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We Honor Veterans

Caring Professionals on a Mission to Serve

We Honor Veterans Partner Networking Call Recording March 30, 2016

Recording from March 30, 2016 Partner Networking call. 

We Honor Veterans- Partner Networking Call 03/30/2016

 

Welcome (Gwynn Sullivan, Senior Director Access Programs at NHPCO):

  • Previous year overview and major emphasis on “Networking”

Spirit 45 World War II (WWII) 75 Anniversary events/dates (Warren Hegg, National Supervisor, Keep the Spirit of ’45 Alive)

  • Recognizing the “Greatest Generation” of veterans who served and are now the majority of new hospice care recipients.
  • With 700,000 WWII Veterans remaining they should be our primary focus for hospice care alongside Vietnam Veterans.
  • “Spirit of the Nation” initiative is a major focus to preserve the history and sacrifice veterans have made throughout their service.
  • Global interest in “Spirit of 45 Day”, which has increased program visibility.
  • Not only are veterans important, but looking at all conflicts caregivers were pivotal and should be recognized for their role in veteran care.
  • Digital Memorial’s project will be announced this year on Memorial Day! They will be looking for photos from now until 2020 of veterans (in service & retired), families, and spouses.  There will be a big emphasis on spouses because of their role in rehabilitating veterans so couples stories and wedding photos are more than welcome.  Photos are to be sent to Spiritof45.org with State and Zip code to identify origin of photo.

Hospice Action Network’s Advocacy Intensive (Karen Davis, Manager of Health Policy Analysis at NHPCO)

  • Hospice Action Network is NHPCO’s lobbying affiliate and national hospice advocacy organization. They have a completely separate board of directors, and they help funding congress and activities on Capitol Hill.
  • New event “Advocacy Intensive” will be from July 18-19 at Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. This will be a free event, but scholarships will be available for those needing transportation to the conference.  Register for the conference on Hospiceactionnetwork.org/intensive, and if you have any further questions e-mail Karen at kdavis@nhpco.org. 
  • Working with social workers and those that are part of the care team who are the “front liners” for hospice care should be a major focus.  Since these are the people that have direct contact with the veterans they are a major asset to the WHV program.  
  • Hospices are encouraged to send e-mails sharing experiences to put forth information to share in meetings and conferences with congressional representatives to gain support.
  • The We Honor Veterans team in collaboration with HAN will be putting together on an Advocacy Toolkit for partners to assist hospices in site visits, Washington D.C Visits, and in-district advocacy. The toolkit will help with letters to the editors, writing press releases, required appointments, and digital releases. There will be a session at the Advocacy Intensives specifically for the toolkit and we will then announce to all WHV partners. Stay tuned!

Dr. Scott Shreve (National Director, Hospice and Palliative Care at the Department of Veterans Affairs)

  • A partnership program establish by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) was established to honor the Vietnam War  including Prisoners of War (POW), families, and Soldiers.
  • Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is working with Capitol Hill and hospices to rectify the concurrent benefits issue. Since veterans are eligible for dual benefits (VA and Medicaid) the VA is working on a solution to the issue without congressional input.
  • www.Vietnamwar50th.com  is where you can register for the Vietnam War 50th program where each veteran registered gets pinned, which will increase visibility of the participating hospice.

Partner Networking

  • Develop and establish quarterly meetings to gain insight on Department of Veteran Affairs training and programs.
  • VA is pushing for agency-wide policy (already active in some regions) to encourage employees to get more active.
  • Staff members were lucky enough to participate in an Honor Flight welcoming a group of Rosie the Riveters into Washington, D.C. A story on our time with them as well as pictures can be found here: