Geriatrics and Extended Care

VA Video: Introduction to New Home Based Care Options

Dr. Ken Shay, Director of Geriatric Programs at the Veteran’s Health Administration, introduces six examples of new VA home based care options. VA treats over 6 million veterans yearly. More than half of VA outpatients are over age 65 and a third are over 75. As people age, chronic diseases make many of them dependent on someone else just to get through the day, get out of bed, get dressed or take medications. When these needs are more than family or friends can handle professional help is needed. Since the 1990s, VA has been moving away from addressing such needs in nursing homes, and instead, has developed a variety of approaches permitting dependent aging veterans to choose to remain at home in the community, among friends and family. Dr. Shay shares some examples of VAs non-institutional alternatives to long-term care. The sample is from nearly 80 programs introduced since 2009 in sites from Vermont to Virginia, San Francisco to Florida, that provide dependent elderly veterans and those who care for them a range of proven new choices for staying connected with their families, their communities and with the country they fought to protect. (1 minute)

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