The Department of Veterans Affairs has earmarked $4.7 million to provide training and assistance to caregivers who provide in-home assistance to disabled and elderly veterans, and to bolster health-care education. The pilot programs will support eight caregiver projects across the country, including:
* Training in how to manage patient behavior and their own stress, at the VA’s Memphis, Tenn., and Palo Alto, Calif., facilities;
* Video courses will provide instruction in transition assistance, at the VA’s Gainesville, Fla., facility;
* Round-the-clock coordination between VA and community resources throughout Ohio, centered at the state’s VA health care system headquarters in Cincinnati;
* Online, video and telephone help for caregivers who assist veterans with traumatic brain injuries at the VA Desert Pacific Network and the VA Sierra Nevada Healthcare System;
* A pilot-program workshop on communicating effectively with health care professionals at the VA medical center in Albany, N.Y.;
* Computer-based help for caregivers who live in remote areas or who cannot leave patients alone, provided through the Atlanta VA medical center;
* Offering relief for up to two weeks per year to workers who provide 24-hour in-home respite care, at the VA medical centers in Tampa and Miami;
* Instituting “medical foster homes,” which allow caregivers to take veterans into their own homes and provide 24-hour supervision, on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai, Hawaii, Maui, and rural parts of Oahu, through the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System.
