project part 5 and 6

Running head: VETERANS AFFAIR, AN OVERVIEW 2

2

VETERANS AFFAIR, AN OVERVIEW

Veterans Affairs Capstone Project III IV

Adrien Robert Fleurimond

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Professor Lisa Foster

February 21, 2021

Community

When it comes to care delivery, organization and commination liaison cannot be overestimated as it plays a great role with customer satisfaction.  liaison is a personal contact for an organization's clients or customers. Community liaison also helps breach the gap between the organization and the community in terms of special needs/services, outreach, marketing and smooth communication.

Community Partnership

To ensure a great organization-community liaison, the VA has established the Veteran Community Partnerships (VCP). The VCP primary objective is to ensure that all qualified members and their caregivers have access to a broad range of choices and services. VCP works with the Veteran’s Health Administration to help with community engagement, care giver support and volunteer services.

VCP continue to improve care delivery through innovative and flexible approaches that assists a VA facility to establish and nurture community partnerships that facilitates access to and coordination of the overall health care needs of the VA population. (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2017). Best way to identify these partners is through the Office of Community Engagement (OCE).

OCE Partnerships

GO2 Foundation.

The VA and GO2 Foundation works together to help raise awareness regarding the importance of lung Cancer screening and assessment for veterans at high risks of the importance of lung cancer screening for Veterans at high risk for the disease. Through a community effort the GO2 provide additional resources for training, patient education campaigns and research programs.

Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

In 2017, VA initiated a partnership with HSUS called Operation Hero-Animal Bond. This initiative that helps pair veterans with rescue animals and encourages them to them to consider pet ownership. It also encourages veterans to participate and volunteer projects which subsequently will reduce isolation. Through this partnership, OCE and HSUS also examine the benefits pets can bring to veterans.

Medical-Legal Partnerships.

These nonprofit partnerships connect VA medical facilities and pro bono attorneys. The served population include those experiencing homelessness and other social challenges. This medical-legal partnership provides legal clinics in the medical facilities which provide free services for noncriminal cases such as family law, disputes between landlord and tenants.

Community Needs Assessment

The VA in an attempt to breach the gap between community needs and services offered has created many partnerships which work in coalition with the organizations the VA and the community. While this initiative has help alleviate some of the issues veteran’s face regarding care, it has not solved all problems. They are still many issues regarding long term treatments for veterans. The VA does provide assisted living; however, the co-payment makes it almost impossible to get.

Over the next decade, the number of oldest veterans will increase dramatically. This will result in a 20-25% increase in use for both nursing home and home- and community-based services (Kinosian, Stallard, & Wieland, 2007). The VA currently concentrates majority of its long-term care resources on nursing home care. Among those receiving long-term care only a small percentage receives it in the community. A partnership with nonprofit organizations who specialize in assisted living and home health care would close this gap dramatically. For example. They can partner with outside facilities to facilitate home therapy as well as remote therapy.

References

Department of Veterans Affairs. (2017, August 09). Veteran Community Partnership. Retrieved February 21, 2021, from https://www.va.gov/healthpartnerships/vcp.asp

Kinosian, B., Stallard, E., & Wieland, D. (2007). Projected use of long-term-care services by enrolled Veterans. The Gerontologist, 47(3), 356–364. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/47.3.356