Promises Not Kept Part II: Veteran Caregiving in the Age of COVID-19
Tags: Veterans, Trump Administration, Veteran Affairs, Robert Wilkie, Trump

By Greg Douquet, Kayla Williams, and Melissa Bryant

In the first of this series, we discussed how President Trump has failed to keep the promises he made to our Veterans in the VA MISSION Act: he has not sped up the claims and appeals processes, Veterans are being abandoned at the door of the Emergency room, and red tape and delays are the trolls under the bridge. All as part of President Trump’s scheme to dismantle the Department of Veterans Affairs as we know it — to reward his donors at the expense of Veterans.

We now turn to a growing concern for our most vulnerable Veterans: caregiving. In short, pre-9/11 Veteran caregivers have not benefited from the MISSION Act, as the President promised they would.

Veterans fall into two categories: those with caregivers and those who will someday need caregivers. The Elizabeth Dole Foundation calls them Hidden Heroes, and with the ‘Silver Tsunami’ upon us, Veteran family caregivers are increasingly the center of gravity for the healthcare industry. As Veterans — and a bit beat up by the experience — we know that we have caregiving in our future.

Lisa Stressler, a Hoosier, gladly contributed ten years of her young life to Veteran caregiving — first for her husband Ed, a Veteran of the Korean War, and then for her dad Clive, a World War II Veteran. A woman with immense talent, Lisa would forego education, career, and time spent with her own daughter to see to the increasingly onerous and technical medical requirements necessary to allow her husband and father to age with dignity at home, rather than be institutionalized. For Ed and her dad, this meant a far happier and no doubt longer life than if they’d been in an institution. For Lisa, this meant committing herself day and night to their care — without pay, benefits, or social acknowledgement. Also, Lisa wasn’t able to pay into Social Security to ensure her own retirement.

When it was time for Lisa’s dad to pass, a visitor to her dad’s hospital room would have been amazed to see the entire modern medical infrastructure, attendants, nurses, doctors, hospice managers, family members, all responding to Lisa’s direction. When it became time to decide whether to accept the risk associated with transporting a 95 year old Veteran with collapsed lungs 35 minutes up the road to Lisa’s house, so her dad could have his last wish of dying in the comfort of home, Lisa made the call…and it was the right one.

Lisa has no medical license nor formal medical experience. What gave Lisa authority in her dad’s dying situation was more profound and commanded more respect: Lisa knew her dad intimately, and had on her own accord, become an expert on his conditions. In other words, Lisa was her dad’s Veteran caregiver.

To reconcile society’s sublimation of caregiving with the reality of elderly Veterans across the country, let’s better define the terms and change the language we use to describe caregiving. Caregiving is NOT ‘unskilled labor’. Caregiving is NOT the job that falls to the family member with the least prospects. Caregivers are the ‘human touch’ that helps Veterans navigate the often confusing medical, technical landscape. They are the trusted confidante who the Veteran can share personal information they’d be embarrassed to tell others. They are the advocate in an increasingly bureaucratic healthcare system. In short, they are the hub of the healthcare wheel that holds all the spokes together for the Veteran…and for our country, who owe these Veterans so much. Caregivers are professionals.

Veterans are among our most vulnerable to COVID-19 and many have been shut in since March. Their caregivers are often family members who are also responsible for caring for their own families. Military family caregivers face the additional challenge of caring for their parents and their children while their Service Member is deployed away from home. And while their care is grounded in love for their parents, Veteran family caregivers have no alternative but to care for their loved ones at home since there is limited availability of adequate institutionalized care placing the non-compensated burden squarely on the shoulders of the Veteran’s family.

Despite their centrality in caring for our Veterans, our Veteran family caregivers are not being cared for by the Trump Administration. Like Lisa, our Veteran caregivers pour out their heart, soul, and skills for our Veterans because that’s who they are. The Government should not take advantage of this generosity, but instead, should reward it by providing them the resources they deserve, such as respite care.

Another Veteran caregiver, Mary has taken care of her severely injured Veteran husband for 20 years. Because the expansion of benefits according to the MISSION Act hasn’t been implemented, she’s not eligible for caregiver benefits. Due to caregivers’ 24/7 responsibility to their Veterans, they often cannot attain regular jobs, they’re not eligible for healthcare benefits, and can’t pay into social security.

When asked why caregiver provisions in the MISSION Act haven’t been implemented, VA responds that they don’t have a computer system that can handle it. In other words, the Trump Administration hasn’t provided sufficient resources to accomplish what the President promised to do. The constant chaos, the infighting amongst Trump’s own senior-most appointed leaders, the lies — come at a painful cost.

The President and his Veterans Affairs political leadership have had more than two years to keep their promise to our Veterans and their caregivers and have failed to do so. It’s time to keep this promise.

Colonel (Ret) Greg Douquet is a former U.S. Marine

Kayla Williams is a U.S. Army Veteran and former director of VA’s Center for Women Veterans

Melissa Bryant is a military and Veteran advocate, former U.S. Army Captain and Department of Defense senior civil servant