The VA has selected five organizations, state, and local governments for a new pilot program the “Rural Veterans Coordination Pilot” www.ruralhealth.va.gov/coordination-pilot (RVCP) to help veterans transitioning from the military to civilian life living in rural and underserved communities.
The New Mexico Department of Veterans Services www.dva.state.nm.us was one of the states selected to participate in the pilot. The state will receive $2 million to establish a Veteran and Family Transition Center in four different regions to help returning families gain access to healthcare, education, job placement, and housing.
In general, the grants are to help increase coordination of health care and benefits for veterans, increase availability of high quality medical and mental health services, provide assistance to families of transitioning veterans, and provide outreach to veterans and families. The Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Rural Health www.ruralhealth.va.gov provides oversight guidance and evaluation for RVCP.
The other four grantees include:
- Maine Department of Labor www.maine.gov/labor/bes/index.shtml will employ five strategies to increase coordination of healthcare and benefits
- Westcare Washington, Inc. https://westcare.com will develop “Home Base” in Oregon and Washington to provide person-to-person contact through county-based navigators, access to care 24/7, and coordinate with federal, state, and local benefit and service providers
- Volunteers of America North Louisiana www.voanorthia.org will connect rural veterans in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas and their families to quality primary care and behavioral health services as well as provide information on available critical resources
- Nebraska Association of Local Health Directors http://nalhd.org will increase military cultural competence among community-based organizations and provide outreach through multi-disciplinary teams
In another move to help veterans, HRSA part of HHS has awarded the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center’s www.lsu.hsc.edu (LSUHSC) New Orleans School of Nursing https://nursing.lsu.hsc.edu an Advanced Nursing Education grant for 1,049,739 for over three years.
The funding will be used to support training interprofessional teams of students to improve the quality of care for veterans and diverse populations with behavioral health disorders and multiple chronic conditions.
Specific effort will be made to help when anxiety, depression, PTSD, and TBI are associated with a condition called Emergence Delirium. This condition defined by the behavioral symptoms of restlessness, confusion, and combativeness can affect up to twenty percent of combat veterans when they undergo surgery and receive sedation. The effects are experienced after the sedation wears off.
To help veterans with this condition, the funding will be used to train teams of graduate nurse anesthesia and medical and allied health professions students to better manage these patients using high fidelity simulation-based training technology.
LSUHSC will consult with experts in veterans-related behavioral health disorders on the project and will also coordinate activities with Veterans Affairs and military clinical sites for clinical education rotations.