Tune in: Facebook live event on May 10 – will feature VA Telehealth

Disabled American Veterans and VHA’s Office of Connected Care will host a Facebook Live event featuring VA Telehealth Services at 11 a.m. EDT Thursday, May 10.

Dr. Neil Evans, Connected Care chief officer, and Mary Dever, assistant national communications director of DAV, will talk about the many telehealth services that VA offers in the home, clinic and hospital. These include video appointments, remote monitoring through medical devices and specialty care like TeleMental Health. Those who tune in can ask questions in the comments section of the video post.

“VA Telehealth technologies and services are answering the call to provide Veterans with greater access to care,” said Evans. “During this Facebook Live event, we hope to give Veterans a better understanding of the different types of VA telehealth. We’ll also talk about the ways VA is making it easier for Veterans to participate in telehealth, and how telehealth makes it more convenient to get VA care, especially for Veterans with disabilities and their family caregivers.”

Last year, about 727,000 Veterans participated in more than 2 million telehealth episodes of care. This includes more than 330,000 Veterans who connected with their VA provider through Clinical Video Telehealth or the VA Video Connect App, both in VA clinics and in Veterans’ homes. It also includes nearly 145,000 Veterans who were enrolled in Home Telehealth remote monitoring to help them manage their chronic conditions, and another 306,000 Veterans who benefited from Store and Forward Telehealth services.

Behind the numbers are Veterans’ stories

Telehealth technologies are bridging the divide between VA care and Veterans who live in rural locations, dense urban locations, and even locations recovering from hurricanes and other natural disasters. Those who tune into VAntage Point regularly may have read some of these stories, including:

• The hundreds of Veterans missing in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico who were identified as high risk for suicide and who were reached by VA’s telehealth emergency response team.
• The Army Veteran who struggled with an infected foot ulcer through waist-high Hurricane Harvey flood waters until a VA doctor, more than a thousand miles away, was able to examine the open wound and prescribe the antibiotics he needed.
• The Veterans living in dense, urban areas surrounding San Diego who need VA care for hypertension but are avoiding hour-plus drives by participating in a VA Video Connect home telehealth hypertension pilot program.

If you are a Veteran who receives VA health care, you can benefit from VA Telehealth Services, too. The upcoming Facebook Live event will help you learn how.

How do I tune in?

The event will be hosted on DAV’s Facebook page. Participating is easy:

• Click the event post to get a Facebook reminder notification.
• Visit DAV’s Facebook page on May 10 at 11 a.m. ET.
  • Click on the Facebook Live video post.
  • Be sure to unmute the video and turn up the sound.
  • To ask a question, type it into thecomments section under the video, and VA Telehealth experts will respond during or following the event. Some questions asked will be posed to Dr. Evans, who will answer them live during the event

Be sure to tune in. For those unable to attend at that time, the event video will be archived and available on DAV’s Facebook page for later viewing.

About the author: The Office of Connected Care brings VA digital technology to Veterans and health care professionals, extending access to care beyond the traditional office visit. Through virtual technology, VA is able to deliver care to patients where and when they need it.