On this coming Memorial Day and every day, geriatric care managers can be a huge help to older veterans to get VA benefits.
With nearly 10 million veterans in the U.S. who are over the age of 65, older vets are usually good candidates for geriatric care management services both now and in the future.
Unfortunately, navigating the services supports, and VA benefits available to older veterans can be a challenge for geriatric care managers and clients alike. Services and supports for this population are available at the federal, state and local level addition to the service navigation complexity. The configuration of services received by veterans and their families is likely to consist of federal services provided by the Veterans Administration in addition to more localized services for older adults in general like those provided by senior centers, area agencies on aging, etc.
VA Benefits available to veterans and their families range from federal VA home
improvement grants, burial benefits, medical care, respite, housing programs, pension, and even local benefits like business loans and discount programs.
Like most clients served by geriatric care managers, this population will need both VA Benefits and personalized assistance in meeting their care needs. For this reason, it is important to note that services and supports designed for older adults, in general, are also key resources for veterans.
While the VA is a great resource, don’t overlook the value and expertise in VA Benefits offered by local organizations like local healthcare centers, senior centers, and Area Agencies on Aging, among others.
Find the many ways care managers can access hard-to-find VA services and serve retired vets.
This memorial Day remember “More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history.”
In the US there have been 2,032 school shootings since 1970 and these numbers are increasing. In the US 948 school shootings have taken place since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.
As President Biden said “As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Mr. Biden said. “When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?”
So on this memorial day stand up for common sense gun laws. Call your Congressperson and state senatorand ask them to pass Backgound Checks for purchasing guns.
A House-passed bill, HR 1446, backed by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, would close what’s known as the “Charleston loophole,” which allows some licensed gun sales to go through before a required background check is donehttps://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/gun-laws-us-congress/index.html.But the legislation is stalled in the Senate. Write or call your State Senator and ask them to pass this bill. On this memorial day make the death school children ( your kids , your grandkids , now dying more than people who go to war, less likely by a background check that 90% of Americans believe in
/Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition includes a new chapter that will help you help vets Maximizing the Health and Well-Being of Older Veterans by Dr. Lenard Kaye, director of the Center for Aging at the University of Maine and Glenn Osbourne, director of the National Veterans Legal Aid Group . As an aging life or geriatric care manager, or senior advocate, learn how to to get elder veteran’s VA benefits they so deserve.
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