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GIVING IRAQ VETERANS A PATHWAY HOME -- California

Vets Home at Yountville set to open center

to treat newest casualties of war.

 

 

Story here... http://www.napavalleyregister.com/
articles/2007/03/22/news/local/do
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Giving Iraq vets a pathway home

Vets Home set to open center to treat newest casualties of war

By JULISSA McKINNON
Register Staff Writer

In the wake of controversial reports of substandard conditions facing returning Iraq war veterans at Walter Reed Medical Center, a top official at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville said he still believes Walter Reed overall to be a “solid operation.”

More importantly for the residents in the Yountville home, those substandard conditions are not present here. But Bart Buechner, deputy administrator of the Yountville veterans home, also acknowledged there is more strain today on the nation’s military health care system than there has been in years.

“We’ve got a lot of vets coming back from their service who are processing through the military medical hospitals and the (Veterans Affairs) hospitals. It’s putting more strain on the system,” Buechner said. “It has not had to handle this magnitude of people and the types of injuries and illnesses.”

In light of this, Buechner and the Yountville home’s lead administrator, Marcella McCormack, say it’s all the more important they do their part to shoulder the responsibility of caring for today’s war-wounded soldiers.

For the past three years, Vets Home administrators have been building a program to help Iraq war veterans recover from severe injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Tending to soldiers returning from war harks back to the home’s former days of caring for soldiers suffering from shellshock and injuries caused by explosives during service in the U.S. Civil War and World War I.

The Pathway Home program, as it will be called, will treat 34 veterans who will live at the home while receiving treatment for 90-to-120 day periods. McCormack and Buechner said they hope to launch the program this summer.

Administrators said the program would be geared toward war-traumatized soldiers who have already received some medical treatment at military and VA hospitals. The goal is to provide them with the extra physical and mental therapy they might need to successfully transition back to civilian life.

“Today, we’re looking at not repeating the lack of preparation we saw in the Vietnam War,” Buechner said. “What we don’t want to see is the (welcome home) parade go away and expect that life goes on as normal, because it doesn’t. People need help adjusting back to work and their communities. It takes a sustained effort.”

McCormack added that extra support is needed during this war because many of the soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan were part-time soldiers — serving in the Army Reserves and National Guard. Rather than returning to life on a military base, where staff are more sensitized to the difficult transition back to the homefront, part-time soldiers are plunging right back into jobs and civilian lives without much of a buffer, McCormack said.

The Pathway Home program would be staffed by “treatment teams” that consist of PTSD counselors, marriage and family therapists, nurses, doctors, dietitians and physical therapists, she said.

The residential building to house the new veteran patients was recently christened the Pathway Home after being refurbished by the 578th and 579th engineering battalions of the Army National Guard.

“We’ve got the building set, now we’re just waiting for pieces and parts,” McCormack said, referring to the program’s staff and equipment.

Above par

As far as preventing what occurred at Walter Reed from happening at the Yountville home, officials cited several checks and balances of their system, including annual reviews conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The most recent data collected by these federal agencies show the home’s Nelson Holderman Memorial Hospital to be on par or above average when compared with other nursing homes in California and throughout the United States. The 2005-06 survey looked into conditions such as the percentage of hospital patients who are given preventative vaccinations, the levels of pain and bedsores reported by patients, how often patients were physically restrained and depression and anxiety levels reported by patients.

Veterans home personnel also took two Register reporters through the home’s grounds and facilities, including the hospital, all of which appeared to be clean and kept up to residents’ satisfaction.

All residents’ bedsides are equipped with phones that dispatch directly to the home’s 24-hour emergency response system.

As far as hearing resident’s feedback about the home, McCormack said there are several avenues through which residents can voice their thoughts.

A social worker and a residential care unit leader at each of the home’s 14 residential buildings hold monthly meetings where residents can air concerns. Also present at every such meeting is member liaison, Dorothy Eliason, who reports residents’ qualms directly to McCormack on an almost daily basis, McCormack said.

“She’ll say, ‘This needs your attention now. How can we solve this problem?’” McCormack said. “She’s no shrinking violet. She gets out to every house meeting and takes notes.”

Residents also get the opportunity to document their thoughts on the home’s quality of care in a biannual survey reviewed by administrators.

McCormack also said more and more residents are taking to e-mailing her directly, and she reads every last missive.

“It’s a great way for them to communicate,” McCormack said. “We also get a lot of phone calls.”

She said criticism of the home’s food has dwindled since the state Legislature raised the food allowance per member from $5.75 to $8 a day last July. McCormack said this has given the kitchen staff the resources needed to provide much tastier and fresher fare.

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Larry Scott  --