HomeVeterans Guide to VA HealthcareGeriatrics and Extended CareHome and Community Based Services

3.2. Home and Community Based Services

Each Medical Center provides several programs to eligible veterans enrolled in VA healthcare, such as:

Adult Day Health Care is a program where veterans can go to during the day for social activities, peer support, companionship, and recreation.  The program is for veterans who need help with activities of daily living. Examples include help with bathing, dressing, or fixing meals. This program is also for veterans who are isolated or their caregiver is experiencing burden. 

Home Based Primary Care is health care services provided to veterans in their home. A VA physician supervises the health care team who provides the services. Home Based Primary Care is for veterans who have complex health care needs for whom routine clinic-based care is not effective.  The program is for veterans who need team based in-home support for ongoing diseases and illnesses that affect their health and daily activities. This program is also for veterans who are isolated, or their caregiver is experiencing burden. 

Skilled Home Health Care Services- are in home services provided by trained personnel for veterans needing short-term care as they are moving from a hospital or nursing home back to their home. It can also be used to provide continuing care to people with ongoing needs.  The program is for veterans who need skilled services such as: skilled nursing, case management, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, wound care, or IV antibiotics.  The care is delivered by a community-based home health agency that has a contract with VA.

Homemaker/Home Health Aid Services- are personal care and related support services that enable disabled veterans to live at home.  A trained person come to a veteran's home and help the veteran take care of themselves and their daily activities. Homemakers and Home Health Aides are not nurses, but they are supervised by a registered nurse who will help assess the veteran's daily living needs.  This program is for veterans who need personal care services, help with activities of daily living, who are isolated, or their caregiver is experiencing burden.  Homemaker Home Health Aides work for an organization that has a contract with VA. 

Hospice Care— is comfort care provided to veterans and family members, for those veterans with a terminal condition, with less than 6 months to live, and are no longer seeking treatment other than palliative care.  Hospice Care can be provided at home, in an outpatient clinic or in an inpatient setting.  The VA also works very closely with community and home hospice agencies to provide care in the home.

Palliative Care uses comfort care with a focus on relieving suffering and controlling symptoms so that veterans can carry out day-to-day activities and continue to do what is most important to them. Palliative care aims to improve quality of life – in the mind, body and spirit.  Palliative Care helps veterans and their families manage illness with plans of care. 

Respite Care Program- for short term services to disabled veterans giving a caregiver a period of relief; to run errands, go out of town for a few days, etc.  Respite care is limited to 30 days per year to certain eligible veterans.   Respite Care can help lower the stress the veterans and their family caregiver may feel when managing a veteran's short-term or long-term care needs at home.

There are two types of respite:

(1)  Home Respite Care is a service that pays for a person to come to a veteran's home or for a veteran to go to an adult day health care program while their family caregiver takes a break or runs errands.

(2)  Nursing Home Respite Care is a service that pays for a veteran to go to a nursing home while the family goes out of town for a few days without worrying about leaving the veteran alone at home. 

Remote Monitoring— is a service that allows the veteran's physician or nurse to monitor the veteran's medical condition remotely using home monitoring equipment.  

To find out more about these various services offered both in a veterans home or in the community, please visit https://www.va.gov/geriatrics/pages/Home_and_Community_Based_Services.asp

 


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