Dublin VA hosts resource fair

Helping Veterans stay in a home-like environment as long as possible often contributes directly to their health, happiness and quality of life.

Knowing this motivated Dublin VA’s Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) staff to sponsor an informational resource fair in the medical center auditorium.

Themed “There’s no place like home” after the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the fair included multiple informational booths staffed by VA employees and community partners. Refreshments were available and HBPC staff appeared in costume. A yellow brick road led attendees into the venue.

Wizard of Oz team staffed information booths

HBPC nurse manager Kristie Martin was pleased with the event’s success. “We provided information to over 150 participants and received three potential referrals for home-based care during the event,” Martin said. “Our feeling was that one of the best ways to get this important information out was to make it fun, so our team decided the Wizard of Oz was the perfect way to do it.”

“Our folks are so committed to their Veterans.”

Martin said the event was so well-received that her team plans to host it annually at the medical center and take the show on the road to their community clinics around their 49-county service area. She credited the HBPC team with the events success.

“Our folks are all so committed to their Veterans that the real challenge was deciding which to pick from all the wonderful ideas they came up with. We have a lot of other possibilities for the future,” she added.

The HBPC program is for Veterans who need team-based in-home support for ongoing diseases and illnesses that affect their health and daily activities and who live within fifty miles of a VA medical facility. Many such Veterans usually have difficulty making and keeping clinic visits because of the severity of their illness and are often homebound.

The program is also for Veterans who are isolated and for caregivers experiencing excessive burden caring for their Veteran. HBPC can be used in combination with other Home and Community Based Services. The program began at Dublin VA in 2006.