HONORING VETERANS

May 14, 2014

In the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to talk with, and to learn a great deal from Michele Clayborne, the Administrator at Overlook Hospice & Palliative Care, Honoring Choices’ newest Community Partner. Interestingly these conversations have created for me one of those serendipitous times, when two conversations, with two people who operate in entirely different orbits come together in an oddly synchronous way.

Overlook Hospice, a division of Masonic Health Systems, provides compassionate physical and psychosocial support for adults with life limiting illness. One of the things I learned from Michele is that about 1/3 of the adults they care for are veterans. And until these conversations, I hadn’t fully considered the unique and often challenging constellation of problems that veterans may bring to the table with respect to health care planning and connecting to quality person-centered care.

In obvious ways we’re all aware of trauma to veterans and the medical complications for these heroes when they return. But what I learned from Michele is the less well known reality for returning veterans and especially how these problems re-surface as they age. As she explained, “each military conflict carries with it specific health risks for veterans,” such as exposure to Mustard gas in World War II, or frostbite and limb amputation in the Korean War. And now, especially Overlook is seeing the effects of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War and other serious conditions that “become more complex with age and with life-limiting illness.”

In that regard our conversation turned to the question of deployments that can increase the risk of psychiatric illnesses, particularly post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, substance use disorder and subsequent homelessness, which can present unique challenges at the end of life.

Overlook Hospice, having partnered with the “We Honor Veterans” program, a pioneering initiative of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs, trains its staff to “understand and provide care for the unique needs of veterans and their families” and to carefully approach “respectful inquiry, compassionate listening and grateful acknowledgment of veterans” with life limiting illness. We welcome them to the Honoring Choices network. Which leads me to my other conversation . . .

The second series of conversation was with a friend, someone I’ve know for a decade, who is concerned for his brother-in-law Alan, a Vietnam vet. It seems that in the thirty-five years my friend had known Alan, although he knew he had seen combat in two tours in the Army infantry, he had never once heard Alan mention it. Not a word. Until recently.

Now 71, retired with health issues, Alan’s experience, locked away so many years ago, has returned. According to my friend, along with frequent conversational references to Vietnam, there are marked changes in Alan’s behaviors. What was always a remarkably calm and gentle demeanor is gone, replaced by nervousness, and an inability to sit quietly; his eyes constantly moving about, his attention easily distracted. Where they used to often sit and talk quietly, that’s entirely gone now. In our conversation my friend expressed his concern for these marked changes in his brother-in-law, and mentioned, as well, that Alan’s begun to seek out veterans’ services of various kinds.

That’s where these two conversations, one with Michele Clayborne and the other with my old friend, overlap. Together these talks led me to look deeper into the world of veterans, and to an article in Stars and Stripes, in which I learned that “The average age of a Vietnam vet is 65 years old,” and that “more than 5 million of the nation’s more than 7 million Vietnam-era veterans are between 60 and 70 years old.” Of that number “an additional 1 million are expected to turn 60 within the next five years.”

Numbers such as these are sobering and require reflection and excellence from those of us who help to provide care planning and person-centered care to veterans, and to support their families and caregivers. Honoring Choices information and tools are especially well suited to engage adults in meaningful planning discussions, and as the platform from which to help recognize a veteran’s duty and service, and to provide quality care that honors their choices all through their lives.

Read more about Overlook Hospice at Meet Our Community Partner.