Battle Creek Department of VAMC Concludes Annual Mental Health Summit

The theme for the summit was ‘Improving Health Care for Aging Veterans’ and provided 12 breakout sessions that delivered information on how to approach and deliver care to older Veterans.

Battle Creek VA is responsible for Veteran care in 21 counties of Michigan, where there is a Veteran population of up to 144,613, which consists of over 72 thousand Veterans over the age of 65.

“The goal of the summit was to connect with our community partners and ensure that we are truly connecting with Veterans who may not be receiving care through us or may not know they can receive care through us,” said Bell. “This also helped to make sure they know we are a resource they can utilize and transfer the Veteran to our care when appropriate and when the Veteran is eligible.”

As of 2022, there are 16.2 million Veterans in the United States and nearly one-half, 8.1 million (49%) were 65 years or older. The largest group of older veterans (5.5 million) served during the Vietnam era. World War II veterans made up the smallest group (183,000) of war-time veterans.

“In aging veterans there are unique risk factors associated with aging related changes to sensation/perception, how the body metabolizes medications, natural changes to cognition such as slower processing and reduced efficiency of new learning,” said Dr. Jeremy Bottoms, a Neuropsychologist who also Co-Chairs the Battle Creek VAMC Dementia Committee, and Associate Training Director for the Residency Program in Clinical Neuropsychology. “If we do not account for these factors our treatments, which may be quite appropriate for younger veterans, may put our older veterans at risk of adverse events.”

The summit also allowed individuals and representatives from both civilian and federal organizations to learn what services can be offered and eligibility requirements for various health care. For this summit, organizers went to Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan, as well as Alzheimer’s Association utilized their mailing distribution list to reach other hospitals, retirement homes and senior organizations.

“Care for elderly Veterans takes a community of committed people inclusive of providers, caregivers, family members, and community agencies. The more coordinated we are the better the care outcomes for elderly veterans,” said Bottoms.

“We are seeing that Veterans who are in the golden years of their lives often needing more services, more assistance, and more care,” said Bell. “Unfortunately, as they get older some of these issues are debilitating and they can no longer provide the care that they need, and we want to make sure that we’re accessing the community partners and making sure those Veterans are not languishing outside of the VA but coming in and accessing the care they truly deserve.”

Some of the breakout sessions included topics such as Alzheimer's Disease vs Vascular Dementia, The Intersection of Aging LGBTQ+ Veterans, Principles of Medication Management in the Older Adult, and Understanding and Preventing Suicide in Older Veterans to list a few of the 12 sessions.

“Elderly veterans are unique and often complex. We should strive for personalized, person-centered care,” says Bottoms, “there is no one-size fits all approach when it comes to caring for them.”

Altogether, this year’s summit brought together over 150 participants both in-person and on-line. The event closed with a round table discussion among attendees and presenters to talk about the topic, ask questions and provide feedback.