Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors are invited to virtually join the 8th Annual National Convening: The State of the Caregiver Community on May 11 from 10 a.m. – 12:30 pm EST. The National Convening is jointly hosted by VA, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and Triwest.
This event is the premier gathering for the Veteran caregiver community, featuring senior leaders from VA, as well as private sector and nonprofit organizations. By participating, you will have the opportunity to engage in a conversation around mental wellness and how it effects Veteran caregivers and their children. You’ll also hear about the mental health resources VA offers. This conversation is crucial, and your presence will help ensure that the needs of these families are heard and addressed.
The program will feature VA leaders, including Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal; Dr. Colleen Richardson, executive director of the Caregiver Support Program Office; John W. Boerstler, chief Veterans Experience officer; Jill DeBord, executive director of Care Management & Social Work; and others from the department.
The event will unveil new innovations, programs and resources to support Veteran caregivers and their families, with a special focus on the caregiver to survivor transition. Whether you’re a caregiver or Veteran yourself, or you’re someone who supports them, join this event to access the latest tools available to help you better support the Veteran caregiver community.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make a difference. Register today for the National Convening.
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This event was hosted jointly by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. My comments were not allowed to be posted. My first amendment rights have been violated by censoring my comments. My differing viewpoints are not grounds to remove my comments or prevent them from being viewed by making them hidden. I demand that you restore my comments to the video immediately!
Why where people blocked on chat portion of this VA event. Violation of are First Amendment rights.
Why were caregivers and Veterans blocked from the YouTube chat? During the VA Caregiver Event? Today on May 11, 2023.
The VA in recent years has put veterans, caregivers and our children through emotional warfare. September 2025 is hanging over our heads like a storm waiting in the horizon. Will meaningful improvements to the PCAFC be discussed? Having job security for our caregivers will not only help our veteran’s mental health, but the family as a whole. It’s a holistic approach and quite frankly, common sense.
It is hard to be a part of making a difference, when only certain voices are heard and considered and others are silenced. Since these conversations are crucial, it is imperative to hear all of our voices. Please keep the chat function open.
They kept the chat function open but prevented certain people from engaging in the chat function. I engaged the chat with many comments, yet nobody could view them.
Why didn’t the Veterans Administration Review team for the PCAFC in 2022. Not Get a hold of Veterans Doctors. Especially their mental health Doctors. I am hearing that the ceat review teams. The review team says the tried to get into contact with veterans health Doctors, but in reality they never did. They says they tried but Doctors never responded back. Why is that? Why are they able to lie? In a Veterans healthcare records.Caregivers and Veterans deserve answers. Also most veterans and caregivers will not even call and complain about the mess in the VA Caregiver Program. They are scared of the VA getting pay back against. The PCAFC gas caused a culture of fear and intimidation. I never proofread. Looks like the review teams at the don’t either in medical records. They are lying in healthcare records.
Talk about putting the cart before the horse. Why are we discussing children and mental wellness when we still don’t have any trust that our caregiver jobs are secure? To you, 2025 is a thousand years away, but for us it’s breathing down our necks like a dark cloud.
It doesn’t take rocket science to know that disrupting our children’s lives (by removing the paid caregiver) is not conducive to “mental wellness” for them. After more than a decade it’s in the entire families best interest to keep things consistent. Any VA psychiatrist knows that they must keep things calm and consistent for their veterans.
I would like to know why there is there a special focus on the caregiver to survivor transition? If we are discussing the state of the Caregiver program, then we should be discussing PCAFC, not how we are going to cope when our veteran keels over and dies.
Keep the chat function open for transparency this time, since the conversation is crucial as you stated above.
This is how the VA treats caregivers in the program. A caregiver I know. They could see with the coming purges in the PCAFC. So they went job looking. They could see the writing on the wall.,That they would discharged kicked out the program. Applied for a job at the VA. Job posting said no experience needed. The Registered Nurse application is extensive at the Veterans Administration.They want work references. If you have been in the PCAFC for over 6 years. So have no work references. You call the local VA Caregiver Program. They say they cannot help you with that. So you use school references from Nursing School. Ok you get an interview over the phone. With the Veterans Administration about the RN job.The person interviewing you asks about your work experience. You begin explain the situation, and interviewer begins to laugh at the applicant. You end the interview. At that point. Very unprofessional VA employee during interview. Caregivers have walked away from their careers. In September 30, 2025 caregivers will be discharged. Some have will have over 10 years being out of workforce missing the most prime income time in their lives. Like with a career in Nursing. They have been out over 10 ten years. Good luck on finding employment. after being kicked out the program. Caregivers left their careers to take care of their veteran. Most are in the middle trier in the program. Part time. Like who is just a part time caregiver. This whole program is a mess. Posted this.
Steve Schwab Sept 30 2025. Is quickly approaching. You said no one will be kicked out the VA Caregiver Program. Well not much has changed. The Federal committee met in January I see you not in attendance. Some caregivers went there on their own dime and wanted to talk to you. If you cannot fulfill your duties you should resign. Why did the Dole Foundation block a wife a Veteran that sadly ended his own life. In her time of need she was shunned by the Dole Foundation.
If this conversation is crucial as stated above will you make sure the chat is not conveniently disabled as it has been at most events involving EDF on the past. Caregivers that don’t have fellow contracts would also like to speak their truth and ask those tough questions. EDF is controlling the narrative from research (Steve Schwab on the Rand Corp board) to recommendations (Steve Schwab on the FAC), to policy (Dole Act) and Input (ALL Dole Fellows). EDF does not represent all of us and the conflicts of interest are limiting our voices and concerns from being heard.
Keep the chats open.
My Husband passed a year ago , 2 month’s before he passed away He was approved for 100% disability , He was 86 years old
I was trying to work & quit (Was Real Estate Agent ) because he could not be left along & no longer could I Take him with me he would get out of car & Fall ,called & went to Office of a V A Rep. He said: seen no reason why I was not going to get a monthly Ck. to help me out . now I get a letter saying No ! we had to purchase a new Truck that I could drive to carry his wheel chair that & with our Heat & Air went out purchase a Generator in the mountains , Power goes out, when storm hits. Appliance went out our 1998 ,900 Sq Ft Mobile Home Had to have ,also needed new floor which I’am struggling to pay credit cards & paying monthly Bills ,My car is a 2013 ,wonder how many could live on just S.S & Eat, with the price of Food & Gas going up +interest rates I’am eight Cherokee Indian making it because I was taught how to be Survive .Would like to come to Meeting can not afford the Gas he was to Go to Korea war but got injured in training to go when the wind picked up his Chute & carried him several miles bouncing him on pavement causing Back injures .God Bless all our Service Men & Women that Protects us & never gets the Medal they deserve & Suffer for it for years. Annie Turner
What I don’t understand is why does a “nonprofit” organization like the Elizabeth Dole Foundation have the leeway to push recommendations that benefit their organization and partners through the Veterans Family, Caregiver and Survivor Federal Advisory Committee? Why was the Elizabeth Dole Foundation granted use of the VA Seal and granted an MOU with the Department of Veterans Affairs, even though there’s a clear conflict of interest? Is there no ethical guidance at the VA?
Veterans, their caregivers and families deserve to be represented by organizations who don’t turn up their nose at ethics rules in order to push policies and legislation that seem only to benefit their organization and their commercial caregiving partners. The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) is here to take care of our nations most vulnerable veterans. It’s not here for nonprofits who wish to benefit from the program’s $1.9 billion dollar discretionary budget. The VA has an obligation to take care of our veterans in the caregiver program. Veterans deserve fair regulations for the PCAFC. They also need justice for the humiliation and pain they’ve endured due to the inaccurate and dehumanizing reassessments.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit struck down VA’s definition of “need for supervision, protection, or instruction” because of Veteran Warriors, Inc lawsuit against the Secretary of Veterans affairs; thus, invalidating the reassessments that would have removed 90% of participants from the PCAFC by Oct. 1, 2022. These inaccurate assessments remain in the veterans’ medical record. What has the the VA done to retract these invalid assessments from veterans medical records?
The Department of Veterans Affairs has work to do and it seems like you’re only interested in working with large “nonprofit” organizations and companies who benefit financially off the backs of veterans, their caregivers and families.
What is going to being done to remove all of the mis documentation in our veterans medical records, many of which resulted in erroneous discharge from PCAFC? Why hasn’t that issue been addressed or answered as of today? It seems like Veterans Affairs is focused on moving forward with EDF and several other nonprofits expeditiously, why? Shouldn’t Veterans Affairs fix their own mistakes before passing them off to others? What will happen to our Nation’s Veterans if these medical records are not corrected? How will any other organization be able to adequately care for our Nation’s Veterans if our very own Veterans Affairs doesn’t provide proper documentation of their needs?
Will there be any substantial improvements to the PCAFC annoucned at this event? EDF’s priorities lie with their commercial partners and not the veteran caregivers that they claim to represent. The VA Office of General Counsel advised the VA to not enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation due to Former Senator Dole chairing the The Veterans’ Families, Caregivers, and Survivors Federal Advisory Committee. This guidance should have been heeded. Maybe then, VA wouldn’t have adopted such restrictive eligibility criteria for PCAFC based off the Federal Advisory Committees Recommendations. They also shared the same concern with all members that the VA would seek a Memorandum of Understanding with. The Wounded Warrior Project has an MOU and their CEO is an advisory committee member too. The list goes on and on. Remove the nonprofits from the caregiver program and watch it flourish!
It would be nice if the VA would do what the VA needs to do, and the Dole Foundation would just stay in their place as a non-profit organization…. instead of trying to completely rule and take over the Caregiver Program that should be administered and controlled by the VA. I have been a full time Caregiver for over 10 years and under the new regulations adviced by Dole&friends, I was going to be discharged. The VA gives the foundation tons of money for this and other programs, but unless you are a Dole fellow you will not get help. Non profits should stay non profits, not partners with commercial caregiving companies that are in the stock market! The lines are blurred, conflicts of interests? MANY! Yet Dole&Scwhab continue to rule and run their business undisturbed!
I took care of my husband for almost 40 years while he was dying from agent orange. Now I need help age 83 but not seeming to be able to get help. But I do thank God they are finally helping those still alive fighting that horrific chemical.
EDF wants to replace Family Caregivers with CareLinx commercialized Caregivers, at a much higher cost to taxpayers. The only thing I see coming out of this is more veterans dying, because they don’t want strangers in their homes. Is that what they want? Also, I see more funding coming for the VA. One has to wonder what EDF is gaining from the additional funding!!
Would like to know when this 13 year old Program will get a Standard Operating Procedure or when will the Subject Matter Experts be able to See our 100 % Total and Permanent Disability Code Sheets? Why are Our VHA Primary Care Dr.’s Ignored and the 7 VA Forms for Permanent Aid and Attendance are Also Suppressed and Never Looked at by these Admin Licensed Clinical Social Workers!
I was denied for the family caregivers program because they said that my spouse didn’t require his wheelchair all the time even in the house, when we were interviewed we told them that our doorways were to small to fit the chair, and that he required manual assistance.