The Importance of Honoring Our Veterans

On Veterans Day and every day, we owe a debt of gratitude to the brave veterans and their loved ones who sacrificed in order to serve our country in the US Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.

Whether they served in active combat or in a support role, military veterans are at a higher risk of mental health disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), and substance abuse disorders (often related to mental health or PTSD). They’re also prone to health risks specific to the war or region in which they served, and many are living with disability, chronic pain, and other service-related illnesses. Every military family has their own story of personal challenges, and each service member has been forever changed in some way by their experiences of military culture and demands, warfare, fear, or grief.

Learn more about hospice care for veterans.

Giving back to our veterans

There are nearly 18 million veterans living in the US[1], and more than 75 percent of them are seniors over the age of 65.[2] One important way to give these heroes the appreciation, support, and respect they deserve is to offer the understanding and specialized care they need to enjoy a high quality of life and, ultimately, to experience a meaningful, peaceful end of life with comfort, independence, and dignity.

BAYADA Home Health Care provides nursing, rehabilitative, therapeutic, hospice, and personal care services for individuals at any age or stage of life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. BAYADA Hospice—one of our specialty home care practices—is a proud partner of We Honor Veterans, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in collaboration with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

What is hospice and palliative care?

Hospice isn’t a place; it’s a compassionate philosophy of care that can be provided in a facility or wherever the patient calls home. A multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive social, medical, and spiritual care that gives comfort and support to patients and their families when an illness no longer responds to curative treatments, or when a patient chooses not to pursue aggressive therapies.

Palliative care is often an important part of hospice, but it also can accompany curative treatment. Sometimes called comfort care, palliative care is a health care specialty focused on relieving pain and other symptoms with a combination of medical and non-medical interventions.

How We Honor Veterans

We Honor Veterans is a partnership between hospice care providers, VA professionals, and other interested organizations with the common goal to honor veterans’ preferences and past military service while providing the best possible health care for veterans in the best possible manner and setting.

Better communication, coordination, and collaboration between We Honor Veterans partners—through networking, education, training, shared resources and best practices—make it possible to connect more veterans and their families with an array of veteran-centered services to meet their unique needs.

For example, BAYADA Hospice care professionals specialize in guiding veterans and their families through their life stories, providing referrals and responding to their needs in an educated manner, and accompanying them through a peaceful end of life and bereavement process. Our approach involves respectful inquiry, compassionate listening, and grateful acknowledgment of their military service—through personal goal setting and wish fulfillment whenever possible, and meaningful recognition ceremonies and memorial services.

Benefits available through the VA

Part of what we’re proud to do as a We Honor Veterans partner is make it easy for veterans to apply and take advantage of the VA benefits they’re entitled to. Far too many US veterans either don’t know about or don’t take advantage of the benefits available to them—and in some cases, available to a spouse— that can provide in-home nursing, therapeutic, palliative, hospice, and/or personal care services.  

Some VA benefits and programs for eligible veterans include:

• Geriatrics (specialized health care for complex needs)
• Long-term care (support and assistance with activities of daily living)
• Home-based and community services (including day health care, short-term skilled care, primary care, homemaker and home health aide care, hospice care, palliative care, respite care, and remote monitoring care)
• Pension (supplemental income for veterans and survivors)
• Aid & Attendance (supplemental income for individuals who require daily help)
• Housebound (supplemental income for individuals with a permanent disability)
• Disability compensation
• Burial (monetary allowance for service-related or non-service-related death)

Our promise to veterans

Mary Ann Evans—who wrote under the pen name George Eliot—once said that “the reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.” For those who sacrificed for our freedoms, BAYADA’s duty always will be to heal and help them to the very best of our ability, so they may comfortably enjoy meaningful moments with their loved ones and the quality of life they deserve.

[1] https://www.statista.com/topics/1279/veterans/

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/250366/percentage-of-us-population-who-are-veterans/