Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver
The Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver podcast offers a candid, unfiltered space to confess the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a caregiver through storytelling, guest interviews, and information sharing. JJ & Natalie are a dynamic duo of sisters supporting their mom living with Parkinson's and a husband who survived cancer. Along with their guests, they discuss their shared experiences in caregiving. Viewers and listeners alike will relate to our reluctance, be affirmed in their ability to be caregivers and gain the courage to confidently step out of the shadows to express their own needs. You are sure to laugh, cry, and everything in between but in the end, all will leave feeling better for the journey and part of the sisterhood of care. So grab your favorite guilty pleasure, and let's get to confessing!
Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver
Unlocking VA Benefits: A Insider's Guide to Caregiver, Family, and Survivor Support
This week’s special educational episode shines a spotlight on the incredible work being done by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to support caregivers, families, and survivors of veterans. In this educational episode, Maureen Elias, a Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Benefits at the VA, provides a comprehensive overview of the vast array of benefits and programs available through the Veterans Benefits Administration.
Elias expertly navigates the three key buckets of VA support - caregiver benefits, family benefits, and survivor services. From healthcare and respite care to legal assistance and bereavement support, the VA ensures caregivers have the resources they need to avoid burnout and continue providing exceptional care. Equally impressive are the VA's efforts to adapt homes and vehicles and offer educational benefits for family members and robust survivor benefits, including burial assistance, life insurance, and dependency compensation. Listeners are left with a renewed appreciation for the VA's commitment to honoring the service and sacrifice of veterans and their loved ones.
About Maureen:
Maureen Elias serves as the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Benefits on the development, adoption, and implementation of Department-wide programs and policies related to Benefits. In this role she analyzes and evaluates the effectiveness of these programs and policies and presents balanced recommendations for improvements. She represents the Under Secretary for Benefits in dealings with the senior staff of Cabinet officers regarding Departmental programs, initiatives, and policies.
Ms. Elias is a U.S. Army veteran and a U.S. Army retiree spouse. Prior to coming to the VA, Ms. Elias served on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and at two of the “Big Six” VSOs including Paralyzed Veterans of America and Vietnam Veterans of America. She has been recognized as one of the We Are the Mighty “Mighty 25”, 2021 VA Women Veteran Trailblazer, and as a HillVets100. She has appeared on various podcasts, testified before Congress, and written articles for various media outlets. Ms. Elias also volunteers as a storytelling instructor, helping Veterans, servicemembers, their families, survivors and caregivers learn to share their stories in ways that are meaningful.
Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver
Sisterhood of Care, LLC
Hey guys, it's your favorite, sisters with the Confessions of a reluctant caregiver. Show. On the show, you'll hear caregivers confessing the good, the bad and the completely unexpected. You're guaranteed to relate, be inspired, leave with helpful tips and resources, and, of course, laugh. Today's episode is part of our special series, heroes caring for heroes. We're featuring organizations who offer services and support to our hero caregivers. Now let's listen in as we learn more about these amazing organizations. Hey, Jane,
JJ:Hey Natalie,
Unknown:how are you doing today? You know, I'm
JJ:so glad to see you.
Natalie:I love that you see me and you're seeing me like in person. Do
JJ:you want me to touch you? Don't touch me. Okay, so,
Natalie:all right. And so I know everybody's like, we know. I know on PBS, we get it. You're in a recording, you're together again. But we love it. I
JJ:know even our guest is laughing, but she, she has kids. Obviously don't touch me. Still at 51 and I don't know how,
Unknown:really, 80, almost
JJ:49 Yeah, you're still like, don't
Natalie:touch Marine. I don't know why she would call out my age like that when everybody knows she's older. Does it really matter what my age is? If she's always old, that's,
JJ:let's get busy here. We've got stuff to share. Why? A lot to share. These are things I could know about.
Natalie:Oh, I you know, ready? One of my favorite episodes, because last year we had Dr Colleen Richardson come on from the Virginia Virginia, the VA caregiver support program, right? And it was very exciting, but to have a government agency come on and talk about the specific program, because we just didn't know a lot about it. But we then we have now another subject matter expert who has come in, and I did jump a little bit ahead, because I'm, of course, Maureen, thank you. But this is the heroes caring for heroes, special series, educational episodes. And
JJ:we have got some amazing sponsors. We've got CVS Health. We have tena, the world's number one adult incontinence brand. We have care forward. We have got summit behavioral health care. We have the Fisher House, who I love,
Natalie:I mean, a ton of partners. So guys, we appreciate all those folks who are supporting us to be to bring this to you and today for educational episode. And this is all the questions. This is way more than the caregiver, because we're going to be talking about caregiver, family and survivor benefits. We're talking about benefit, yes, and benefits can feel very intimidating, like when you go to the doctor's office and they ask you what your blood type is. I
JJ:have no idea. So let's get started. Okay, so today we are so truly excited and thankful to have Maureen Elias with us. She has served in multiple roles at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She is also a veteran herself. Today she serves and get ready. She's got a
Natalie:very long title. I don't even think she has a business card. It's like a business I
JJ:know so but today she serves as the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for benefits with the veterans with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and she serves with the development, the adoption and implementation of department wide programs and policies related to benefits. As I said, she's been an active member of the military and the veteran community for over 23 years, and she uses her lens as both an Army veteran and she's army
Natalie:I think that's important in army. Sorry, I
JJ:want to make sure we got it. I've
Natalie:got to make that, make sure that's
JJ:an Army veteran as well as a military retiree spouse, to positively impact policy decisions. She's got a lot going on. I mean, she is impressive, so let's she's also got a wealth of information well, and
Natalie:we're here to talk about what the the Veterans Benefits Administration offers. Yeah, and so Maureen, thank you for being with us.
Unknown:Good morning. Are you?
Natalie:We don't know what time it is. There have no windows. We have no clue what time it is. And so, you know, I'll say this, Maureen, we have international listeners. So some folks are like, Well, why do I care about the VA benefits in the United States? And I'm going to say, you need to hear about benefits from other countries, because then you can ask, Do I have that benefit available in my country? Does the UK offer it does India? Offer it does Canada? Offer it says these are the kinds of things. Because if they don't, or you have some that are more than you might say, Hey, we've got these benefits. And we'd say, hey, Maureen, could you all take a little look, see, and could this be an option? So I think the more that we share, the more that we can advocate to support those we love who have served, whether they're active duty or veterans. Yeah, so absolutely. So. Ms Maureen, let's talk about like I want to talk about, let's we're going to break it into line of three buckets. We were talking about this before. Hand, because the gosh, the benefits administration, it has an administration, like, that's a big thing. And so there's lots of programs. And I think we were talking beforehand, you were like, ladies, I think we break it into three buckets, caregiver, family and services. So let's start with benefits for caregivers that are offered by the VA,
Unknown:okay, so thank you so much for having us on the show. Happy to share about all the breadth and depth of things that we do here for veterans and their family members and survivors. So, you know, for caregivers within the caregivers alone, there's kind of two buckets, right there are the VA recognized caregivers. Those are the folks that have actually applied to the program become enrolled. Those are probably the ones that Dr Richardson spoke about a lot when she was here on your show a year ago. And then there's just the hidden helpers, the caregivers that are caregivers without a formal title or without a stipend, that are just like doing it every day. So for example, I'm a veteran. I have some disabilities. My kids all help me every day, you know, to help with the things that I struggle with. Physically, they don't get paid for it. They're not a VA recognized caregiver, but they are, yeah, so for VA enrolled caregivers, we have such a beautiful depth and breadth of services for them. So we offer, if needed, for those that are in the the program that you enroll into, which is known as pF, ACP, it's we offer things like healthcare if you need it. We offer respite care. We offer legal services. That's a new thing we just started. We offer bereavement support. If the veteran that you're caring for passes away, we know that that's a really hard time, especially for a caregiver, because that has kind of been the purpose of your life. And so not only have you lost someone that you love, but you're also you've lost your purpose, which we know can be really dangerous for folks emotionally. And so we also have like caregiver support groups. We have a caregiver support hotline so caregivers can call and ask all of the questions or get pointed to the right resource that we offer for them. So we really do our best to make sure that we are giving the caregivers the mental and and physical and any other kind of support that they need to do the best job that they can caring for for their veteran. And that's really important, because caregiver fatigue, caregiver burnout, I'm sure you guys have talked about many, many times, is a thing, and sometimes the guilt of of feeling those emotions can make you reluctant to access the services that are available to you. And so we kind of make sure that we're constantly pushing that information out to our caregivers so that they will feel comfortable making use of those programs, because then they'll last a lot longer and be much more healthy themselves and enjoying their lives more. Yeah,
Natalie:and so I know that last year, Dr Richardson was saying, I believe the theme for 2024 was the year of the caregiver and and I think it was a caregiver theme again, and I know that last year they had implemented a lot more robust access to mental health services, really, to fight exactly what you're talking about, caregiver burnout and that sort of thing. And really battling, because a lot of folks, we just literally talked with our friends at psych armor about isolation and loneliness and the impact that that can have on the caregiver, and thus the impact that that can have on the person that they're caring for. And so any new updates that you're aware of, or some sassy, catchy title for 2025 for the caregiver support program.
Unknown:I don't think it's been announced yet, so I don't want to
Natalie:bring news. Oh, I like it
JJ:technically.
Natalie:What if we said we promised that this wouldn't be announced until the end of November? We would, we wouldn't do it. Natalie, I can tell you.
Unknown:I will leave that to Dr Richardson and her team.
Natalie:Okay, so we will like on YouTube. This is how we would do it, because we'll show up images and things like that. So for all the stuff that Maureen shares, we'll make sure that everybody has websites and phone numbers and all that stuff that'll be in the show notes, and we'll pop them up, because we have the ability to do that now and now that we're sassy, yeah, the caregiver support program also has a newsletter people can subscribe to, is that, right? They do,
Unknown:fantastic. They have it. Yeah, they have a newsletter. They have they'll send out caregiving texts just to check in on people. They have self care and resilience courses. They teach suicide. It's not prevention, but like, talking about suicide is uncomfortable, and so unless you get a chance to practice it and learn about it, it's hard to have those conversations. So we have something called VA save training that they can can take to feel more comfortable engaged in the conversation. You know, I can say, from personal experience, I trained to be a therapist, that's what my degree is in. And the first time I had a client tell me they were suicide. Lie about panicked, you know, I What do you actually say? Like I could, I could spout statistics all day, but what do you say to someone who's like, I am in so much pain that I can't find a way to not hurt myself, you know? And so going through training like this can help you engage in that conversation and be less fearful, because we know that all that's needed most time is just to stop that role, you know, a pause to stop the actual, you know, movement towards the act. And so, you know, we're making sure that they have the language and the training to help intervene when they can here. And I think it's important to note, you know, veterans, many of us are very stubborn. We can be very self independent. I know the shock on your faces.
Natalie:We've known a lot of people who have served
Unknown:Yes, and so you know asking or accepting help from someone can be really hard, and I know when I first had to let my children help me, I was angry and frustrated and disappointed in myself, and so sometimes those feelings can bleed over. And so yeah, I think that's why we've really focused a lot on mental health support for our caregivers, to make sure that they have what they need to make it through when we're having bad days, so that they aren't also having bad days. Yeah, I
Natalie:think that's so important. I really appreciate the extra support for caregivers around mental health, I think because it's a part of Holistic Health. Yeah, it really
JJ:is. So a question, and I know this was answered last year, but I want people to know the caregiver support program to to be part of it. Or is it only for spouses or of a military or veteran, or is it what if I'm a child, the daughter of a veteran, can I also take advantage of those services?
Unknown:So I think it's kind of one of those. It depends. It depends on, you know, each each visit that offers these type of services. It depends on their capacity. In order to be like a VA recognized caregiver, one that gets a monthly stipend, you have to be at least 18 years of age, right? Right? Oftentimes, for veterans who aren't married, their parents or their siblings or even a friend becomes their caregiver. So a lot of times, children, unfortunately, are the ones that that can carry a burden without getting as much support, especially because VA doesn't have kids, right? We, when a woman veteran becomes pregnant, we actually send them to the community to have all of their child care stuff right here in the community. So, you know, we, we have heard of of some business that have done some pretty imaginative things to try to bring children in and incorporate them, but as far as I know, we don't have, like, formal training programs, and then children can't be an enrolled VA caregiver,
JJ:right? As a, as a, as a child, though, if I'm 18 or above, any any interim adult child, any person can, I just don't have to be a spouse. So yeah, so there are a lot of people that can, qua if they qualify, can be part of the program.
Unknown:Yes, as my drill sergeant used to say, Daddy, Daddy. Everybody meet the criteria that I like
JJ:it well. And
Natalie:just so that people know, and you can go to the you can actually just look up VA, caregiver support program in your search engine, and we'll put up the link to that, but it talks about the two different types of the general caregiver support program, which everybody can access, and then a bit more stringent qualification that gives the enhanced resource support. So I think it's super important that people go and check out that website, because there's lots of freebies and there's a lot of information there is. It's very easy to I personally find it very user friendly. So yay for the VA on that we have done a good job with our subcontractors on doing the website. Yeah. So
Unknown:I love to hear that. I
Natalie:know, right? We're like, shoot, okay, so tell us more. Okay, is there any other Are we ready to go to the family bucket?
Unknown:I think, I think the other two things I want to point out is, is a lot of people think that if they're just helping take care of a veteran, they're a caregiver, and they can enroll in the program. Veterans have to meet a specific criteria for someone to be eligible to be a caregiver. So for most it's they. Either they have to be a veteran or a member of the Armed Forces who's undergoing a medical discharge. Those are the first two you know. You have to have one or the other, and then they have to have a serious injury or illness that was aggravated in the line of duty in active military service. So if you had a Guardsman or a reservist who got hurt, but it wasn't in the line of active duty again, you wouldn't qualify for the program. And then for the more broader program, the one that you have to actually apply for and be enrolled the the veteran has to have at least a 70% single service connected disability, or, like, a total rating of 70% or higher. Okay, so then there's a couple of other things, like the inability to perform at. Activities of daily living, right? Some of the things that you know, most caregiving programs have, but like, as far as like, the VA goes, those are some of the more unique things that are required.
Natalie:And so I think, I think one of the the challenges for somebody who is has a newer injury and understands, because there's a lot of paperwork we love. It doesn't matter if you're in government or not. There's a lot of paperwork to do anything. And I think just being mindful, for families who are seeking, especially of a service member who is a veteran and they've got documentation from 50 years ago, they didn't think, I think one of the biggest, the biggest misconceptions, and I know that wounded the Wounded Warrior Project, that our representative from there had chatted with us about it, and he said a lot of people don't realize that they they don't want to take those benefits and and they're a post 911 program. But he was just talking in general about it. And so I think, you know, there's a lot of documentation you have to have related to service correct, and you have to have those documents to be able to apply. Is that still correct? Maureen, so
Unknown:what you'll need is, like, proof that you serve. So that's usually a DDD, 214 which is what you'll get out of active duty service. There's other forms that will take for like a guardsman, that have enough qualifying time, etc. Then you'll have to have either you'll have to have applied for your benefits, got a rating, or you'll need to apply for benefits to get that rating, that you need to qualify for the program. So you'll need something to show that you have the illness or injury, right? So you have to have to have the diagnosis. We can't just give it to you without it, and then you have to have something that shows or demonstrates that tie to how you got that illness or injury from your military service. So, so it's not a lot of paperwork, but it's just it's complicated, and I think that's why one of the things we've been pushing really hard on is a it's never too late to apply for real benefits. Like, some people are like, Oh, I missed my deadline. No, no, you didn't. It's never too late to apply. And there are people who will help you do that for free. No one should ever have to pay for their first claim. So any of the VA credited representatives. So we're talking about like, there's VSOs veteran service organizations like Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign war. They will do it for free for both the the veteran and for the survivors when it's time to apply for benefits, we have a tool on our website, and I'll share the website with you afterward, where they can go and find like one in their state. Oh, so if you're like, right? I'm uncomfortable. I don't know what to do. We have people who are well trained in it that have been vetted ethically and are ready to help you do all of that for free. What we are seeing is a rise in these for profit companies that are charging when they shouldn't be to help Veterans and survivors file their claim. So we call them claim predators.
JJ:We will make note of that that you can get this done for free they should not.
Natalie:Yes, we do know our friends. I heard that our friends at the DAV, our friend Michelle fish, Michelle horn, with the Fisher House that shared with us, with the DAV, does offer that support at no cost. And so, yeah, we appreciate their we appreciate that veteran service organization. So I like our acronyms, and so I'm like, I'm listening. I'm listening to make sure I remember everything, because there's a lot of acronyms. Is the same way in healthcare, it's lots of acronyms. Man, okay, so that is caregivers. Yes, all right, do you want to transition to family?
Unknown:I'd love family members, because this is family caregivers too. It's just
Natalie:the way that they're caregivers defined. So I think that's really important for folks to understand why we're doing this.
Unknown:Yes, for sure. And so for for all of the benefits that I'm talking about, for family members, the veteran would have to apply for benefits. And again, you could do that for free, we have people to help you. We've worked really hard to make the process easier for you to do it yourself, but we also have people who are there to help you so you're not alone. So for family members, when you have a veteran who has a qualifying service connected condition, so especially those that are like 100% totally and permanently disabled, we have champ VA. And I could not tell you what champ VA that whole huge acronym, but it's basically health care for family members and survivors. You can qualify for that. You can qualify for education programs. So there's the dependency Education Assistance Program, or we call it DEA, and it's three years, 36 months of education assistance. So we'll pay your tuition and a stipend to the family member to attend school. Wow. What's really important about that is there's a timeline by which you have to use that, otherwise you lose it. And so one of the things I'm working hard to do is get more information out about that benefit. Because a lot of times the family is just kind of listening to what the veteran says. We aren't directly communicating with them. And therefore, if the veteran isn't sharing. Ring they don't know. And so, you know, anyone can call the number, my, VA, 411, and ask questions, and they should be able to answer even the family member questions, and if not, they'll connect you to someone who can another benefit that we have is, let's see for family members. Gosh, there's so many different things that we have for adapted home. So that would be something that we do for veterans who have qualifying conditions. And so we have a specially adapted home grant, and it's a fairly large grant that we will that you can use multiple times throughout the veterans life to adapt the home, to make it accessible. So that can be things like wheelchair ramps. They can widen doorways, they can make the bathrooms accessible. So that's one that you have to qualify through certain service connected conditions. We also have a different type of of home grant, again, with the right conditions, such as blindness or some other qualifying conditions, where we can do a lot of electrical modifications, like smart home technology modifications, wow, to help the veteran more easily navigate their their life. And then a third option is called the Hisa grant, and that's a smaller grant. It's not as large, but there is an amount that veterans can use to, usually it's enough to, like adopt a bathroom or to add a ramp, things like that. So there are three different programs that we have to to help modify homes that veterans can live in it and navigate more comfortably and more independently. So
Natalie:is that on? We'll make sure to put the website on, because I'm super interested in that, because I think about my friends at you know, who are working with the Department of Social Services, and individuals who have need, and they come to request support for them. And so they may say, Oh, I didn't, you know. I know that this, this individual served, and they're a veteran, and they may, you know, it's important, I think, equally, for agencies to know cross it really cross understanding of information. And so I'm just sitting here thinking, I'm like, Oh my gosh, this home program is so important because it allows people to remain in the home as long as possible. So yeah, that leans right into aging in place. My friend, yes,
Unknown:staging in place a wonderful a wonderful thing that VA is working hard to be one of the, you know, leading fronts of allowing people to age in home when they can. So there are also some adaptations that can be done through your VA healthcare. So, for example, I recently had an injury of mine degrade. It got worse. And so I ended up in the hospital for about a week, and by the time I got home, they had adapted my bathroom with like an elevated toilet seat with bar grips in my shower. And then they looked around the home to see where any other safety concerns were, to make sure that I could move around my home. And that was all done by prescription and so within the health care program. There are ways that they can help adapt your home to make sure that you can live there safely as long as possible. It's not the same as the specially adapted home grant. That's a little different. And this one, it depends on, on your health care provider letting you know that you you need these and then just prescribing it. But I think a lot of veterans don't think or know to ask for that. Yeah,
JJ:that's within your insurance Wow. That is, that's great. If
Natalie:you write a matrix, it's like writing a script for an order for a wheelchair or you or a hospital bed. I mean, that's those are the things that you write a script for. And I think this is and so even though you're saying, I'm just gonna say this, you know, yes, it's got to be specific to the veteran, the veteran. Many veterans have caregivers. And so these are the kinds of things that they can say, okay, when we go with you, I'm going to go with you to your doctor's appointment. Let me ask about these things, because I've done the research on your behalf. I think that's so important.
JJ:Yeah, that's advocating your caregivers there, yeah, prompting you along like, hey, really hard
Unknown:on our health care side to make sure the caregiver becomes a part of the team of the primary care team of a veteran. So, you know, we can do things like, you know, prescribe help with a lift in the home, so you're not ruining your back getting your veteran out of bed. You know, there are things that we can do to help adapt the homes, that your caregiver can keep caring for you in your home as well. So it's pretty exciting, you know, to see how far VA has come, even in, you know, the last 10 years. Yeah,
Natalie:that's exciting. Okay, what else you got? You like that? I'm like, and then what? Hold on
Unknown:this. I know there's so much more. I do do adapted vehicles too. So we talked about adapted homes, if you have qualifying conditions, you can have either get, like, a specially adapted vehicle, where the vehicles ordered for you with adoptions already in it. Or you can get a vehicle and then the VA can pay it's a grant, but it's paid to the dealer, not to the veteran, right? And they pay the dealer to modify the vehicle for what you need, so things like hand controls, or they can take the seat out so you can woolen with your wheel. Share things like that. Again, the goal is giving independence as much as possible to the veteran, the ability to navigate their life. Wow,
Natalie:I love that. So to all these programs, I just look at it as my tax paying dollars at work, yeah, and at work in a really good way, really, really good way. I'm totally good with that. I'm like, keep going, Maureen, I'm going to keep on paying my taxes. So are all these programs I think about I want to make sure for eligibility. Some of the programs are specific to having combat injuries. Combat the injury occurred in combat, excuse me, and or combat related injury and like, what happens if you have an injury? So we have a guest, Tom, whose son was injured, and it wasn't he was active duty, but he had a motorcycle accident, and so it wasn't on, it wasn't while he was it was not combat related. Are there programs that, you know, I know there'll be some programs that he would have access to, some that he might not be just because of the way that the injury occurred.
Unknown:Yes. So let me a very common myth is that you have to have combat injuries for a lot of things, but you don't. The only difference for combat injured veterans is as you can get concurrent receipt if you qualify, and that's where you can get, like retirement pay for the DOD and your VA disability pension or disability payment, not pension. And then for veterans who served in combat and their spouses, if their income is low enough, they would qualify for a pension, which is a monthly stipend that we pay. That's about it. Now, as far as presumptives go, which is where you apply for a benefit, like we talked about earlier, for service connection, there are some that had to have occurred within, like within a wartime period and within this area. In order to be presumptive, you don't have to prove it, as I show that you were there at this time. You can get it. But again, combat isn't always necessary for that either. So we have, you know, you know veterans who served in some of the areas around Vietnam where they weren't in combat, but they were exposed to the same toxins. So, yeah, so, but so in the case where you were talking about the veteran who was in a motorcycle wreck. If that wreck occurred while he was in service, it would be still covered if it happened after service. And that's where, you know, I used to work at Paralyzed Veterans of America, a lot of the spinal cord injuries and disorders that our veterans are living with, they got them after service. And so it's not a service connected condition, and so it won't qualify them for what they do, but recognizing that they served, VA has a special priority group in healthcare that they can fall under to at least get the healthcare that they need to make their lives as as comfortable as possible.
Natalie:When I think that's the part that can because it's like, if this, if that, if not, so dispelling myths, because the more that we understand, the more we know how to help the people that were were
JJ:supporting. And it sounds like there are resources out there that can answer the questions for you. Don't just think, okay, the VA is this huge building, this mammoth thing. Don't, don't at You won't understand, but that there's resources that are free, that you can call, ask the questions and they want to help you. I bet they do. Oh yeah. Well,
Unknown:they do. Yeah, so we love our jobs
Natalie:well and and I appreciate that, because, honestly, you're very friendly. And then that's and Dr Richardson was super friendly. Everybody seems very
JJ:not going to give you, you know, we're not going to give you her home phone number.
Natalie:No, we will, but we'll, but she might give your email. And, yeah, so, so what else related to family? I think, what else related to family on your list, you
JJ:mentioned home loans on their loan opportunities,
Unknown:so that falls under the survivor. Bucha, oh, wait. Oh, sorry,
Natalie:I don't know what happened. Maureen, I don't know where I got ahead. What about the Veteran Experience Office?
Unknown:So one of the things that we realized at the VA and we say we, I wasn't here yet, but the royal we was that, you know, the VA is doing a pretty good job of providing what veterans need, but what we weren't doing a good job is delivering that need right, making sure that when they came in, they knew how to navigate the system, they were treated with kindness and the respect that their service earned them. And so I want to say it was 2015 you know, about a decade ago, we created the veterans experience office, and when we first started measuring how much veterans trust the VA, it was like 56% it was not good. And now we're so excited, because in less than a decade, we're up to 90% almost all the spectrum, one Yeah, like, you know, a big goal in increasing trust is, like, 1% so to think that we've come that far, yeah, is really exciting. And I'm one of those. I hated the VA. I was never going to come. I didn't trust it. I had a bad experience, and I was like, I got TRICARE. I'm just going to use that, yeah. And now I use the VA for all of. My care, because I love how I'm treated. I love the holistic health care they provide, and I feel seen as a woman veteran when I come to VA for care. And if you don't have a good experience, we have a really robust reporting program where people are held accountable if you don't, if we don't get it right. And so the that's their whole point. So they do things like create journey maps so they can see where are the pain pain points, where are the bright spots? You know, what are the things we should change? What are the things we should leave alone? And then from those we we do a lot of human centered design, where we bring the veterans or the family members or the survivors in to help us as we're creating our solutions to problems, because we can get siloed and are thinking like, this is the perfect solution, and then they come in to use it. They're come in to use it. They're like, this is awful. I love that any of this. I
Natalie:love how authentic that you are, Maureen, because this is the way the world works, yeah. Like, oh, I have this great idea. We fixed this honestly, again, working in the mental health field, and nobody invites the actual care recipient or the family. And we're like, we've got this perfect solution. Then they come in, they're like, that's not gonna work. We're like, why? And they're like, they tell us, and then you're like, oh yeah, that's nice. That is, right, sure. Is, which is why I love that you guys have caregivers and the care recipient as part of the treatment team, that it's critical to include that caregiver, because that that they have a really strong voice to be able to help, being able to provide those services. Um, I know that the VCR in don't you look an acronym? Yeah, I
Unknown:do. So the veteran community resource network, yes. So we realized we were doing a really good job of providing information to veteran service organizations. But, and there's 44,000 of them, so it's not like that's nobody, right? And they're so important, but we realize that there are other organizations, nonprofits, advocacy groups out there, podcasts like yourself, thank you, who are helping to spread the word. And if we're not communicating with you, how are you going to be able to communicate all of the breadth of everything we offer for veterans and their families? And so the veterans experience office took the realm or the helm, whatever it is there and and decided that we needed to create something for us to continue sharing all the great things we're doing. And so it's, it's new. I mean, we just started this two, two and a half years ago, and the number of people that are utilizing the system to help get more and more veterans the information they need is so exciting because one of Secretary McDonoughs biggest focuses is reaching those veterans who aren't already engaging with VA, or those who engaged and it didn't go well, like me and we're like, I'm done with the VA. We want them to come back. We want them try again, or want them to come for the first time so they can see how amazing all of the things that we offer for them are. And so the vcrn allows us to communicate a lot of information out that we just didn't have pathways for before.
Natalie:Well, and I'd have to tell you, I'm going to give a shout out to my new friend Jordan Harrington, who works at the VCR in office, and she was so fantastic, because it the eagerness and the passion. I mean, she's a caregiver and herself, and the passion to say, hey, we want to reach these individuals. They have a they have a newsletter that reaches over 15 million veterans. And she's like, but we still that we think there's about 7 million out there, and we want to find them. And so I said, Well, let's be friends and see if I can help find some and so, so the sisterhood, well, the confessions podcast is actually going to be on there, and we're going to be sharing this series through the newsletter, hoping, and so I would love for those veterans to get to hear this episode as well. Maureen's because I think they'd be like, Oh, lived experience, relatable. And she's telling me it's better, I'm gonna keep going.
Unknown:They're safe. And if it's not good, let us know. And
Natalie:yeah, exactly,
JJ:you can call Maureen. Yeah, here again. I love that. Marine takes
Natalie:it all on. Yeah,
Unknown:is it done? I go to bed at nine.
Natalie:Honestly, we're good. So there's like, if you're calling after nine, somebody had better, yeah? So we're like no, no calls after nine. Okay, so anything else under
JJ:family, family bucket? I
Unknown:think the only other thing is there are some Vet Centers who can provide family counseling, if that's what's determined the veteran needs, yeah, but that is kind of a center to center capacity willing, yeah, situation. It's not mandated that they do that, but it is something that that many Vet Centers can provide.
Natalie:So keep asking. Yeah, that's my Yes. Ask, ask, ask. What's worse,
Unknown:no for them, right?
Natalie:Exactly? Thank you. Don't tell no for them. That's our that's our thing. How do we get you Yes? Okay, so let's talk about this is important too, because this is the uncomfortable part is, let's talk about survivor benefits, because you will have cared for someone, and what are the survivor benefits that we would want these caregivers and family members to know about?
Unknown:Sure, I. Yeah, that's a great question. And honestly, it's like one of my passion places, because one of the things that brought me back to ba was I wanted to know that my children would be taken care of if my service connected injuries got so bad that I departed early, right? And so we have a National Cemetery Administration, and people hear that, and all they think of as burial, yeah. But actually, they provide so much more, and they provide it with such a beautiful customer experience lens that for the last couple of years, they've gotten a 97% trust score, which is higher than, like, I don't want to name companies, but like, big, big, big companies, they're rated right against them, and so they really do have the heart of the family at the center and compassionately caring for for the families as it's time to to lay their veteran to rest and whatever they want to so one of the things is that they offer is is burial or cremation support. So a lot of people think I have to bury them in a VA cemetery to get that support. But we actually have a grant that will help pay for maybe not all of it, but some of it. If you're going to bury your veteran in a private cemetery, we can reimburse if you decide to get your veteran cremated. A new thing that just started is, if you want, you can get an urn for your veteran. We also have like medallions you can get if the veteran, like, you didn't know they were a veteran, or you didn't know you could get it like, placed on their tombs. Yeah, right, that's their their one stone. Yeah, yeah. If, if you didn't get them buried in a facility. But you want people to know that they're veterans. We're also working on, you know, finding more ways to parity for guard and reserve to make sure that we're recognizing and honoring their service. We give grants to state cemeteries to help create and maintain our cemetery that like a veteran cemetery. One thing that people don't realize is that our cemeteries have to be kept to a national shrine standard. So you're you're not going to go into a VA cemetery and think the grass is too long or that tree is dead, like we have a responsibility to keep those up to really high standards for caregivers. We have a lot of support. So even if, if the veteran is near the end of their life, we have a lot of support in planning for those end of life services. We have a whole kit that all the administrations work together on the VHA, the VBA and the NCA, so health benefits and cemetery to help a veteran plan for the end of their life. You can do something called pre eligibility determination so that you could already know what you're eligible for before you die, and let your family know. And so it's one way to just alleviate some of the burden of what to do once someone you love has passed away. We also have things like, you can get a presidential certificate. You can get a special flag. There are ways that we also we have the veterans legacy Memorial, which is one of my favorite things, which is an online memorial site for all veterans buried in VA cemeteries, and we keep expanding that. So I think right now, we're at five to 10 million veterans that are on there, and it's a living legacy. So you can go in and add pictures and memories and talk about the person that you love and help people know who they are really excited about that. We have grants to help people learn about that, the VLM, we call it, and to help school age kids learn about, you know, veterans of the past, especially, you know, veterans in certain populations, like black veterans and Native American veterans, and some of our other populations that tend to not get as much attention. And then we also, once the veteran has passed away, on the benefit side, we actually do a lot for the surviving spouse and their children. So if a veteran passes away from a condition that that they already had service connection, force, they applied for a benefit, or they died in service, we offer dependency and indemnity compensation, which is basically a once a month payment to help substitute the income that that veteran would have made had they been alive. There's there's a benefit for the spouse, and then for all children that are underage. And then, you know, there's certain exceptions. If they're in college, you can continue to to get money for them as well, while you're supporting them through school. We have the DEA program that I talked about earlier, the dependency education, oh, my goodness, my brain is not working, the DEA assistant Assistance Program. Thank Yes, it's okay. Team points, thank you. Love it. I love you guys. They they can utilize that. And then we also have a Fry Scholarship that certain families can qualify for so they can go to school as well. And then we have for surviving spouses, they can also take advantage of the VA Home Loan Guarantee. And for people who don't know what that is, it's a zero down home loan, which is hard to do. You know, I would never have been able to afford the 20% I needed to buy a home. Home in Northern Virginia, and we were able to get a home. Yeah,
Natalie:all you had to say was, Northern Virginia, it's like its own state here in Virginia, because, trust me, they're in a whole different pay band. God bless. We're not so yeah, exactly, yeah. It's like going to California like you only you want to live in California, so you can move east and feel like you won the lottery or northerners down to the south, like that's when you don't go the opposite direction. Maureen, that's right. Well, that is an amazing program. Keep going. It
Unknown:is. It's a great program. We also have insurance, so a lot of people don't think about insurance, but we have a new VA life insurance program that can get a veteran can get up to $40,000 for very small and low payments each month. And the reason that's really exciting is for veterans with service connected conditions, like as high as my husband's in my most life insurance companies either won't insure us or they gouge us. Yeah, and so this is a way for a veteran to at least make sure that their family has something before they pass away. And so that would be something that a surviving spouse could receive is the funds that the veteran put into the life insurance program. And then we also for combat veterans, if they served an award, their spouse is eligible for a pension, and that's, you know, with certain income limitations, an additional amount of money to help that veteran spouse survive. It's often not paid to a spouse that's getting dependency and indemnity compensation. So this would be a veteran didn't die from a service connected condition, but they already still died. And so we can help take care of those spouses, and when the spouse, if they have a condition that makes them homebound or they need aid and attendance, we can also help pay for that as well. And then we also have champ VA, which we talked about earlier, which is healthcare. So we have we do our best to to be as caring and thoughtful in keeping that sacred responsibility of caring for the survivor families as we can gosh,
Natalie:you know. And I love this, because not there is, you know, some people think that benefits are are overwhelming and not sexy. And I'm going to tell you right now that you sharing, coming on and sharing all of these benefits for caregivers, families and survivors is one to me as a taxpayer, and then a human being feels really good, yeah, like this is where I want my money, my tax dollars, to go is to support individuals who serve, who have served to keep me safe, and their families who have sacrificed and so one thank you for your service and your husband and so but we thank you for that. We thank you for these benefits. These are thoughtful. I know that you guys probably have like 10 benefits you'd love to add that you guys are probably working on, and so I won't ask you what they are. If there's any that you can share, feel free. These are in the future benefits, but you got to be careful, because then people start to expect them so but I know you've got more on the horizon, probably that you guys want to continue to add.
Unknown:Well, a lot of times the things that we'd like to add are things that we would need Congress
Natalie:to literally, an act of Congress. Literally, that's what that means, act of Congress. No, we need this.
Unknown:We are pushing boundaries this this Secretary especially, is like, where are the areas within my authority that I can expand? So as we, as we talk about pact act, I can tell you a little bit more about some of the choices that he and the President have made to to make sure we have more benefits for others.
Natalie:So go ahead with the pact act. That is for individuals who had toxic exposure while overseas serving. Is that correct?
Unknown:Yes, there's certain countries, certain time periods that that applies to. It did a couple of things, and I it's it's allowed for the expansion of health care and benefits to millions of Veterans and survivors. So it created, I want to say, 21 presumptives. And so, as we talked about earlier, presumptive is you just have to show that you served there during this time period, and you have the diagnosis. You don't have to prove anything else. You get the service connected grant for that. Wow. And toxic exposures are hard to prove sometimes, and so this lifted the burden, especially if those veterans had that had become sick from burn pits, or from all the particle dust in the air, or the chemicals they were breathing as they were around, all the jet fuels and things like that, you know, kind of the smells of war. Unfortunately. Yeah, I remember my husband talking about running around a burn pit, and he would take a shower and cough and spit these like black loogies, yeah, because of all that stuff that he'd inhaled, you know? And they were doing that every day, and it made people really sick, well.
Natalie:And I think that, you know, we we want to assume positive intent. Nobody wants in our service members to get sick, yeah? Nobody wants yet. And so. And and this is how the government's doing the right thing, to say we're going to support you, and that's what we want. You know, when we make a mistake, we we find a solution to provide support to those individuals. And whether it's, you know, service or financial, whatever it is, it's to try to to make a right, to make a right. Yes, so
Unknown:when we talk about Secretary McDonough and President Biden wanting to expand as much as possible, Congress knew this was going to be hard to implement, and so they very thoughtfully created phase ins for veterans who shoot to allow us the time to implement and what you know as as this was being considered, how do we implement it. They did not want one veteran to die while waiting for their pact act benefits, so they decided to roll all the presumptives in and allow everyone to apply the first day the law was law, wow. And so, yeah,
Natalie:I mean, God bless. You know, VA, somebody's having to enter some information, wow, yeah.
Unknown:So we've, we've had to go and explain before Congress, you know why we made this decision because, and I know that it was a lot of work because I helped write it. Yeah, we put a lot of work into make sure VA had what they needed, and and they gave us such general, generous resources that we were able to implement it. And so just to give you, like, a little perspective of of those veterans that we went ahead and got rid of the phases for 17,900 have died that might not have gotten those benefits, because they'd still be waiting for their phase in so some of them might have been facing right away, but some of them would have waited. And even more have gotten benefits and are already in healthcare now. And so, you know when, when he talks about, how do we get as many as possible, he means it, and it's really inspiring to serve under someone who's whose goal is to put the veteran at the center of every decision we make. And one of the things that I really love about the pact act that isn't touted as much is survivors. And the reason I say that is it's hard enough for a veteran to prove a toxic exposure. How do you prove that someone you love died of a toxic exposure when you don't really understand the process, you don't really have proof of paperwork, right? And or you applied for it and were denied. And so with the pact act for survivors, not only do we have those presumptives, so if your veteran who passed away fell under one of those presumptives, you can apply for your dependency indemnity compensation if they died from something related to that, but if you applied in the past and were denied, you actually get retroactive pay to that first denial. And so they made sure that we were taking care of those families as much as we could. And one of the things that we're seeing is that the survivors don't know that they need to to let us know that they were denied for it. Do they that they have to kind of ask for that retroactive pay? And so we're working on how do we better communicate that to survivors? So shows like yours are a great way for us to reach out and let them know, like, Hey, if you applied and were denied and it was, do you think it was related to axial exposure, please come back. And even if it wasn't a presumptive, right, it may still be granted. So what I say to everyone is, just apply. Let the VA tell you no. Don't say no for the VA, and if you don't think we got it right, like, one of the things that that the Under Secretary Jacobs has really pushed is it's our responsibility as the VA to help the veterans, to help the survivors get the paperwork that they need to file for these disabilities. So we're reaching out to the DOD. We're making sure that we're reaching out to VHA. We're helping them get access to the paperwork they need to apply for the benefits that that veteran has earned for them and for their families. Sorry, I'm talking too much. No.
Natalie:JJ, ran into her mic, so I pushed her back. So when I pushed her back, I was like, she ran into a mic. So, JJ,
JJ:so I lean in, because I have such a question here. So I'm like, she always leans I'm like, okay, because I'm like, Okay. So here's my question, because I've talked to people at the VA before, and no one is ever as excited as you are, Marie about your job. What? When is your passion? Yeah, just come from. Why? What? What is it that gives you this passion to serve,
Unknown:I think so. For about 10 years, I never identified as a veteran. You know, I didn't serve in combat. I was medically discharged, and I was horribly depressed, and once, I finally leaned into the fact that I'm a veteran, and started taking advantage of the Veteran Service Organization resources that are out there, I found myself again, and it brought so much joy to me, coming into VA healthcare and getting treated like a veteran, getting the benefits that help supplement my family and make sure that I'm. Taken care of, and then they'll be taken care of when I die. I want other veterans to have that so they can be full and authentic and involved and engaged in their lives. And I think that's where my I want to give back what was given to me, because I feel like I got my life back. And so I think that's where that and a lot of caffeine, but mostly
Natalie:but mostly sad, mostly the passion that
JJ:you know I do. We are representative for the VA I'm
Natalie:getting. I thank you for connecting me to Maureen. And as all I'm going to say is what a wonderful representative, and I know that everyone who listens this episode is going to be blessed and grateful for this information, because at some point they may need it, and we are going to shout from the tops of the mountains to listen to this one. Yeah. Absolutely, so well done. Maureen, thank you so much, guys. Thank you for listening to that'll wrap us up on our episode of heroes, caring for heroes, absolutely.
JJ:This is another one of our educational episodes, and we're sponsored by tena, number one incontinence products in the United States or in the world, actually, yeah, CVS health summit, behavioral health care, care forward and
Natalie:Fisher House, of course, love fish, and we got a ton of partners. We've got almost, I think we've got close to 20 partners. And, yeah, so, I mean, and the VA, of course, is one of our friends who came on and said, Hey, we want to tell the world about benefits. And Maureen, thank you so much for being with us again. We appreciate you. We are totally going to stay connected. I'm going to tell you right now,
JJ:you're coming back. You're
Natalie:coming back. You're gonna be a bestie with the sisters. She's a redhead. If you didn't, if you're not watching on YouTube, she's a redhead. So she's clearly a sister. So guys, until we confess again, we will see you next time. Thank you so much. Bye, bye. Well, friends, that's a wrap for today's educational episode. Thank you for listening to our special series, heroes caring for heroes. And don't forget to visit our website to sign up for our monthly newsletter. Sign up for the free sisterhood advantage discount club, and, of course, connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, Twitter and Pinterest. You'll also find the video recording of all our episodes on the confessions website and our YouTube Channel. We'll see you next time when we confess again. Till then, take care of you. Okay, let's talk disclaimers. We are not medical professionals and are not providing any medical advice. If you have medical questions, we recommend that you talk with a medical professional of your choice. As always, my sisters and I at confessions of our reluctant caregiver have taken care in selecting the speakers, but the opinions of our speakers are theirs alone. The views and opinions stated in this show are solely those of the contributors and not necessarily those of our distributors or hosting company. This podcast is copyrighted and no part can be reproduced without the express written consent of the sisterhood of care LLC, thank you for listening to The Confessions of a reluctant caregiver podcast. You.
