veteran Directed Care program can be recognized in the experiences of the individual veterans who are participating in it. For example, a 94-year-old veteran who functions independently in his own home and wants to remain there with some additional oversight for specific household tasks and community access — like going to the library for a new mystery novel — has employed his daughter-in-law for these functions. Another veteran depends on his granddaughter for activities of daily living. Most of us would consider both tasks simple, quickly done, yet just the thing that keeps our veterans free from institutional care without being a burden on anyone and still part of their families. One thing is certain: their stories are being heard.
This program of ILNC/WNYIL continues to support veterans across the wider Western New York region, in Niagara, Erie, Genesee, Orleans, Livingston, Monroe, Wyoming, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties. We are proud to serve the veterans in our community.
To qualify for this program, a veteran must request Veteran-Directed Care from their VA physician and Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) at the local VA Medical Center or VA Clinic; an assessment is completed and referral made to the VDC program.