Noteboom The Law Firm

Delaware VA’s Hospice Care Training Program to Go National

January 5, 2011 - The employees of the Wilmington Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center's hospice unit are specially trained to work with veterans who are terminally ill. The training program will likely be adopted by health care professionals across the nation and ultimately it will heighten publicity for those hospice services veterans are able to utilize.

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization funded the majority of two grants, totaling $85,000, which were awarded to the Delaware Hospice and the VA Medical Center to start the hospice training program. The VA has been asking hospice services for years to help alert veterans to the existence of VA hospice care. Even those veterans with VA health insurance are often unaware that their basic benefits include hospice services, regardless if they are combat veterans or not.

Only 2 requirements are necessary to qualify veterans for free end-of-life care:

• 180 days of military service; and
• Not being dishonorably discharged.

Many times combat veterans require specialized treatment because post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can come to the surface at the end of veterans' lives. For this reason, the Wilmington VA Medical Center, in conjunction with Delaware hospice, developed a special training section.

The training is geared towards all hospice workers, including:

• Social Workers;
• Nurses;
• Psychologists; and
• Doctors.

Hospice employees must know how to handle such situations and provide the best possible care for veterans in their last days. This training program will help what will probably amount to thousands of terminally ill patients across the nation.