Stunned wasn't the word. Shocked wasn't the word either considering that is how it has been for us since the Internet generation started coming home with the same things our generation went through but they got the attention. Slapped in the face is the best way to explain what this all did to us when this happened.
H.R.2342 - Wounded Warrior Project Family Caregiver Act of 2009
Yep, those guys again.
Wounded Warrior Project Family Caregiver Act of 2009 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as part of authorized Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home health care services for veterans, to furnish to a family member or other designated individual advanced instruction and training and certification as a family caregiver for a veteran who incurred serious wounds on active duty during, or in training for, Operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom and is determined to be in need of personal care services.
We woke up to husbands having nightmares and babies needing our attention. We went to work making sure our kids got to and from school while we punched the clock and dealt with frantic phone calls from our husbands when they were falling apart. We made the excuses for why they couldn't go to work and borrowed money when they lost yet another job. We fought with family members telling us to get divorced when they didn't come to a family event yet again.
We trained ourselves to adapt to our new normal life as a veteran's wife with medical physical and psychological wounds needing to be tended to while fighting the VA and everyone else. None of this is new but it appears the rest of the country has forgotten all about us.
How is it that the generation coming up with the slogan and mission to never leave one generation of veterans behind ended up being left out of all of this?
The motto of Vietnam Veterans of America is "Never again will one generation of veterans, abandon another". But this is more than a motto, it is a way of life
Durbin seeks to expand VA Caregivers Program
Daily Republican
By RICK HAYES
Staff Writer
Posted Jul. 1, 2015
Through the Family Caregiver Program, the VA cost per veteran per year is about $36,000. This includes the stipend, which averages between $600 and $2,250 a month, based on the level of care and the geographic location and services provided to the caregiver.
MARION — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) is seeking to expand a program to assist caregivers of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to include veterans of all wars.
The Caregiver Program created through language Durbin included in the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009 provides home health training, peer support and financial stipends to caregivers of severely injured veterans.
More than 21,000 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan participate in the program today, including 425 in Illinois. While the eligibility for the original Caregiver Program is limited to post 9/11 veterans, Durbin's new bill would expand the program to allow severely injured veterans from all wars to apply.
"What the bill says is that when we have a spouse or member of the family who is willing to sacrifice to help the returning veteran, we're going to help that caregiver," Durbin said Tuesday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1301 in Marion.
"We have come to believe we can do more, that limiting it to just veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan is not enough. Veterans from other periods of service need caregivers as well," he added.
Durbin said the program contains three valuable components: allowing the caregiver at home to have the necessary medical training to understand the challenges of the veteran and be able to respond to each situation; to provide respite care — where an independent agency can give the caregiver a break from the day-to-day care of the veteran; and to provide financial assistance to the caregivers.
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