Director's Message May 17, 2024
VAPIHCS Veterans, On June 28th and June 29th, 2024, there will be a Guam PACT Act and Claims Workshop at the Hilton Hotel at 202 Hilton Road, in Tumon Bay.
VA employees will be on site from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, June 28, 2024, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 29, 2024. The PACT (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics) Act is a historic new law that will help VA deliver for millions of Veterans — and their spouses or survivors — by empowering us to presumptively provide care and benefits to Veterans suffering from more than 20 toxic exposure-related conditions. It will also bring generations of men and women who have served into VA health care, which will improve Veteran health outcomes across the board. VA Pacific Islands Health Care System (VAPIHCS) will continue to make PACT Act enrollment a priority. For more information regarding VA health care in the Pacific call: 1-800-214-1306
Daniel K. Akaka VA Clinic Food Distribution Event
There will be a cost-covered food distribution event for military families and Veterans at the Daniel K. Akaka VA Clinic on Friday, May 31, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. This event is coordinated in partnership with the YMCA Hawaii. Items available will include fruits, vegetables, bread, dessert items, and snacks. Veterans and Active-Duty Service Members are asked to bring identification to show their military affiliation. If you would like to volunteer to assist with this event, please contact Schoen Safotu at 808-433-7725, or email him at Schoen.safotu@va.gov.
Veteran Art Classes
VAPIHCS is hosting painting classes for Veterans every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at our new Daniel K. Akaka VA Clinic at 91-1051 Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue in Kapolei. These classes are taught by professional artist and Marine Corps Veteran Peter Koutrouba. Painting - and art in general - has wonderful therapeutic qualities, and it can also be a fun way to relax and enjoy yourself. The classes are free, and Veterans who are interested may drop in on Wednesdays. At the end of the year, students are welcomed to submit their work to the national VA art competition.
Thoughts from Chaplain Jewel Davis
Hats. They’re everywhere. We see them in various colors, sizes, shapes, textures, and styles. We see hats made of straw, felt, leather, wool, coconut fronds, palm leaves, knitted or crocheted yarn, and good ole’ cotton. There are beach hats, sun hats, cowboy hats, sombreros, berets, and all so ubiquitous baseball caps. In the inclusion of our Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders, there’s the Hawaiian Pāpale Niu hat, the Japanese Artistic hat, the Samoan Lau Fala, the Korean Tanggeon hat, the Filipino Salakot, the Chinese Bamboo hat, the Vietnamese Non-La, and Thailand’s Ngop hat. As cover for practically every event and every occasion, hats are worn for protection, for fashion, as accessory pieces, to complete uniforms and outfits, to show unity and team spirit, and sometimes just to hide a bad hair day. Because of the spectrum of purposes hats provide, I think it’s fair to say they can be classified as multipurpose apparel.
Some people own several hats that they alternate between depending on the need. Some may have only one hat that is used as their chosen “grab and go.” But how often do we see a person literally wearing more than one hat at a time? The idiomatic expression, “wearing many hats” typically refers to a person who has several occupations and switches hats to transition from one job to another.
However, considering National Nurses Week, may we take a momentary pause to recognize, acknowledge, and applaud our nurses for their praiseworthy ability to wear numerous invisible hats simultaneously. They wear the hat of comprehensive care providers, they wear the collaborator hat, the protector hat, the comforter hat, the educator hat, the advocate hat, the coworker hat, the teammate hat, the friend hat, the individual-in-and-outside-workplace hat, and so many, many, many more. Thank you, nurses for your agile balancing of so many hats to meet the needs of Veterans.
And any nurse could probably agree that, “It was easier to wear many hats than to grow more heads.”
Happy National Nurses Week!
One Team, One Ohana!
Adam M. Robinson, Jr., MD, MBA, CPE
Director, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
VADM, MC, USN, (RET)
36th Surgeon General, USN
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