Genuine thanks are due the Colorado House of Representatives!

I must set aside my disappointment with the Colorado Senate Veterans Committee killing HCR21-1001 last week. The House is due a salute and my most sincere thanks for their amazing step of a unanimous vote approving HCR21-1001. 

"...submitting to the registered electors of the state of Colorado an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the extension of the property tax exemption for qualifying seniors and disabled veterans to the Gold Star Spouses of deceased members of the United States Armed Forces. "

Thank you, Republicans and Democrats in the Colorado House of Representatives for your unanimous approval of HCR21-1002 that you forwarded to the Senate where others decided $93,000 was just too much to "honor" survivors of our servicemembers.

 Earlier, well before any news of HCR21-1002's existence, I have expected and urged a statutory approach to protecting Gold Star Wives by exercising the legislature's power to redefine terms, thus avoiding the two-year delay built into HCR21-1002, and resolving the issue with 2022 legislation.

A possible solution: redefine "disabled veteran" to include deceased active duty servicemenbers?

 Perhaps this approach can work. I've found House Bill 14-1737 which added surviving spouses to the exemption for totally disabled veterans. Apparently this was done under the umbrella of the state constitution's Article X Section 3.5 which made no mention of survivors – the legislature just did it.

Can the legislature do it again? Can't the legislature define an active duty servicemember who dies in the line of duty as a disabled veteran? That might work to pack into Article X Section 3.5 our few Gold Star Wives. The new text is in red

Veteran-Directed Home & Community Based Services (VD-HCBS) - home care for veteans

VD-HCBS

This program uses VA funds to help elderly or disabled Vets remain home with loved ones instead of needing nursing home care

•  WHAT? VA HELPs VETERANS AVOID NURSING HOMES AND LIVE INDEPENDENTLY!

•  REQUIREMENTS: ONLY A NEED FOR THE PROGRAM & AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE

INTRODUCTION

Here in Colorado, this terrific program is currently available to only to Veterans living in these counties: City and County of Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Clear Creek, Douglas, Gilpin and Jefferson, and the City and County of Broomfield. Colorado's other 56 counties must do without because administrators in VA's Rocky Mountain Healthcare System opted not to provide this valuable Veterans benefit. Why? You'd have to ask them...I've had no success finding out why.

Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched Veteran-Directed Home & Community Based Services (VD-HCBS) in 2008 to help Veterans with disabilities of all ages and their families pay for needed services in their own homes and communities. VD-HCBS is an exciting and comprehensive VA program, open to all Veterans where the program is offered, regardless of service-connection disabilities or income.

VD-HCBS delivers home and community-based long-term service and support, giving Veterans more choices and control over nearly all types of care they receive in their homes and communities. This program combines the hands-on experience and skills of local medical and service providers with the VA’s extensive resources to provide additional opportunities to avoid nursing home placement and stay independent in your own home.

Under the VD-HCBS Program, Veterans (or their caregivers) manage their own flexible VA-provided spending budgets, hire and supervise their own workers, including family or friends, and purchase what’s needed to live independently. The key point again: VA gives the Veteran a budget to pay for this!

Thousands of Veterans in 34 states have already signed up with VD-HCBS, including the elderly, and younger, severely injured Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn. The keys to this program are an Honorable Discharge, the need for it, and availability of VD-HCBS where you live.

A Veteran in the VD-HCBS Program is supported by: a VA program coordinator to oversee quality, satisfaction and service delivery; a person-centered counselor from an Area Agency on Aging (AAA), Aging & Disability Resource Center (ADRC) or Center for Independent Living to assist in finding and/or training workers caring for the Veteran’s needs.

ENROLLED VETERANS:

• Receive a comprehensive assessment and care planning assistance

• Decide for themselves what mix of goods and services will best meet their needs
• Manage a budget. VA fund are used by the Veteran to remain independent at home

• Hire and supervise their own workers, including family or friends

• Get financial management and support services

• Use traditional service providers, or a contractor or palliative care to coordinate

      TARGETED VETERANS IN VD-HCBS
All honorably discharged Veterans enrolled in a system offering it are eligible to participate in the VD-HCBS program when the Veteran is “in need of nursing home care” and interested in self-directed care. The determination of whether a Veteran is “in need of nursing home care” is made by the VAMC.
The VD-HCBS Program is targeted to Veterans whose home care needs exceed the average number of hours generally available through the Homemaker/Home Health Aide (H/HHA) Program. (If the need is more modest than VA-HCBS requirements and if the Veteran is service-connected, ask about this homemaker support.)
To be considered for the more comprehensive VA-HCBS, a Veteran usually would have/be:
•     Three or more activities of daily living (ADL) dependencies

      •     Significant cognitive impairments
•      Receiving hospice or palliative care

      •    Two ADL dependencies and two or more of the following:

  o   3 or more instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) dependencies
  o   Recently discharged from a nursing facility
  o   75 years old or greater
  o   3 hospitalizations or 12 outpatient clinics or emergency evaluations
  o   Clinically depressed
  o   Lives alone

IS VD-HCBS FOR YOU?
Do you want the control and flexibility to live more independently by choosing how and when you purchase your goods or services? Can you or a trusted person be responsible for recruiting, hiring, and dismissing your workers and services providers? If so, the VD-HCBS Program might be for you!

Interested? See your VA social worker or email veterandirected@acl.hhs.gov

Our Testimony Supporting Senate Bill 16-147 (28 Apr 2016)

Statement of Wes Carter, Major USAF Retired

National Chairperson, The C-123 Veterans Association

also speaking for the united veterans committee of colorado

Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee,

I’m Wes Carter, National Chairperson of the C-123 Veterans Association. Today I also represent 450,000 Colorado veterans whose voice is the United Veterans Committee. Before you today is the terrible issue of suicide in Colorado and our hope that Senate Bill 16-147 can help.

I want to share some personal experiences with this issue. My town of Fort Collins lost thirteen children last year. Four were suicides. Four…over 30% if you want simple statistics. We don’t know all the causes, but we certainly know the tragedies our families were left with.

Military suicides are something I became familiar with 26 years service in the Army and then the Air Force. For twelve years I was a hospital administrator. Marvin, one of the officers who nominated me for my commission, faced demons he felt could only be driven away by ending his life. I flew medevac for several years with Diane, a flight nurse. I have a happy memory of her rushing from work to attend my wedding, without time to change from her hospital scrubs. I have been to her parent’s Massachusetts home only twice…each time for the funeral of one of her brothers, both of whom ended their lives while on active duty.

Military and veterans’ suicides. I can speak for the accumulation of life’s burdens in the military…extremely difficult technical and physical training, frequent deployments, injuries, career disappointments, loss of friends, family strife, relocations, financial stress. And then there’s all those people bombing and shooting at you. Life’s tough. We have an evolving understanding that it takes a warrior to call in help. I wish more warriors would reach out, but we see an average of one veteran’s suicide per hour, each and every day. 8000 a year, almost an Army division. Last year in our county, the 80 adults who ended their lives were 3.8% of all adult deaths, but remember what I said about the children…30% of all children’s deaths were by their own hand.

Senate Bills won’t solve everything but, along with recent action in the US Senate, they’ll help. I join Colorado’s 450,000 veterans in urging unanimous approval of Senate Bill 16-147. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.