Latest news with #CommunityCareProgram
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Access to Care Could Have Saved My Son's Life. Other Vets Should Have a Chance.
The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@ for consideration. My son was the best person I ever knew. Kind, loving and generous, Logan never met someone who wasn't a friend. Just like his father, Logan wanted to join the military. He had a strong sense of duty and wanted to help people. But I hardly recognized Logan when he came back from service. He struggled with his mental health throughout his time in the Navy, eventually receiving an honorable discharge. He came home reserved, withdrawn, anxious and, unbeknownst to me, had attempted suicide multiple times. At the time, I worked at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as a pharmacy technician. I knew the VA existed for the very purpose of helping men and women like my son, especially those with disability ratings and mental-health struggles due to their service. I encouraged Logan to seek help, and finally, after years, he agreed to come to the VA and ask for a mental-health appointment. Under the current VA MISSION Act law, the VA has standards in place for how to handle scheduling appointments for mental-health care. They look for an open appointment at the facility, and if they can't get the veteran in to be seen within 20 days, they refer them to outside doctors in the community. The Community Care Program, as it's titled, allows a veteran such as my son to use his VA benefits to see non-VA doctors. Long wait times aren't always an option for mental-health care, so the Community Care Program is often a lifeline veterans can hold onto. Logan told me he was given an appointment, though he didn't tell me when. I was just grateful to the VA and hopeful for his future. But that hope was short-lived. The wait time for his mental-health appointment was five months long. That should have made him eligible for community care, but to my knowledge, nobody from the VA ever contacted Logan about coordinating that care. Two months into waiting for an appointment, Logan took his own life. My only child died waiting for help from the VA that wasn't coming. I believe the VA stands in the way of veterans getting access to community care. It's become a tangled bureaucracy that is focused on itself rather than helping the veteran. That was clear to me in how my son was treated, and then how I was treated after his death. I was held at arm's length, given little information as a next of kin and treated with such coldness that I chose to leave VA employment last year through early retirement. If there is something I can cling to for purpose now, it's that I won't let another mother feel this pain if I can do something about it. My child is gone, but I'll ensure he can still help others, just like he did in his 27 years of life. It starts with giving veterans access to desperately needed care. Even though the Community Care Program is built with standards for veterans to use their benefits to get care outside the VA when wait times are too long, VA administrators have found ways around the law. Veterans are often stuck in the maze of trying to advocate for themselves to get community care, if they even know they have that option. As I've gone through the process of sharing Logan's story, I've been encouraged by members of Congress and organizations such as Concerned Veterans for America who want to make things right for veterans at the VA. In particular, the Veterans' ACCESS Act would make it law that the VA has clear standards for veterans using community care and that the VA communicates those standards with veterans. Two more pieces of this bill, though, are more critical to me. First, the VA would need to create a portal so veterans can self-schedule at the VA or a community care provider. Second, the bill would create a pilot program for veterans that need certain kinds of mental-health-care access to get community care without VA pre-approval first. No need to get a referral from the VA; just go get the help you need. This kind of access could have saved my child's life. It could still save another mother's child. I beg Congress, if you care about veterans, their mental-health struggles and the families who support them, to pass the Veterans' ACCESS Act. Our children's lives depend on it. Veterans and service members experiencing a mental-health emergency can call the Veteran Crisis Line, 988 and press 1. Help also is available by text, 838255, and via chat at Lori Locklear is a former VA employee and mother to Navy veteran Logan Willis, who passed away by suicide in 2022. She lives in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area where she connected with Concerned Veterans for America, an organization that advocates for expanded health-care choices for veterans, like the Community Care Program, to help get her story heard.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Home care workers ask Illinois lawmakers for $2 wage increase
SPRINGFIELD (WCIA) — Many seniors retire and want to live their retirement with ease and dignity, and some need home care to get through their day. Taking care of seniors sometimes requires doing a two-person job; however, the state is facing a worker shortage, making it difficult to properly provide services. Bill protecting Mahomet Aquifer from carbon sequestration passes House committee Many home care workers gathered at the Illinois State Capitol to tell lawmakers they are having a hard time making ends meet, with seniors joining them, saying they are not getting the essential services they need. Advocate groups showed their support to push a bill that will increase the minimum wage for workers. The rally took place Wednesday before the deadline for the bills to be heard in committee Friday as part of a month-long statewide push for fair wages. The event was led by SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri & Kansas, and other advocate groups. The call was for a $2 minimum wage increase from $18 to $20 per hour for home care workers within the Community Care Program. SEIU HCIIMK Executive Vice President Erica Bland said the cost of living is expensive for workers, and this is impacting seniors directly. UPDATE: Illinois homeschool bill passes; hundreds gather at State Capitol in protest 'Home care workers are leaving the industry because they simply can't afford to stay, can't afford to pay rent, afford the basic needs on poverty wages. And this reality is destabilizing our home care industry,' Bland said. 'When a worker makes the difficult decision to leave, a senior somewhere is losing their lifeline.' Advocates were joined by other legislators under the rotunda to wave their support with optimistic words and cheers. Earlier this year, Sen. Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) and Rep. Mary Beth Canty (D-Arlington Heights) both filed a bill to increase home care service wages to $32.75, which will then increase the minimum wage for direct workers to $20 per hour. The bill also prevents providers from reducing workers' paid time off and training because of the new wage. Also, providers must inform the Department of Aging that they are complying with the new wage set, and by 2028, home care service providers must allocate 80% of their revenue to compensate workers directly. This is all an effort to minimize the instability caused by low pay. According to SEIU Healthcare Illinois, seniors prefer to stay in the comfort of their homes. Not only is it cheaper—only costing $18,500 per senior compared to nursing facility care for $86,000 per senior. Diana Inman was a home care worker for 20 years. Now, at the age of 75 years old, she is receiving home care herself at her home in Decatur. She said she still is experiencing the work toll, and with her health condition, not having a home care worker for a long time is not ideal. 'I'm still recovering from injuries and the physical toll working in home care had on my body. And now, as a home care recipient, people like me are struggling to access home care services that allow us to continue living independently in our homes because of a workforce shortage that is being driven by low wages,' Inman said. 'My regular girl was taken away from me, and it took them a whole week to finally find somebody to come in. That was rough.' Sen. Villanueva said this fight is personal to her as she talked about her grandmother, who had a home care worker after being diagnosed with Parkinson's. As she was holding back her tears, she said home care workers become part of the family and help seniors retain their dignity. State Police Director testifies before Senate on human trafficking bill Jenny Smith is a home care worker in Champaign. She said the current pay is not sustainable. 'I love my job, but low wages have made it difficult to remain in this industry. I financially support both my mother and my uncle, and I personally struggle to afford the prescribed medication that I have for epilepsy,' Smith said, 'I believe that a higher wage increase would help keep more of us good home care workers around and hopefully, we'll only be able to work one job is to.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
