All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Hey, welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry.
I was a CW-2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam, 1969.
I want to welcome you to our monthly benefits program,
is what's going on today.
And so our guests are going to include our usual cast of characters,
Caroline Fausson, retired Air Force Brigadier General,
with legal help for veterans.
I've got David Simms on the line.
David is the Executive Director of the Washtenaw County
Michigan Veterans Service Office.
We've also got Brian Hayes, who is the Ann Arbor Hospital,
Ann Arbor Health Care's Communication Director.
And we're also going to be talking with a new person today,
who I got some information from just this week,
about an organization out in California called We Are Vets
Limited.
And what they do is they provide food for homeless veterans
that are, evidently, there's a lot of issues going on
with the West Los Angeles Veterans VA Hospital out there.
But we're not going to get into that too much.
We are going to find out what Kimberly has to say about that,
as Kimberly Berger, who's their Executive Director.
Before we get into that, though, I
got to thank our sponsors.
Is everybody out there?
Well, maybe you don't know by now,
but hopefully you do.
Is Veterans Radio is a nonprofit 501C3 corporation.
And so we don't really have sponsors.
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It's Legal Help for Veterans, a call at 800-69-3-4800,
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For more information, you can go to their website,
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They have a great franchise program
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So if you'd like to check out the PuroClean Corporation
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Slash franchisees, and you'll get a 25% off their franchise fee
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Pretty good deal.
And we're all entrepreneurs, right?
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Thank you in advance.
Now, into the action here today.
So joining me on the line right now is Kimberly Berger.
Kimberly is the founder of We Are Veterans,
We Are Vets, excuse me.
And Kimberly, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you for having us.
So I was really interested when I got this email from you
folks talking about what you're doing out there.
So I guess I should ask you to tell our audience,
what are we vets doing out in West Los Angeles?
Well, we are vets.
There's approximately between 100 and 200 homeless vets
that live in temporary shelters there.
We go the last Sunday of every month,
and we provide them with a lunch.
We also provide blankets, jackets, shoes, socks, backpacks.
Every month, we give them a new toiletry bag.
So it has shampoo, body wash, razors, deodorant, body wipes.
Because those are things they're not provided.
And a lot of them do not have transportation.
So it's hard for them to get off the facility base there.
So we go in, and after I get down with you,
I found a specific sized pair of tennis shoes
that a gentleman up there that has very large feet.
We found a pair of tennis shoes for them.
So after I hang up with you, we're
going to drive up there real quick and drop them off for him.
But that's pretty much what we do.
Anything that they need, we try to help them with.
I'm currently trying to become a certified agent
so I can actually help physically help them with paperwork
or trying to help them find a VSO or pretty much anything
they need, we try to help them get.
Where is the West Los Angeles VA?
It's not up in any of that fire country, is it?
No, they were at the base of the fire.
So I want to say the first week into the fires,
they were evacuated for about five days.
They came in with buses at like 1 o'clock in the morning
because the fire had gone up over the hill.
And we went, we didn't know that they'd been evacuated yet.
We went up there, me and my husband, James,
who is my founding partner with We Are Vets, who
is a veteran, and there is probably
about a good inch of ash just everywhere it was awful.
So they did evacuate them to a local Red Cross
facility for about five days.
And then they were able to come back.
So they were close, but.
Yeah, I mean, obviously that's all frightening.
But the thing that really is kind of disturbing to me
is that there have to be, that they're out there
in these temporary shelters.
I didn't realize that that was even an option at the VA.
I guess we're kind of, we're very fortunate, I think,
in our VA here in Ann Arbor not to have that situation.
What can we do to help you?
Well, we're always needing funding for the lunches.
Oh, sorry, there's my phone.
Lunches that we do take up.
And the biggest thing that we're having problems with
are funding for shoes and underwear.
We reach out to, we have quite a few corporate sponsors,
which is great, like Starbucks, Outback Steakhouse,
Texas Roadhouse, Smart & Final.
So they help us occasionally with items.
But as far as funding for things like underwear,
I did try to, we were trying to get a Fruit Loom sponsorship,
but I guess we didn't fall in their wheelhouse of donations.
So a lot of that has to do with the time of the year
and all this other stuff.
Exactly.
Yeah, we just started doing this in August.
I mean, so we're really brand new.
We're trying to get into some of the social workers
that are there.
We're trying to get into a lot of the different offices
down there to see what we can really do to help.
But the biggest problem now is funding for things
like underwear, underwear and socks.
Well, maybe another great resource.
What you're doing, my hat's off to you.
You're basically doing in our area, we've had stand downs.
But the stand downs occur like maybe once a year
where the veterans will come get a haircut,
get their lab work done, handing out the clothes,
and all of that, a good maybe place to also go in contact
is Walmart.
Walmart has been spectacular in our area
to donate the underwear, the socks, the t-shirts,
and a lot of that.
We've had to sign in and indicate where it's going.
But you're doing this every month reaching out.
That is huge.
I'm sure your supply goes very quickly.
It does.
So just last Sunday, it rains once or twice
in Southern California.
And of course, that fell on our Sunday.
So some people were like, are you still going up there?
And I'm like, hey, at the end of the day,
there's been too many people who have let them down.
I tell them I'm going to be there the last Sunday of the month
and I'm going to be there.
We were soaking wet and freezing.
And some of the guys were like, you know what?
If it rains next time you're supposed to come,
just come the next Sunday because they just
saw how miserable we were.
For the most part, there's a handful of regulars,
but a lot of them are rotating rapidly.
So yeah, especially with every month,
we give out, like I said, the toiletry bags.
But the next month might be another 20 or 30 new people
rotating.
So it's funding is a big deal.
And we have a separate, a third party
who does our donation, our funding donations.
They keep track of everything for us
and then they send us when we need it.
So it's nice.
There's some people I know who I'm
sure are uncomfortable with sending money to,
even though we are a 501C3, I think
there's just been too many scam type situations.
They're not comfortable.
So another one of my friends who has another homeless,
just regular homeless, not, you know, we focus on the vets.
She told me to make an Amazon wish list.
So we did that.
So that's really neat.
And on our website, it points to all these different places
that people can go.
But I will check into that Walmart.
That's not why I'm trying.
I think the other thing I would look at what we do around here
is our local VVA chapter.
We buy, we purchase, I don't know, how many, $1,500 or more
of underwear and socks and so forth.
And then we go up and distribute it at the VVA.
But I think you're working with a homeless group.
I think I would go to your veteran service organizations
that you've got around there, especially the VVA.
The VVA ones because they're older.
What is that?
Vietnam Veterans of America.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion.
Oh, we've had VFWs and American legions have been really helpful
in donating funds.
Yeah, sometimes they'll donate money.
Sometimes they'll donate the actual,
we just recently had a sock drive at one of our chapter
meetings and the guy picked up, I don't know, 400 pair of socks.
Yeah.
Well, last Monday, the VFW and Lama Rata,
they came out and set up a flat top grill
and cooked over 200 hamburgers.
And they supplied everything.
So that was great.
So Kimberly, another idea.
I love what Dale said.
But on top of that umbrella of the VSOs,
I'm very well aware of this, is the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
And California has an outstanding one.
And it's called the Trust Fund.
And in Michigan, we're approximately, I think, 54 million
or maybe 58, I heard recently.
And veterans are able to go to that.
As you as an organization with the Trust Fund,
if you go to them, they might be able to supply,
as they do the county counselors and some of the VSOs
in places.
If you're established, you might get something
because homeless is one of the critical areas
that the VA is looking at across the country.
And I would associate and go and call the VAs that
are near you, the VA medical centers.
You mentioned Loma Linda because there
is a homeless coordinator.
And that coordinator, combined with you,
might be able to link some of those funds
and the availability from the state.
Great.
That's great.
Thank you.
Yeah, see, there's so much I'm learning as we go.
To be honest, I was up there with a friend of mine
who is running for a state assembly.
And he's a Vietnam vet.
And he's like, you want to come up there with me?
I'm like, sure.
Because I'd never heard of what was going on.
And I'm a huge animal lover.
And I ran into a service dog that I absolutely adore.
His name is Tank.
And my original thing was, let's get some free dog food
for the vet service dogs.
And that's literally how they started.
And then my husband's like, OK, but what about the vets?
And I'm like, oh, yeah, huh?
But my thing was, that's one less thing for them
to have to worry about.
So we were getting free dog food from a local mom and pop
place.
And me and my husband would sit down and make sandwiches.
Oh, tons of sandwiches.
Our first one was 50 sandwiches.
And now we're anywhere from 100 and 150.
So that's, I mean, it's anything I have are actually
my dog groomer comes up there, average once a quarter,
and she services the service dogs.
She does their nails, their ears, other weird animal things.
So it's helping them with less things to worry about.
Well, Kimberly, what can our listeners do?
How can we get money to you?
Or how can we get sources?
Where do we go?
Well, you can go to our website, which is we are vetsltd.com.
We take donations through a site that's called GiveButter.
And all that information is on the website.
You can also go to our Amazon Wishlist.
And we spend about $800 a month out of our pocket
to buy all of the toiletry essentials.
We don't want to have it all come out of your pocket.
We want to see if we can get some other people to donate
to your organization, because you've got a great idea going
here.
That's the goal.
Now, so many of us, of us non-profit people out there,
start off with everything coming out of our pocket
until we can get people to be aware of what we're doing.
Yes.
And luckily, we do have a local church
helps us with blanket drives.
We've had a lot of good luck with the blanket drives.
My friend who runs, it's called Lily's Legacy.
She literally loads up her vehicle
and drives downtown Long Beach and just feeds people
out of the back of her vehicle.
Gives them backpacks full of toiletry and everything.
So we all are kind of helping each other with that.
But thank you for some of those ideas.
OK.
You can stay on the line, but I'm going to let you go,
because I've got a call coming in.
I don't know if it refers to you or not.
So coming on our line here on Veterans Radio
is Wade from Ipsilanti, Michigan.
Wade, what's your question?
Well, you know, a few years back, well,
I would say probably about maybe seven years back,
they used to have a distribution, a drop-off place
at Ann Arbor VA.
And they actually had a laundry room,
and everything set up there.
They would sort the clothes, and then they
would distribute them out to veterans that need them.
Being a veteran myself, I thought it was a great thing.
And I donated a lot of clothes there over the years.
I was just wondering, what happened with that?
Do you know?
I personally know.
Brian, Brian Ayes is here from the Ann Arbor VA.
Brian, do you know anything about that program?
No, I've been with Ann Arbor about 13 years.
I've never seen that program.
OK.
There are other ways of providing those things for folks now
rather than providing a laundry room and stuff like that.
But yeah, I don't think that's been there for quite a while.
OK.
Well, yeah, because it was, I believe it
was up on the second floor.
They had washers and dryers, and they
would take the clothes in and sort them and wash them.
And then, of course, they would distribute them out
to veterans that needed those things.
Well, probably like so many of the other things
that goes on in some government agencies,
they've outsourced it.
It's somewhere else.
Well, to an organization.
Yeah, I heard that.
And believe there's something.
That's probably right.
Something to some other organization.
Wade, thank you so much for giving us a call.
I appreciate that.
Well, thank you.
And thanks for listening, too.
All right.
So actually, why don't we go to Brian?
Let me preface this a little bit, Brian.
So many changes over the last week or two weeks
that we know that there are many things that you can address
as far as what's going on at the VA
or what may go on at the VA in the coming weeks.
But I know that you had a couple of things
you did want to talk about.
So you get to go first.
Well, Dale, the one thing I can say about that
is our operational posture will remain the same.
And we will continue to care for veterans,
just as we always have with the world-class health care
that you get out of the Ann Arbor VA system.
So that's something that our veterans don't have to worry
about.
So don't use up too many brain cells,
worrying about those kinds of things.
We'll continue providing great health care.
Main thing I wanted to go over today
was our program to get folks registered on the new login
procedures for your government websites.
It's not just VA.
It really just kind of goes across all government websites,
whether it's VA or Social Security
or whatever you're talking about.
But specifically for VA, we really
want to get folks set up with the two types of ways
to get logged into My HealtheVet.
And that is login.gov and IDME.
I want to get those accounts set up
so that folks can continue to access their My HealtheVet
account.
Reason being, VA has used four different account sign-in
options over the years.
It just sort of, you know how sometimes it goes,
things just kind of grow for no reason.
We had IDME, My HealtheVet had its own login, DS login,
all those things.
So now we're transitioning down to just two
to try to simplify things.
That's because for many, many years,
our veterans have asked VA to simplify the sign-in
experience.
It hasn't been easy.
So both login.gov and IDME will be
able to help VA meet those requirements
and meet the needs of the veterans.
So millions and millions of veterans
have already transitioned their sign-in accounts
to login.gov and IDME.
We understand, though, that the change is difficult for some folks.
But what we've done, we started yesterday
as we had an open house at the medical center
in Ann Arbor yesterday.
I think we had several hundred people show up yesterday.
It really blew us away.
I was very happy to see it because they're like, oh,
they do read our emails.
But they showed up and they were getting all of their logins
transitioned and all of that.
That's really good.
But we still have about 16,000, a little less than 16,000
veterans just in our health care system.
I'm not talking about the whole country.
I'm just talking about an Ann Arbor health care system
that need to get that transition done.
So we're going to be continuing doing those open houses.
As a matter of fact, we've got one coming up in Toledo
next Friday.
So that'll be something to keep an eye out for.
There'll be an email coming out about that as well.
If you're in our catchment area, I
won't go into the details right now
because we have people from all over the country listening.
But we'll be getting an email out early this week
for the veterans in our catchment, especially
to go down to Toledo in that area and get their login changed.
So that's really the big push for me right now.
We want to be able to get those logins changed
because that current login that you
used to get into my healthy vet, that's
going to expire after March 4.
Right.
I did hear that.
I guess I must have gotten your email
because I saw that something was expanded or not expanded.
Postponed a little bit that they were going to cut off
was going to be because I thought the cutoff was going
to be in February.
But I guess we had to bump it, right?
Because there's a lack of response.
So we had to bump it another month.
And so March 4 is going to be the cutoff.
Now folks will still be able to get there,
go into my healthy vet.
My healthy vet's not going anywhere.
But you're going to have to change the way you sign in
to my healthy vet.
OK.
I just wanted to push that today, Dale.
And I appreciate having the, using your airwaves to do it.
Well, it's always a pleasure to have you on, Brian.
I can't wait to talk to you in the next couple of months
to see what actually is going to happen.
To see what happens.
Well, whatever it is going to happen.
I did notice that, and you don't have to comment on this.
I'll just do this on my own, is that all the,
there was stopping, you know, the funding thing
and all that came out last week.
The VA has sent out a press release on that,
that it doesn't affect anybody, any of our benefits,
or any of our beneficiaries.
Everybody's still going to get their disability money
and everything along those lines.
So don't worry about that.
I think it's going to be more of an internal,
internal types of changes.
But I don't think it's going to affect anybody's.
That's right.
Yeah, we're, like I said, you know,
we're just going to continue to provide world-class health
care and benefits and services to our veterans.
The changes that you're reading about and hearing about,
it's all backstage stuff.
Yeah, I totally agree.
Well, Brian, thank you very much for dropping in
and helping us out.
And I look forward to talking to you at the end
of the beginning of next month.
Yeah, see you in March.
Take care.
All right, thanks, Brian, very much.
As Brian Hayes, who's the Public Affairs Officer here
for the Ann Arbor, Charles S. Kettles,
the VA Medical Center, is a good guy who always keeps us
up to date with what's going on as best that he can.
So I wanted to bring on our other two experts here.
You've already heard the voice of Caroline Fausson
with her suggestions.
And also, we've got David Sames.
And David, as I mentioned before,
is the Executive Director of the Washtenaw County, Michigan
Veterans Service Office.
So, David, hey, welcome back.
Thanks a lot, Dale.
Everything is busy here in the Washtenaw Ann Arbor area.
One thing I was going to touch upon
is school-aged children.
One thing that a lot of vets forget is,
well, or forget, or don't read the award letter,
or letter comes in, and maybe they change their address,
is if they have a student that is still
in high school.
Lately, they've been turning 18 while they're in high school.
So you want to make sure that you fill out
that school-aged child form, and that's a VA form, 21674,
to notify the VA, hey, listen, they're still in school.
They graduate this.
Now, if they're not at 100%, and then their kid goes
to a post-is college, university, you can still get paid
for them until they get out of that.
So that's one thing I wanted to bring up,
because we had that this last couple of months.
Now I understand it.
All right.
Yeah, because if you're the right man if I'm wrong here,
so if I'm getting disability payments
and claiming a dependent, a child, once they turn 18,
they would normally be dropped off
unless they continue on into school, correctly?
That's correct.
And it's only for veterans that are receiving compensation
at 30% or higher.
But there's a lot that I've been running into
that they forgot to send in the form
or didn't read the letter fully, and then their payment dropped,
and they call and say, why did my payment drop?
So that's why I just wanted to push that a little bit today.
Well, I think that is, obviously, that's really important.
And also, isn't there a benefit for 100%
disabled veteran as far as college funding is concerned?
Yeah.
So that when they're 100% permanent total or IU,
they'll get their dependence can get Chapter 35 benefits.
And that is a stipend per month to go to school.
So they have a full time, three quarter, half time.
So that's only for 100% permanent total and TDIU.
All the rest, the vet can get paid a little extra.
It's not much, but it's something.
Right.
Yeah.
But that school benefit, I think, is really awesome.
Is it a certain amount, or is it based on where you're going
to school?
It's a certain amount.
And you can check that on the VA website.
It changes just like the cost of living.
Right.
But yeah, it's a monthly payment that they're receiving
why they're in school.
And then, State of Michigan has one for 100% permanent total
and IU.
And I believe that's $1,800 a month.
So you can get that if you're in Michigan
and you go to a state school.
There's like 35, 40 different ones.
And they listed on their award letter
where they can apply to the State of Michigan
if their father or mother has 100% permanent total or IU.
And then they can get that up to four years.
That's awesome.
I was thinking I have a nephew and a niece whose dad was
100% disabled, 100% can't work and all that other stuff.
And they got full rides through four years of college, which
is a really nice deal.
And I think people hopefully all of our listeners out there
or anybody that they know that is 100% disabled
knows that if you have school-aged children,
take advantage of that.
Kailan, as usual, it's good to see you again and talk to you.
So what's going on in the world of legal help
that we might be aware of?
I love what David just brought up about the children.
That also goes with if you get married
and you have a spouse, you could add the spouse
once it's 30% or greater.
If the spouse dies or if you get a divorce,
you've got to notify your representative or at least
the VA because that money will still come in.
And then you might have to pay it.
Not might.
You're going to have to pay it back at some time
that you might not realize.
So please ask questions and raise the issues once you're
30% or greater.
I ran into somebody who was teaching some classes in Florida
and a veteran.
And it's hard for me to believe this still happens.
But that's why we're doing this benefit show.
Because I have somebody that was my class that was 70%.
And when I talked about this, he said,
what's this dependency thing?
I've been married to her for 30 years
and nobody has told me about that.
So we got him enrolled.
We added that.
And then some of his conditions have changed.
And so we're able to help him maybe elevate the 70
to something else.
But we definitely added his wife as a dependent.
So you know all these nuances.
There's so much going on.
And last month, when we had the both directors
from the Ann Arbor VA, Lieutenant Colonel Charles S.
Kettles, and then the Detroit, the John Dingle,
that was so great to have the two directors there.
And they talked about the issues that were going on.
And Dr. Kreisman from Ann Arbor brought up
the Elizabeth Dole Act.
And I think this is going to be great,
which they're pushing for the home care and the community
care.
And then also making our veterans aware,
we do this all the time.
If you're going for an exam and it's not a good exam,
you need to notify either County Counsel or your VSO,
notify us at Legal Health for Veterans.
Because there's the issue if you go in
and it's not what the specialist who you're supposed to be,
the contracted company gets paid.
And then you get denied your benefit
because it wasn't done properly.
And this is a big waste of time.
It's a waste of resources.
And so please let us know if that happens.
We've got several of our veterans that call us and say,
I don't know why I drove two hours.
My appointment, they told me was changed.
I have all my paperwork.
Or you get an exam where maybe you take one blood pressure
and you're out the door and you've driven two hours.
So please, please ask the questions.
I think that's speaking from personal experience.
We know how that goes.
You drive two hours and you take your blood pressure
and you walk out again.
But this is across the country.
We don't want to let any people, but you know it.
If you do run into having an exam done by a third party out
there and you don't feel like it was a worthwhile exam,
to contact a person that's helping you with your claim
and have it rescheduled or get it closer.
Hopefully, maybe they can help you out
by reviewing whatever the results of that so-called exam was.
And that's something that is really important for you,
the veteran, to do.
And the thing is that you have to take ownership of your claim.
This is speaking from the veteran side.
My side is that we have to take responsibility for helping
our VSOs find all the information that we can,
leading to whatever condition we might have.
Because if we're not proactive in it
and we just write off those appointments
and we don't go just because we don't want to go,
that claim's going to die.
And you have earned whatever funding
might be entitled to because of your service
and you don't want to waste it by not following through.
So really do work with your VSO person.
I really strongly suggest that you
do use a third party to help you with your claims.
Don't do it directly, mainly because I
don't know how technologically challenged you are.
But sometimes it can become a little overwhelming
and you'll just get frustrated and just walk away from it.
You're walking away from support and you're
walking away from money and all kinds of different things
that the VA can provide to you.
So make sure that you stay on track with that.
We need to take a real quick break.
And when we come back after our Medal of Honor segment,
we'll get into talking about maybe some things that
are going on on the disability side of the Veterans
Administration.
So you're listening to Veterans Radio.
We'll be right back.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award
for valor in combat given a member of the Armed
Forces of the United States.
There have been over 3,400 recipients
of the nation's highest award.
This is one of them.
Staff Sergeant Drew Dix was working on a CIA project
near Cambodia when the Tet Offensive began.
Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans
Appeals, contact Legal Help for Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the US Court
of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
Dix's mission was to coordinate intelligence gathering
with a unit made up mainly of indigenous Vietnamese,
Cambodians, and Chinese nungs.
In late January, Dix and his men were operating with part
of a SEAL platoon to get information about a rumored
Viet Cong offensive.
On January 31st, Dix's unit returned to base
to find the Tet Offensive had begun
and the city had been overrun.
When they tried to land, they encountered heavy fire.
One SEAL was killed, the others pulled out,
leaving Dix with only a handful of indigenous soldiers.
He moved through the city picking up pockets
of friendly soldiers.
His first mission was to rescue an American nurse.
Then he brought several CIA employees to safety.
Dix and his men moved through the city
in an effort to liberate it.
He assaulted a building alone in the face of heavy fire
to rescue two Filipinos.
He killed six Viet Cong and brought out the men.
Dix and his men fought through the night,
taking back the hotel, theater, embassy house,
and other buildings.
On February 2nd, after 56 hours of battle,
the city was freed.
Dix's men had killed an estimated 200 V.C.
He was presented the Medal of Honor by President Johnson
on January 16th, 1969.
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a message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Hey, we are back here on Veterans Radio
and we're talking benefits this week.
And online with me is a retired Air Force general,
Carol Anne Faustone from Legal Health for Veterans
and David Sames, who is the Executive Director
of the Washtenaw County Michigan Veterans Service Office.
So, Carol Anne, what's going on out there?
Anything that we need to be aware of
or anything that you see that's helping people out?
You mentioned the DOL Act.
Well, the Elizabeth DOL Act is pretty important
when it relates to those veterans right now
and they're pushing for paralysis, PVA, veteran,
anybody that has ALS, spinal cord injuries
and multiple dystrophy.
They're looking at these veterans to try to get them dale,
benefits, home care, community care,
so they could stay in their home.
And one of the factors that they're really trying
to address is the issue of the caregivers.
As we well know, the caregiver over a period of time,
he or she, as they're caring for their loved one,
they wear down when they don't have some support coming in,
whether it's an agency or some hours that the VA is supplying.
So, they are looking at this with the Elizabeth DOL Act
and it's called the Home Care Act.
And so, it's exactly what it says.
They're trying to give those resources available
to our veterans so that they could stay in their home.
And with one of the things that their other priority
is proper and adequate exams
so that the veteran isn't going back and forth.
And this really affects this class of veterans
because as you well know, some of them are bedwritten,
some of them are in wheelchairs,
and the transportation back and forth to the hospital
is really critical.
And you need that exam to get the disability benefit,
the BVA part.
And that's what we're talking about right now.
We're granting those benefits up through the channel
so that our veterans with paralyzed veterans,
spinal cord, the ALS, they could stay in their home.
And I think this is unbelievable.
It's a great new act that's coming around like our PAC Act.
From August of 22, it could make a huge difference
for a family and a veteran.
Well, I certainly agree with you on that.
I mean, I know quite a few veterans here in the local area
that have been able to take advantage of home alterations,
say ramps and doors and bathrooms and so on and so forth.
So it is really important.
And for those veterans out there listening,
no matter where you are, if you think that you may be entitled
to some of these things or if you even have a question
about it, you should get a hold of your local VSO,
whoever that might be.
Or they can either be through the VA hospital
because I know that all of the VSOs here locally
have a little office up there or just go into the phone.
There are state VSOs, there are law firms that can help you.
There are all kinds of people out there can help you.
But don't, like I said, don't just sit where you are
and not do anything.
If you feel that you're entitled to contact
some of these people, what can they say?
No?
That's the only thing.
Well, the other thing is as you're going into the VA
and you've got your team, whatever color it is,
Kimberly brought up the social worker,
your physician, your nurse, bring these issues up
because that's where it starts first to approve
the social worker with the caregivers program
or to be able to build a ramp or renovate your home.
And that is a larger process.
But if you get the sign off from your physician
and your team that yes, you really need these services,
home care in your home, it starts there
with your team at the VA Medical Center.
And also communicating with your county council
or your VSO or us at Legal Health for Veterans,
what issues you're going on
because we're your advocates for you out there.
So please utilize the resources.
And if you don't know, please ask questions.
Right.
And with the caveat of that,
are Ann Arbor VA or any medical center,
they have a program of comprehensive assistance
for family caregivers.
So let's say you have somebody that wants to care for you.
You're the veteran and your spouse
or you're, you know, I've seen the grandchildren or children
and you want to become the caregiver for that veteran.
Now note, this has to be,
the veteran has to be at least 70% service connected.
But if you have somebody in the family
that wants to be that,
you want to talk to your social worker and your doctor,
talk about the care that you need
and you want that care to come from your spouse
or a family member.
That's where you start.
You want to develop that where is the need there.
And if that needs there,
then it's a really easy program to apply to online.
They have a portal and the caregiver
will put all their personal information in,
the veteran will put all their information in,
but you want to start first at your caregiver
or with your doctor first.
Because I've done that.
David, you brought up an awesome point.
I've got an e-book out there,
A Legal Help for Veterans.
And those are all free on this program,
the comprehensive caregivers, the general,
there's three different components.
But one thing I encourage everybody to look at,
your advice is awesome.
It's the activities of daily living.
And you should have three or four, bathing, toileting.
One thing that we find, Dale, you asked what's happening.
Quite a few veterans and their families have been calling in
and David, I don't know if you've been seeing this,
but they've been getting denials
for the caregivers program.
They've gone up the chain and if you are driving veterans,
that is considered a high independence.
And that's the reason why four out of five
in the last month, they have been denied.
If you're still driving, that's not one of the activities
of daily living, then they're believing you're
at a higher level of independence.
You can take care of yourself.
Well, that's going to be tough time
to talk some of these people into giving up their cars.
I'll tell you that, even though they have seven or eight
different medical issues, they're still not going to give
up their car, but that's too bad.
That really is too bad.
David, is that caregiver program,
does the caregiver then get compensated for that?
They do, yeah.
And they can get healthcare at the local hospital too.
Really?
Yep.
Boy, see the folks, you got to listen to this program.
You can't, you never know what you're going to learn.
This is great.
I think this is really important.
I was not aware.
So the caregiver could get care at the VA as well.
That was just great.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, of course, it all has to get approved.
Like, yeah.
No, I know.
You know, and going up there.
And then that's where I've had somewhere, you know,
oh, we can apply through the portal,
but then we didn't do our due diligence enough
with partnering with their doctor and the social worker.
And that's where it all starts.
The form is not that hard to do, the portal,
but what is making sure that, like Carolyn said,
you have the ADLs, you have probably three or more.
So that's the key here.
And that portal that you're talking to,
that's where you have to go and sign in
and use the new sign-ins, the IDME or the login.gov, right?
The portal is an application process.
And so that's where you can go and do the application.
I don't think you have to have the IDME in order
to fill that out.
It's been a while since I got on there.
Carol, do you?
Yep, I've got all of that in the ebook, David,
and I would encourage, it's all free, go and look.
But going back to this, the interesting thing,
it's not on IDME, it's on the portal.
But if you're working with your team, and this is real huge,
it could be approved at the local level.
And when individuals are filling this out themselves
and sending it in, I've also noticed, David,
it's going to the national level higher.
And they miss the first step because the VA Medical Center,
the Detroit VA Medical Center, if your team knows you need this,
you fill out the paperwork, they will help you right there,
the social workers.
And they could approve your home care,
your caregivers right there.
But a lot of people are bypassing that,
and they're going to the next level, which going to Washington,
and it's taking a long time.
We've called in to see where it's at,
and then to find out the veteran or their significant other,
filled out the form wrong, and it's coming back to them.
So please work with your team initially if you need help.
Oh, Caroline, this is going to be from our supporter here.
Where would I go to get that e-book?
www.legalhelpforveterans.com.
I think there's 26 out there.
They're free.
You could download them.
It has all the paperwork.
What you asked a great question, Dale,
let me piggyback what David said.
Yes, the caregiver's up to three.
The primary should be living in the home.
And then you could have two others
to give that caregiver some respite care.
You don't expect somebody to be there 24-7.
But you will get payment if approved.
The caregivers will go to a special class trained by the VA,
and they will pay you to go to school.
And so that's all listed in the e-book.
And the other thing is, depending on the care you're given,
there's two different levels of payment.
If you are giving extensive care,
let's say to a paralyzed veteran,
he or she needs rolling and turning.
Complete, they're a level five.
They need everything.
That caregiver will get a higher value, a level two rating,
versus somebody that's maybe going to pick up groceries
or driving them to their exams.
So please take a look at that.
It is an unbelievable program, but you need to have the ADLs.
One new ADL that I think is not stressed
is if you end up with a prosthesis
and you're going in learning how to walk or use your arm
or whatever, that is considered a really high ADL
that you could have a caregiver for.
So please look at those issues.
As I learned a lot that I thought
David brought up the comprehensive.
That's the most intense.
And then there's the general one where
you could apply for hours that the VA on your needs
will give you the hours of care.
And then the third one, I don't know too many.
I do know two veterans where they give you the budget.
They would give you the budget, Dale, as the veteran
and say, OK, you go and hire your own caregivers.
But then monthly, you need to submit the report.
How did you use your funds?
Some people like to keep control of that,
but it's a wonderful program.
Well, it sounds like when we were talking about ADLs,
those are activities of daily living.
So we have to make sure that everybody understands that.
These really smart people that we have here on Veterans Radio,
they like to use these shortcuts and so forth.
And some people are not that familiar with.
We've only got about three minutes left to go,
which is the hour flies by.
What should we be looking out for in the next month or so
as far as disability is concerned?
Are there any other presumptive things
that might be coming up on a list that you're aware of?
Or are there any particular conditions
that we need to look for?
I haven't seen any coming down the pipeline.
But with the huge PACDAC and you have TERRA exams,
that's been you're in an area where there was some toxics
exposure, PFAS.
It seems like every base that we've had has PFAS.
And if that's causing those cancers,
then you can use that to apply for disability compensation.
I mean, I've never thought Fort Drum would have PFAS,
but it did.
And so there's bases out there that you don't think,
oh, well, it's not in the news.
But you do some more research.
Then if you're getting some type of weird cancer,
or if you're getting some ailment that
might be connected to PFAS, then you definitely
want to reach out to a service officer, Carolyn,
to look into that to file on that claim.
Yeah.
I should mention that we're going to have Mike Cox on today
as a lawyer if I talk about Camp Lejeune.
He will be on our next benefits program
on the first Sunday of March.
Carolyn, you got one minute.
What would you like to add?
I just want to say thank you very much, veterans,
for your service.
Please ask the questions.
If you don't know, there's so much.
I mean, I learn stuff or ask questions all the time.
And David, thank you for always being there
when I've got a question that seems far fetched,
but they're not.
And so thank you very much.
You're welcome, yes.
We would learn something new every day, even I do.
So it is always something new to learn.
I learn stuff every month, which is awesome.
And I think it's so important.
So I appreciate both of you, Carolyn Falzon,
from Legal Health for Veterans.
David Sames from the Washington County Veterans Service
Office.
Thank you so very much.
I also want to remind people that we
are going to be talking with a representative
from the Non-Commissioned Officers Association coming up
on the 16th idea, I think it is, to see
if we can talk a little bit about some of the changes that
may or may not be occurring with the VA under the things that
are going on in Washington.
So stick around for that.
I think you'll find that interesting.
Also, I wanted to remind you to go to wearevetsldd.com
to help out that organization out there in California.
They could really use the funds to provide food and clothing
for homeless deaths out there in West LA.
So am I dragging this out here any longer?
Is he starting to count me down?
I'm not sure.
Here we go.
All right.
So I want to thank everybody for being on our program today.
We're going out with America the Beautiful again.
Until then, you are dismissed.
God bless America, land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her through the night
with a light from above, from the mountains to the prairies
to the oceans, white with foam.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, land that I love.
Stand beside her and guide her through the night
with a light from above, from the mountains to the prairies
to the oceans, white with foam.
God bless America, my home sweet home.