What's New at Your VA?
VA is constantly working to provide more excellent service and care for Veterans. This includes new programs and initiatives, advanced training, and renovations and improvements to enhance health care facilities. Each VA project is an opportunity to improve the delivery of services to America's heroes. Featured below are some of the exciting improvements in quality of care taking place around the country: Click on the region below to find out what's new in that area.
Northeast | Southeast | Midwest | Northwest | Southwest
Northeast
Tai Chi Class takes place at VA Boston Healthcare SystemMeditation in Motion
VA researchers are studying whether an ancient Chinese mind-body therapy can help relieve the chronic pain, fatigue, and other symptoms experienced by thousands of Gulf War Veterans.
The VA Boston Healthcare System is hosting a randomized trial to test the effectiveness of tai chi in the context of Gulf War illness (GWI).
Practiced for centuries, tai chi was first developed as a form of self-defense. It has since evolved into a graceful form of exercise that is known to improve balance and coordination skills, with a series of slow and deliberate balletic body movements. The movements combine flowing postures with breathing, meditation, and stretching. Sometimes, peaceful instrumental music is played in the background as one performs the exercise. Read more...
Southeast
Vietnam Veteran Robert Brown recovers from surgery with his Service Dog Amy at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville April 2018.Service Dogs Help Healing
ASHEVILLE- When we are sad or sick there really isn’t a replacement for friends and family. VA hospitals provide the best care anywhere but during a hospital stay loved ones are an important part of the healing process.
Vietnam Veteran Robert Brown was recently in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville recovering from surgery. While the Candler Native was recovering one of his most important loved ones was allowed to visit him in the hospital, his service dog Amy. Read more...
Midwest
Navy Veteran Bob lost 37 lbs with MOVE! and so can you!Get Fit with MOVE!
Navy Veteran Bob grew up the youngest and heaviest of his three brothers. He has a memory as a young boy of dreading clothes shopping because he had to wear the “husky” style. His father was always heavy and he figured it was the way he was built. After his time in the Navy and National Guard, he got a job at a bank, “I wore suits and sat behind a desk all day. That’s when my weight got out of control”. The real wakeup call happened November 2017 after he was told by his PCP that his HA1C and LCL were elevated and he was on the verge of needing medication. Read more...
Northwest
Group therapy session at San Diego VA Medical Center.VA San Diego is studying PTSD and Moral Wounds
June is PTSD Awareness Month. Combat Veterans can experience long-lasting emotional and spiritual pain from participating in, witnessing, or failing to prevent traumatic events that violate their core values or expectations of themselves or others. Some have described such experiences as “a deep soul wound that pierces a person’s identity, sense of morality and relationship to society” (Silver (2011, para. 6)), leaving Veterans to question who they are and how they can relate to others. As a result, Veterans may experience symptoms of PTSD, depression or substance use, or they may consider ending their own lives.
Health care professionals are working to understand and respond most effectively to Veterans who struggle with these issues. Read more...
Southwest
Tucson VA social worker, Clarissa Garcia goes over the VA's smoking cessation workbook during a smoking cessation class at the Tucson VA. During the class, Veterans discuss the health benefits of quitting smoking.Smoking cessation helps Veterans quit
A small group of Veterans huddle together each week at the Tucson VA’s smoking cessation class to encourage one another on their journey to be completely tobacco free. During the hour-long class, the Veterans rely on one another and use their warrior mindset to battle nicotine addiction.
“We are all soldiers and the one thing we learned was to not to be defeated,” said Richard Bishop, an Army Veteran that served from 1975 to 1978.
Clarissa Garcia, a Social Worker with the Tucson VA’s Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program states the smoking cessation class is about identifying what is most important to the Veteran, which can serve as motivation to help him/her quit smoking. Read more...
