Veteran Caregiver Program Financial Aid Health Benefits More

Everybody, sit your ass in the seat. When we come back, we're gonna talk about the benefits of the caregiver program and what a stifement is. We will be right back. What's going on? Did me right for let's go. Betrayed me to kill, yeah they called me to go to jail. This is Boone Cutler, author, war fighter, and host of Tipping Point. I wanna talk to you for a minute, just one minute, and take the time to listen to what I'm saying. The American Warfighter Day commits suicide at a rate of 18 per day. That's one every 80 minutes. By the time you finish eating dinner this evening, a war fighter will have committed suicide. This is a tragedy. We're losing the greatest of this generation every day at an alarming rate. Currently on active duty, a war fighter commits suicide one every 36 hours. But there are ways to help, and you should help. You should help right now by contacting gallantview.org and find out how you can contribute and help stop, even eliminate, the war fighter suicide rate. 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When the deck is stacked against you and you're a war fighter, I think you should call Sarah Hardy Cooper. And honestly, I don't think I could have won without her. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but I don't think I could have won without her. She's fantastic. I want you to take down this number. 888-792-4363. This is no joking matter. You know that your future is in the balance. And when the cards are stacked against you, you need Sarah Hardy Cooper. 888-792-4363. This is Andi O'Brien with the Western States Hostage Negotiators Association. You are being held hostage by my battle buddy, Boone Cutler, on Tipping Points. And we are back. This is Tipping Point Boone Cutler. We're on air right now with Byron Parks. He is the caregiver support coordinator with the Sierra Nevada Healthcare System. Let me just summarize what that means. He's the dude at the local VA that has the caregiver program all set up. He's your point of contact. So if you're a veteran from the current war or a spouse or a family member interested in the caregiver program, the guy you gotta talk to is Byron Parks. Just walk through the door, look to the right, ask anybody, hey, where is Byron Parks? I gotta talk to that guy. They'll direct you and Byron will help you out. Am I wrong or am I right, Byron? I will be glad to do that. Outstanding. Okay, we were gonna talk about benefits of the program, but before we do, a very poignant and very good point was brought up by Craig, which is can anybody be a caregiver? And here's how we address that. Typically, a war fighter has in mind who they want to be a caregiver and why it's so important is because in our community, it's very difficult to trust people. So it'd be very rare that we would even accept assistance or help from someone we didn't know that was gonna be paid as a caregiver. It's not, as you say, Byron, comprehensive. So this is a good program. The reason it's a good program is because it puts the war fighter in charge. There's no sense of helplessness. There's no sense of being basically left out of your decision making and I think it's a good thing. Okay, now let's talk about the benefits of the program, Byron. What is it that assists? Okay, here we have, we've got the caregiver and we got the veteran, but it's more than that. The caregiver gets certain benefits for being a caregiver. What are those benefits? Okay, now let me clarify. These are post-9-11 veterans, service-connected. That's a requirement that there has to be a service-connected injury that necessitates their needing a caregiver in the home. So they meet those criteria. They complete the training. They then will be eligible for either, well, one of three tiers, depending on the extent of their disability as determined by their physician at the VA. So the physician reviews the disabilities and the needs of the veteran. They then meet a level of disability need and- Need for assistance, a tier one, tier two, tier three need for assistance. Right. Okay. And once they are qualified, they go through the training and they're found to be eligible. We then submit the paperwork and they're approved. They will then receive a stipend benefit. It's not a paycheck. It's a stipend benefit that goes directly to the caregiver that hopefully helps them to function a little bit better financially so that they don't have to worry about needing to go out there and get a job and support the family because they're the veteran that they're taking care of, maybe his or her financial problems related to him not being able to get out there. And let me explain in plain terms what that means to a lot of people out there. If you are a caregiver in the home of a warfighter that is disabled, that has been injured, many times the amount of time it takes to take care of that warfighter will take the caregiver or the spouse, the person living there away from what their normal job ability would be. So this is when Byron says stipend, I don't want people to be confused. It's not a paycheck, but it's money. They get a check. And the check there is to offset any losses you would be missing from a job in order to take care of that veteran. That's why the program works so well because whether you're a tier one or a tier three, you're being compensated financially for what you would be losing. So it's not like you're getting a paycheck for taking care of somebody. You're just getting compensated for what you're probably losing because you're there to take care of the warfighter. That's why I like how this program is set up. Now, other than that stipend at tier one, tier two, tier three, now at those tiers, Byron, it's basically how much the stipend is based upon the level of care needed by the veteran. That, and it's also determined by the location of the veteran and caregiver, where they live basically. So somebody in San Francisco that lives in a high end area and there's a lot more costs associated with just living there, they're gonna be rated at a higher level of, I don't say reimbursement, that's a bad term, but the stipend is gonna be larger for them. Based upon cost of living? Based upon cost of living. Okay, for the area. And they determine that based on what somebody, if they were having to pay somebody to come into the home, they try to adjust it so that it's near to what somebody from an outside agency might be making if they came in and provided similar assistance. Okay, and we don't wanna talk numbers because I don't wanna talk out of school, but to those listening right now, go check out and find out what the tier one, tier two, tier three is. We don't really have the time to go into what levels and there's gonna be a lot of questions in that. But just understanding what that warfighter needs. Many people qualify for this. You really need to check it out. Other than the stipend benefit there, if I'm not mistaken, there's a healthcare benefit as well? Health insurance? Once a caregiver is approved, we strongly encourage them that if they already have healthcare, that they keep that. Because there's no guarantee that the veteran is going to continue to need the care that they're providing. Or other issues can come up where they would, if they give up their healthcare that they've already got, which may or may not be better than what the VA can offer. But they may not be able to get that back once they lose that. So we really encourage them. If they've already got healthcare, keep it. But if they don't have healthcare, and that's something that is, especially with a lot of the caregivers that are really not attending to their own needs the way they need to be. They do qualify for Champus, which is similar to TRICARE. Champus was around before TRICARE was around. And it provides for a doctor. I'm trying to think of the other resources. I believe they have some dental. I'm not sure if they provide mental health, but I think that might be an aspect of it. But it's basically insurance. And so talk to your caregiver support coordinator. They can get you a copy of the Champus for Caregivers Resource Book. It's an insurance booklet. And we can send that out to you, and you can take a look at if you're a caregiver and you need that resource to keep yourself healthy. Now, everybody listening out there, you really need to spread the word. Once I post a show up on YouTube, you need to send it to other people, get people listening, because it's not like the VA is gonna pay for some sort of advertising and commercials and all this kind of stuff. The way we learn about things as a warfighter is through word of mouth. So please share this information. If you know a warfighter, and they're a warfighter from the current era, please tell them about the caregiver program. If you are in Northern Nevada, go see Byron Parks. If you're anywhere else in the country listening on YouTube, or if you're listening online, we have a huge streaming audience, but go in there and check the local VA system and talk to find the caregiver support coordinator. Byron, other than the caregiver stipend, which is cash, and we don't wanna say it's cash, but it's cash, and other than the insurance, what are any other benefits to the caregiver for the program? Well, the final benefit that I think is really a great resource, if you're providing caregiver support and you are having mental health issues from just being stressed out or anything that's related to your caregiver activities, the VA will supply or will allow you to access the mental health services at the local VA hospital.