It takes your support to get their support! Let your Congressional representative know you want and need their support for expansion of Veteran-Directed Home & Community Based Services (VD-HCBS) throughout Colorado. Their names are below this sample letter.
(home address)
(date)
(To
One of Colorado’s Congressional representatives)
Dear
Representative (or Senator,)
I
urge your strong support for expansion throughout Colorado of the
Veterans-Directed Home & Community Based Service (VD-HCBS.) The program helps
veterans avoid nursing home care, and live safely and independently at home for
as long as possible. 89% of veterans in VD-HCBS reported that the program is
decisive in keeping them out of nursing homes.
That's why this program is so strongly supported by Disabled American Veterans, AARP and other organizations.
VD-HCBS
is offered by the Veterans Health Administration to all honorably discharged
veterans upon approval by their local VA social worker. There are no
requirements as regards service-connection disability or income level…only the need.
Correction: There is one more
requirement: to be eligible a veteran must also be enrolled in a VA regional
medical system offering the program. Denver has it. Cheyenne does not. The Rocky
Mountain Healthcare System doesn’t participate in VD-HCBS. Over 34 states now have VD-HCBS, as
does Denver and the Eastern Colorado VA Healthcare System. Dr. Shulkin told
Congress all VAMCs would offer VD-HCBS by 2019. I don’t know why
Rocky Mountain hasn’t implemented the program yet…whether it is
budget, priorities, or another obstacle.
What
I have learned is that I can have access to the vital services I need from
VD-HCBS only by moving to Denver and enrolling there. What I also have learned
is that Cheyenne can, if it wishes, implement a program for our veterans in
Northern Colorado. Mr. Dave Roberts, Director of the Cheyenne VAMC intends to
push for the program.
To
appreciate the importance of VD-HCBS to veterans like me, just consider that it
can help with removing ice and snow from my sidewalk, without which I’m stranded
inside my home. Other services it covers include meal preparation,
transportation, housekeeping, laundry, and more – vital services
keeping me safe, and independent. It can delay an end-of-life trip into a
nursing home more effectively than my present palliative care alone.
I
ask that you help on a couple fronts. First, can’t NoCo veterans
somehow enroll in Denver to be covered without having to move there? Also,
please urge Mr. Roberts and Mr. Ralph T. Gigliotti at VISN-19 to promptly
implement VD-HCBS throughout Colorado. The need is great and the need is
obvious, certainly from my perspective as a disabled veteran.
Sincerely,
(signature)
Colorado’s representatives are:
---------------Colorado's Congressmen---------------------------
(signature)
