Vietnam veterans often suffer health problems that make them especially vulnerable to serious illness if they contract COVID-19. The VA has expanded aid to cover caregivers at a crucial time, advocates say.
This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org. It is part of The Coronavirus Outbreak: What You Need To Know Special Report.
The program originally covered only the approximately 20,000 veterans who left the service after Sept. 11, 2001. As part of the VA Mission Act of 2018, eligible veterans of all eras will eventually be covered.Nancy Switzer, of Rochester, N.Y., founding president of the Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America, has long pushed for expanding the scope of the program.
Schwartz is a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force for nearly 20 years, was commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs and assistant secretary of the VA under President Barack Obama. She credits former Sen. Elizabeth Dole with pushing the expanded law forward to benefit these pre-9/11 veterans.
“Images of overflowing emergency rooms, body bags stacked on loading docks, refrigerated trucks for morgues, and stories of patients dying without their families triggered memories of our own wartime experiences, and we recognized that, today’s battlefield is the COVID-19 pandemic,” VVA National President John Rowan said in a statement when the report was released.
Caregivers also are eligible for medical benefits and training. “Training is a very important part of this,” Schwartz says, because caregivers often suffer from anger, stress and burnout. “Care for the caregiver is especially important. They’re working day in and day out.”
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