From Military.com:
“Rural Veterans Are Struggling
with Access to VA-Provided Care”
Amanda Flener and her military
veteran husband, John, survived hurricane Helene without a scratch. Their
routine access to Veterans Affairs healthcare for John's medical conditions
didn't fare so well. Four days after the storm passed over their town of
Fitzgerald, population 8,900, in south Georgia, Flener and her husband were
busy rescheduling appointments with the Veterans Health Administration. With
power outages affecting hospitals around Georgia, the Fleners couldn't risk
driving 30 to 70 miles for appointments that might be canceled, especially with
gas so scarce. "We had been driving
30 miles just to get gas to power our generator this week, and we were
fortunate to be able to do that," Amanda Flener told the Daily Yonder.
"But [the healthcare providers] can't guarantee they'll have power
tomorrow." Flener is the primary caretaker for her husband, John, who was
wounded in Iraq during his fourth deployment in 2006. His armored vehicle was
hit by an improvised explosive device, or IED, which left him with a traumatic
brain injury and other wounds. "We
have a gamut of physical and mental health issues," said Flener, from
seizures, migraines, and balance issues to back and knee pain, PTSD, anxiety,
and depression. For almost 20 years, Flener has coordinated her husband's
extensive care, which at times has required near-daily medical and therapeutic
appointments. Because there are no Veterans Affairs health services in
Fitzgerald or Ben Hill County, the Fleners have to drive as long as three hours
to reach their appointments, which can be as far as Augusta, Georgia, or
Gainesville, Florida. In the two years since she bought her new car, Flener has
racked up nearly 72,000 miles, about twice as much as the average Georgian
drove in that same time frame.
There are an estimated 14.3
million military and veteran caregivers across the United States, according to
a new study conducted by the RAND Corporation and commissioned by the Elizabeth
Dole Foundation, which supports military and veterans caregivers. About a
quarter of the nation's 19 million veterans live in Census-defined rural areas,
according to the VA. The report included
a chapter analyzing differences in demographics and outcomes for rural and
urban military and veteran caregivers. One notable finding was that those
caring for veterans under the age of 60 were more likely to live in rural areas
than those caring for older veterans. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) reports that there are 4.4 million rural veterans, 46% of whom are under
the age of 65.
Many of these veterans, like John
Flener, were deployed after 9/11. According to the Pew Research Center,
post-9/11 veterans are more likely to "have been deployed, seen combat,
experienced emotional trauma" than pre-9/11 veterans. Post-9/11 veterans
are also more likely to struggle with readjusting to civilian life. The RAND study also found that nearly a
quarter of rural military and veteran caregivers did not have access to
reliable broadband internet. This means that some solutions for rural
healthcare access, like telehealth appointments, are not viable for some of the
people who could most benefit from them. Amanda Flener says telehealth appointments can
help fill coverage gaps, for which she is grateful. But she says even with the
most expensive internet plan available in her county, the signal isn't always
strong enough for telehealth appointments. Telehealth care is "progress, for
sure," Flener said. "So we pay for the best wifi we can get in our
area, but it isn't always reliable enough to take the video calls from the
VA."
Transportation and Access Gaps
Fitzgerald, Georgia, where the Fleners live, is designated a primary care,
dental, and mental health professional shortage area according to the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. This lack of healthcare resources is
one of the reasons the Fleners spend so many hours on the road. But
transportation to and from a continuous stream of appointments is a challenge
for millions of veterans and their caregivers in the VA system, including those
in suburban and urban counties. Tara
Plybon and her husband, Todd, live in Taylor, Texas, a small town outside of
Austin in suburban Williamson County. Despite their proximity to a major city,
Plybon spends at least four hours each week driving her husband to and from
appointments. "My husband,
like a lot of other veterans, has a brain injury and can't stay awake to
drive," Plybon told the Daily Yonder. "So one of the biggest
challenges of caregiving is driving him all over God's green earth to get him
to his appointments."
According to the RAND study, just
under half of military and veteran caregivers live in a county without a VA
facility, and nearly half live in a primary care provider shortage area. The
Department of Veterans Affairs does provide some transportation to health
services for rural veterans through their Highly Rural Transportation Grants
program, but this option is currently only available in counties with fewer
than 7 people per square mile. This limits the reach of the program to just 227
counties across 14 states. That's less than 12% of the U.S. counties that are
nonmetropolitan under the federal Metropolitan Statistical Area classification
system, and an even smaller percentage of counties where at least half the
population lives in rural areas using the U.S. Census rural definition.
There have also been attempts to
organize transportation help by non-government organizations, such as the
charity Disabled American Veterans (DAV). For a while, the Fleners had access
to a van service run by local DAV chapters, but it hasn't run in their area
since the Covid-19 pandemic. In
February, a bipartisan group of congressional legislators introduced the Rural
Veterans Transportation to Care Act, which would expand transportation access
to more rural veterans. "This
bipartisan bill would improve how VA measures rurality, helping more veterans
living in rural areas get transportation to VA or VA-authorized health care
facilities," according to the website of Representative Marie Glusenkamp
Perez (D–Washington–3rd), who co-sponsored the bill. The act was co-introduced
in the Senate by John Ossoff (D) of Georgia, where 3 in 10 veterans live in
rural communities like the Fleners, according to the VA.
No Shortage of Shortages Transportation
and access to healthcare services are two of the biggest challenges facing
rural veterans and their caregivers, but they are far from the only things that
set them apart from their urban counterparts. In 2016, Amanda Flener was nominated as a
Dole Caregiver Fellow, which the Elizabeth Dole Foundation describes as
"an immersive multi-year leadership experience, focused on building
community and support across all 50 states." Flener said she has been profoundly
affected by the connections she's made with other caregivers around the
country, who offer support and share resources. But it has also opened her eyes
to the difference geography can make in the lives of wounded veterans and their
caregivers. Unlike some other fellows, Flener and her
husband have no access to treatments like equine therapy, which can help with
conditions like PTSD and depression as well as improve balance, physical
strength, and mobility. And
options some of her peers take for granted to alleviate the caregiving load,
like hiring a cleaner or using an online delivery service for occasional
dinners and emergency shopping, isn't practicable in her small town, Flener
said. "Amazon next day
delivery, that's not really a thing for us. And just things like somebody
saying, ‘oh, hire a cleaning service.' There is literally not a cleaning
service in our town." But despite these difficulties, the Fleners
have no plans to move to a more urban location. Amanda Flener says rural
communities offer veterans like her husband a calmer place to heal, away from
crowds. "If [wounded veterans] can
get away to a quieter place where they can hunt or fish, or just find solitude
in nature, it goes a long way to help their mental health," Flener said.
^ No Veteran, regardless of where
they live within the US, should have to endure sub-par or no Health Care. ^
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