Veterans Health Administration with Dr. Colleen Richardson

Dr. Colleen Richardson serves as the Executive Director (ED) of the Caregiver
Support Program (CSP), Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Dr. Richardson is
the principal advisor for the Caregiver Support Program, which provides resources
and education to Veterans and their Caregivers. Dr. Richardson is currently
responsible for the national implementation and oversight of two national programs
and associated services for the CSP, the Program of General Caregiver Support
Services and the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers. As
the Executive Director of the CSP, her responsibility is to sustain the program in
accordance with Public Law 111-163, Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health
Services Act of 2010, and the VA MISSION Act of 2018. Dr. Richardson directs a
Program Office with an annual budget of $1.8 billion, overseeing the delivery of care
to more than 55,000 Veterans and caregivers.

Prior to joining the CSP, Dr. Richardson served as the Chief of Psychology at the North Texas Health Care System in Dallas, Texas where she oversaw the Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) and the clinical practice of over 85 psychologists within the Mental Health Service.

Transcript

Natalie: 0:03

Hey folks, welcome to our special series heroes caring for heroes on the Confessions of a reluctant caregiver Podcast. Today, we're featuring organizations who offer services and support to our hero caregivers. Now, let's listen in as we learn more about these amazing organizations. And welcome to our special series che i am so excited about our educational series. This is the first time we're having it. And it's a part of our heroes caring for Heroes series for the month of November. We have a special guest with us today.

JJ: 0:42

We do and I am incredibly excited.

Natalie: 0:45

I feel very honored actually that I mean, I feel like a big girl j because and so I will tell you, I really do, because we have Dr. Colleen Richardson with the Veterans Health Administration and the caregiver support program. And this is a very unique program that I had heard about, and I know professionally having on the mental health side. This is this is so important to have this resource. And I know as part of our caregiver series, we wanted to make sure our listeners also know about the supports for military caregivers. And so Dr. Richardson, we are thrilled to have you here today.

Unknown: 1:29

Well, thank you. I'm so honored to be here. And I gotta say I love the heroes caring for heroes. That's, I mean, that's awesome. That's exactly what this is. It's our caregivers. Yes, I love that. Thank you.

JJ: 1:41

Well, we know as Natalie said, We're civilians. And once we heard that the Veterans Administration has a focus on caregivers. That's what we want to learn about, kind of tell us a little bit about the mission and what the focus is for caregivers.

Unknown: 1:57

Sure. So this has been a mission that's been around for gosh, since 2010, actually, that the idea of this came about in about 2008 When the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were really have ramped up and we're seeing, you know, 10s of 1000s of men and women coming back with these severe injuries. At the time, they realized that people were giving up their careers, their lives to care for these men and women who were surviving the wounds of war that in any other war, nobody would have survived. But you know, with advanced medical, and all the things that we have today, these men and women were surviving. And so this idea came to be in about 2008. And in 2010, the caregiver support program was established here in the Veterans Health Administration. So it's been around since 2010, and 2011, we started accepting applications into the program.

Natalie: 2:46

Wow. Well, that's I think that's a huge benefit. And so kind of, you know, as part of this, because I know we have some questions for you, kind of I know that there's kind of pull the, the kind of the curtain back on the caregiver support program. I think there's multiple programs if you wanted to talk about the different kinds of programs and how you qualify, give us some details about the programs. Yeah, absolutely.

Unknown: 3:09

So we're one national program. And underneath our national program, we have two components to the program. One we call the program of general Caregiver Support Services, or PG CSS is the acronym. You know, US military folk love our acronyms, and so does VHA. Yeah. And then the other one is called the program of comprehensive assistance, okay, for family caregivers, or PC AFC. And they're very, very, very similar in many ways. Let me just share some of the things that both programs offer. And then I'll tell you kind of what some of the differences might be. So for both of our programs, we offer education support training. So for example, we teach our caregivers, through online workshops, and self paced various lessons, how to support our veterans with dementia, memory problems, post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, because you know, as you see military veterans across the span, they all have different illnesses and diagnoses depending on when they served, and what era that they served in. So that's one of the things that is very similar about both of the programs. We offer peer support, mentoring, which I love, because who doesn't want to connect with another caregiver, who may know what you've been through, or maybe going through it with you and you feel like you have that, dare I say, like a partner in crime, to really help you navigate the caregiving world, which is rewarding and stressful, all at the same time. And I think oftentimes, our caregivers feel like they're alone. So we love having the peer support mentors who are able to kind of help them through this process of caregiving because it is oftentimes a change in what they're used to. The other thing that we do that that's very similar as we offer mental health services to our caregivers, which I'm a clinical psychologist by training. I don't know about y'all, but who doesn't need mental health support at some point in their lives? Right. And I imagine our caregivers Yeah, I mean, I know I do. Right I've deployed I've gone to Iraq, I've come back, I've taken over a wounded warrior battalion. I mean, we all needed at some point in our life. And I think that's, that's really important for our caregivers. The other piece that the both programs offer, which is huge, and every caregiver of really encouraged them to take advantage of this is respite. I'm a mom of three girls, and I just want to go to Walmart by myself sometimes, or have a cup of coffee uninterrupted. And that is just one aspect of of somebody's life, right? It's just being a mom or being a dad, but then you add caregiving on top of that. And again, like I said, it's rewarding, but it's stressful, and our caregivers need time for themselves. They need, you know, an hour, maybe they need 24 hours to just recoup, relax and regenerate so that they can come back in and be the caregiver that they want to be for that particular veteran. So those are the similarities amongst both of the programs. When we start talking about differences. The program of comprehensive assistance is really for veterans who have moderate to severe caregiving needs and without a caregiver would not be able to otherwise function independently and or safely in their home. And yes, there are very certain requirements that veterans must meet in order to apply for their caregiver. And we can give you all those FAQs, if you want to put them up on your website to share with everybody that does require an application and certain eligibility requirements. With that program, though, here's what we do offer. We know that a lot of those caregivers, because they have to be in person to offer these caregiving services, a lot of the times they have given up careers, they've given up jobs provide this and so we try to supplement that with a stipend. So we pay them a stipend payment, depending on their locality each month to care for those particular veterans, if they qualify, we also offer if they're deemed eligible, champ VA, so medical insurance for them as well. And then oftentimes, we find that our caregivers obviously bring these veterans to their appointments. So some of them qualify for beneficiary travel, paying them to drive veterans to and from their appointments. With PG CSS, there's no application. So that's this is the program of general Caregiver Support Services, no application, you can go to our website, va caregiver.gov. And you can just click in that there's a little box will say, How do I locate my caregiver support team, typing your zip code, it'll bring you right to your local team at the local medical facility. And you can find your local team, reach out to them, tell them that you're interested in the program of general caregiver support, you need training, you need education, you need peer support, you need some mental health assistance, and our teams will get them the services that they need to be successful as a caregiver. I think the only thing I will add is that we do ask our veterans to be enrolled in VA health care. So having a primary care doctor, and a lot of folks ask, Well, why is it so important they're enrolled in VA, because oftentimes our staff find that our veterans need certain things, whether it's a to help them walk, maybe it's a chair to put in their shower, maybe it's a handrail, without them being enrolled in VA health care, it's we can't put in those referrals or consults to get that equipment that that veteran might need. So that's why we ask all veterans to please be enrolled in VA health care, in order to be in either one of those particular programs. I wanted

Natalie: 8:09

to hit one more question, Jay, attached to those two programs. There's a person who's called a caregiver support coordinator. Can you tell us a little bit about what their responsibilities are? Are they located at all of the main VA is like the VA hospitals, because we have one I'm in Virginia. And so Salem is right next door to me. So I'm very familiar with the Salem VA. And when I lived in Tidewater know the VA down there. So go ahead.

Unknown: 8:35

Sure. So the caregiver support coordinators is is a term that we started moving away from, and here's why, because when the program originally kicked off, we only had one person at every medical facility across the country. So we have about 140 medical facilities in VHA. Today, we have 2500 plus staff across the country now. So we just call them the caregiver support teams versus a caregiver support coordinator. Some of our staff, so use that term because they've been in the program for 10 years plus, but yes, we call them caregiver support teams. And that was that little locator I was telling you about on the website, they can just punch in their zip code. It'll give them the name and information to contact at that local facility. But all of our team members are able to assess the needs of our caregivers and their veterans and get them into the correct program. Oh, perfect.

JJ: 9:24

I love a team, that's for sure. Dr. Richardson, where our focus for heroes caring for Heroes is about caring for veterans. But can you tell me what the caregivers what they see as their biggest needs when caring for veterans? Is it different than traditional caregivers? Are there different needs that they have?

Unknown: 9:47

I think when you get into the weeds of what it is that they need for our veterans, I do think it's a little bit different than what you would see typically in the population. Right. So because of the wars that some of these veterans have served in, they've been exposed to certain areas. minutes during the war zone that our civilian population doesn't see. So we often see complicated Alzheimer's dementia, we often see complicated traumatic brain injuries that may be a little bit different than what you would see in the civilian sector from like a motor vehicle accident versus that from a sustained blast injury from an IED. Generally speaking, I think most caregivers experience the same things and need and want the same things. They need support, they need training and resources. They all need mental health assistance, just someone to talk to someone to bounce ideas off of someone to kind of, I don't want to say cheerlead them all but someone that just keeps encouraging them that they're doing the right thing, that things are going to be okay that it's going to work itself out in the end. And I think that respite components component is the other piece that our caregivers across any generation, whether it's civilian or military, I think all need, really at the end of the day.

Natalie: 10:54

Well, and we always say in our podcasts, you know, relate, educate, inspire. And of course, we laugh a little, we can all relate to that as caregivers. And so rather, you're caring for somebody who's a veteran, or you're caring for a loved one, chronic illness, disabilities, complex health, aging, we can all relate. And so that's the universal and I think those are four really great areas that caregivers absolutely need to really combat loneliness, to be honest with you. So what you've got, you guys have had some pretty unique initiatives over the past year, what ifs, what are some that have been the most successful?

Unknown: 11:31

So my favorite one that we've launched this past fiscal year, so every year we kick off our fiscal year starts in October, obviously, with a theme we want our staff know what is it we're pushing for? What is it we're aiming towards this year. And so at the beginning of fiscal year 23, we kicked off of this theme of the year of the caregiver, which I love, right, because we want this the caregiver support program, right, bold and highlight that word caregiver support. That's what we want to do for our veterans and for their caregivers. And so my deputy director and I went around the country, to gosh, I think we hosted about 60 listening sessions. We went around and we talked to all the caregivers that were enrolled in our programs today and said, What is it that we need to do better for you in order to provide the support services, training education that you need? And we heard two huge things. They said we need respite better, more, we need understand that we're just not quite understanding how it works, and how do I get it and where can I get it from and how many hours do I get? And then can we get mental health? Can we get somebody that's dedicated to us? So prior to the start of last year, mental health services for our caregivers were offered at the local medical facilities. Fantastic, right? I come from mental health, love mental health. But our mental health departments are overwhelmed by the number of veterans who are also seeking mental health care, which is a great thing. That's a good problem to have on some level. So what we decided was this year, at the beginning of FY 23, we were going to kick off these things called Clinical resource hubs. So we partnered with the office of mental health and suicide prevention. And we were going to offer virtual psychotherapy and individual couples counseling to our caregivers only. So today, we have 11, we call them visits are like regional to that particular state. So I live in business 17. And they just opened up their hub this week, they will service all caregivers in the state of Texas and southern Oklahoma. So a caregiver who is enrolled in the program of comprehensive assistance for family caregivers can now say, I'd like individual mental health counseling. And it's offered virtually because we heard from over 50% of our caregivers saying, I really mean I really need this, but I can't load my veteran with his wheelchair and all the things once a week to come in and see you or I can't find someone to watch him or her for me. Could we do these virtually, we said, of course, we can do these virtually. So that's what we offer today. We have 11 of these visions open today. And we have the other seven. So there's only 18 visits, and in one in about six months, we opened 11 of them. Wow. Well, by the end of this fiscal year, we will have the rest of those open. And we're already seeing over 200 plus caregivers in these programs. So as soon as it hit, we are getting referrals left and right. And we're, I'm I'm excited about this for many reasons. I mean, one I love that caregivers are not afraid to say I need help. Because we all know that there's a stigma sometimes that comes along with mental health. We see it with our veterans. We see it with our caregivers. And I just love that they're they're not afraid to just say I need some help, and you're going to offer it to me great. I'm going to take it so that's probably my favorite thing that we've done this last fiscal year is open up these mental health resource hubs for these caregivers who need it and deserve it.

Natalie: 14:37

Wow. Well, and you know, access is such a hard thing in the civilian world as well. And so the fact that you're doing a couple of things, you're helping caregivers identify that they are caregivers, you're giving them permission to ask for help and to raise their hand without stigma and fear of judgment. And you're giving access and I just I think that's amazing, I think That's amazing. I

Unknown: 15:01

will I will split stop what you just said about permission? Because I think your 110% right on that permission, right? That's what stops people from coming in the door. I've seen that with veterans, Mike for 20 years and I've seen a veteran give another veteran Hey, man, it's okay to get mental health help. Actually, I've been in mental health help for the last year. And it's been nothing but wonderful for me. And then I see that veteran go, oh, well, if he's getting it, I can get it too. And so you're right. When caregivers are saying to one another, you know, I've been enrolled in individual psychotherapy for the last six months, and it has been a blessing caregivers. They stopped thinking, Oh, well, if you're doing it, I can do it. So this makes it okay to not be okay. Well, I'm caregiving. Yes, it does. So absolutely. That permission is huge. I agree.

JJ: 15:45

It does. It does. So this year, the President's executive order on care focused a lot on veterans now, for all caregivers, but it focused on on que Elena, the veterans, what are you most excited about that came out of that order? Because I know there's some good pieces in there.

Unknown: 16:04

Yeah. So there were two things that were very particular to our program. And that first one, I love, because we are ahead of the game on that one. So I love that the we're all thinking in the same direction that was at mental health piece where they wanted to us to open up hubs, if you will, for mental health, we had already started that six months prior. So we're already rocking and rolling with the first hub opening when that executive order came to light. So that was awesome for us. And like I said, we've got 11 of those open today, with the rest of them slated to be open by the end of this fiscal year. The other piece that came to light was specific around our program of comprehensive assistance relooking at the regulatory criteria, to see if there were other veterans that may that may not be getting into the program that maybe should be getting into the program. So that's something that we've undertaken this last year, as well as looking at that regulatory criteria to see what is it that may need to shift or not shift? So absolutely right in line with those things. I think that's fantastic.

Natalie: 16:58

Well, and you also, I think I saw in my notes, there's also an expansion of the veteran directed care program. And so does that is that lean into the respite side where they're able to really take the lead with, you know, and you guys are walking side by side with them to help them to receive the support they need? Can you tell me a little bit about more about the veteran directed care program? Yeah,

Unknown: 17:21

so veteran directed care actually falls under a different program office within central office. So it's the Geriatrics and Extended Care Program is where that falls under. But we do work closely very closely with that program. And the concept of veteran directed care is something that we loved. And so we actually started a pilot this year, utilizing the concept of veteran directed care where we're, we're trying to figure out how we can get our veterans to select, who would come in and care for them, while their caregiver goes on respite. So that's something we're piloting and trying to work because if you know anything about veterans, you know, we're very particular about who our friends are and who we hang out with. And we've got our own little clan of folks. And, and you also know, as caregivers, you're not just gonna let anybody into your home to care for your spouse, your veteran, it doesn't matter if you're civilian or not, you're not just going to let anybody in to care for your spouse, or or whomever your caregiving for your son, your daughter that you don't know. And don't trust, I know, I wouldn't, that would be a struggle for me. So we love this concept of veteran directed care where myself as a caregiver could go, my sister can come over today. And she's going to get paid to do this a couple hours a day. So that's what we're piloting this year to see how well that concept works with our program. So we get more of our caregivers, that respite that they need that they won't take, because of what I just said. And I'm sure you ladies can relate right? I mean,

Natalie: 18:45

100%, our mother is very particular. And Parkinson's is very particular about who is going to come and support her. Because of course, most vet, it's no different whether you're a veteran or not, you know, even my husband who had cancer, he wants me to support him. Yep. And so if he knows the person as opposed to a stranger, we know that eases anxiety, they are more likely to receive it and they're likely to have a better experience so that you can use that individual over and over again. Yeah, love it. Think

Unknown: 19:16

about some of the caregiving things that caregivers do. You know, oftentimes they're bathing their spouse, helping them toilet, transferring them changing out certain aspects of soiled clothing. Nobody, nobody just wants anybody coming into their home that day to do those kinds of things. You know, so you're right. It's not only our caregivers particular but so are the people we're caring for

Natalie: 19:38

when it supports is you know, it supports dignity in 100% choice and voice and dignity.

Unknown: 19:43

I know I want that as I age. Already manipulated my daughters into knowing they're going to take care Oh.

Natalie: 19:54

Well trained. Yes. Good relationship. Tell me So we're from a rural area in East Tennessee originally. And so being I have my master's in rural social work. Tell us about the difference that you see in rural areas versus large city VAs across the country when it comes to caregivers.

Unknown: 20:18

Sure. So ironically, I was in Montana two weeks ago, which is just a fabulous place to talk about rural areas, there is a reason that people move to a rural area, they like to be left alone, they want some solitude, they want some of that time. And that's great for our veterans. We, when I went to Montana, it's a very, I mean, we have some of our caregivers driving two hours to get to our veterans home to visit them to do a wellness contact to do an in home assessment to check on the well being of them. And then two hours home. So I mean, it's as rural as rural gets, I feel like when I when I flew in there last week, but that's not always the case for our caregivers, they're not always like wanting a life of solitude, they have enough of that solitude already. And they already feel kind of isolated, and they already feel alone. And some of our caregivers, you know, coupled in with COVID have said, your staff are the first person I've talked to and like a year, the first person I've seen in a year and a half, then you factor in some of our elderly, veterans and caregivers. And it's not they you know, they feel like they're medically very vulnerable. And they are very particular about who comes into their home and how they come into their home and what PPE they're wearing and how they're going to manage those things. So I think there's just there's a lot more solitude, and there's a lot more, I think you see loneliness with caregiving no matter what, where you go. But it's not always the case for our veterans, where a lot of them, they're fine. Being alone. They're okay with that. But our caregivers who are taking care of them aren't right, if mom and dad are now caring for their 20 to 23 3040 year old son, or daughter, and they're from New York, and the son lives in Montana, like, oh my gosh, like, this is a really difficult adjustment for me, where's you know, I can't even get Uber Eats here, or DoorDash, or whatever the thing is? Yes. Yeah. Now, I know nothing about these things, either. I've heard the terms. So I think there's a lot of that, that that kind of goes on, which is why we try to be both We try to offer virtual we try to do in person, we encourage them to come into the medical facilities, I think so some of those are the biggest challenges that I've seen with our rural, and then those that live in more urban city like areas as well. But the services are the same. You can get any of the services you want. From VHA, you might have to drive a little bit further. Right, then, you know, I've got a 15 minute commute to Dallas. And if I lived in Montana, I might have two hours depending on what specialty service I would need.

Natalie: 22:39

When that seems like that's that's a commonality again, across with your civilian population to There's many people who who will drive to in this comes back to access. And so I think the fact that you're able to offer face to face or virtual options, reduces barriers for people not seeking the support that they need.

Unknown: 22:57

Yeah, yeah. Oh, great. Absolutely.

JJ: 22:59

Absolutely. So I heard you say you're you go you're in Montana. So you're, you're out you're meeting caregivers, which is, you know, you're the executive director. So I'm kind of like, oh, well, Dr. Richardson is out just meeting caregivers. So what's your feedback on the program? What are you hearing from your caregivers?

Unknown: 23:17

Sure. So I've been traveling every month for the last two years and some change. And every month we go to a new site. So we've not only visit with a staff and figure out what it is that's unique to their areas. And I can just tell you haven't been to Puerto Rico. And Montana, we're talking about two completely different populations and folks who have very unique and different caregiving needs, because based on the area that they live, but the man I can't even like emphasize enough how amazing it is to meet these caregivers. It is it's like morale boosting, it's energizing, it's, it's all those things. They're just, they're unbelievable what they do with with nothing, and how grateful they are for the services that they get. I mean, I've had so many caregivers, which just blows my mind. Say, if it wasn't for this program, I wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't I wouldn't have survived this, I wouldn't be married today wouldn't know what to do without your team or your staff. And like, I'm not a super emotional person. If you spent enough time with the Marines on active duty and all the things you kind of go a little bit dead inside just to cope with all the stuff that comes your way. But I mean, you as Joe, there's so many times I'm like, I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna you know, I mean, they're just, they're so grateful. I don't I don't know how else to say that. I mean, they're just, it just warms my heart to hear how much they love our SAP. And that's not to say we're perfect because we're not we make mistakes all the time. We've done some things we shouldn't have done. And we're humans, right. And also I tell my staff, we're humans, but these caregivers are. I think like what you said they're heroes, and I know they hate that term. But I think so often veterans come home and my husband and I are both veterans, we often get thanked for our service. And then we kind of forget These caregivers without them, these veterans wouldn't be where they are today, whether it was when they were in the military, whether they're taking care of them today. They, a lot of them would probably be in group homes, adult homes, convalescent centers, but these caregivers have stepped up and said, I want you if it's appropriate to live out your final days, or to live in your own comfortable area with dignity with respect in your home, and they've stepped up to do that. And until you've caregiver on some level, I think people do have no idea what that takes to maintain. Some of them work. Some of them have children, young children, some of them are taking care of mom and dad and their spouse. They're superheroes to me. They're just, like, Wonder Woman on so many levels. But way better? I don't know. It's just amazing. And I love it. I really do. It's my favorite part of my whole job is going out and meeting with people on the staff and the caregivers for sure.

Natalie: 25:49

I think it's this scene valued and heard. That's really what I think in the end, that as caregivers, regardless, when we're when we're seeing and we're valued, and then we're heard the gratitude and just I think caregivers have a lot of gratitude built inside. And I think what you're saying about the gratitude that you receive, and you're like, I'm here to support you, and they're like, no, let me love on your back. I've just really a respect that. So I think that's critical. And I think I think it's so important. It's kind of I'd heard this management by walking around, it's like no different than you find that it's important to see the staff that you employ to help them feel safe, valued and heard. You're equally going out of that commitment to seeing those caregivers to say, we see you and our programs are dedicated for you and we're committed to you. I'd love that. I just love that. Looking ahead, yes. What should caregivers expect from the caregiver support program? What's our FY, you know, was what's coming up.

Unknown: 26:51

So this year, since we just kind of kicked off last year, this idea of the whole the year of the caregiver, we're continuing that theme coming into this year, we felt like we just kind of touched the forefront of what it means to be the caregiver support that that support piece is huge for me, programming. So this year, we're doing year the caregiver, hashed dash, the whole caregiver. And then our little hashtag this year is carrying the number for caregivers. And one of the things that we do in this program, which I think is so cool, we partner with Whole Health. And so we put together we call chi walks here, but it's a caregiver health and well being coaches, and our staff at our medical facilities provide individual Whole Health Plans unique to every single caregiver if they so choose to have it so that that whole caregiver piece is is our focus this year. So we're going to still we're still working on that respite piece, as I mentioned, really, really pushing respite. We've hired champions across the entire country. So we have people dedicated to being experts in ROSS because what we found is that every medical facility was a little bit different, how they assigned respite who got respite, how many respite hours they were receiving, you know, how they put consultants, how it was paid for, and we thought, okay, we're going to just hire respite champions, and they're going to be dedicated to understanding respite for these caregivers. So that has kicked off. We've increased by over 200% Already in the use of respite. So within months, we've seen that just blow up, which is amazing. Like I said, we're pushing this mental health piece, I can't wait to finish this fiscal year and see how many caregivers are receiving health. And then if I need more money to fund more staff positions to support them going forward, that would be a joy to have that. And then this caregiver health and wellbeing coaching, really wanting to see our caregivers set personalized goals for themselves that are achievable, so that they feel like yep, I am more than just a caregiver, right. I always compare everything to I love cake and pizza. So my analogy is always pizza. But like if you think about who we are as people, and you think about it as a as a pizza, there are multiple slices to that. And every slice is a little bit different. And sometimes one slice is bigger than the other depending on what you're doing when you're caregiving. It's like 75 80% But we can't forget that there's other slices. There's the mom, there's the dad, there's a brother, there's a sister, there's the Christian, there's the Buddhist, there's whatever your religious perspective is, there's, you know, the basketball player, the soccer player, the walker or whatever it is, we want caregivers to realize that there's so much more than just one big piece of pie, or one big slice of pizza, but there's multiple aspects to them. We don't want them to lose themselves and just caregiving because it it's so easy to do. It's so easy to do because that's your focus.

Natalie: 29:38

You know, I love the idea J of the whole caregiver is very holistic I mean if you really think about it, and that's that also leans into the mental health bill because we also we're having a holistic point of perspective of working with our clients and we know that there are other people which caregiver and so it just makes so much sense it's I love when common sense prevails, don't you like common sense? got like the light bulb? Yeah. And I just love that.

Unknown: 30:03

You know, think about everyone's different. Oh, I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Listen, every caregiver has unique needs. That's right. So even though all three of us might be caregivers, my needs are gonna be different than yours, depending on where, you know, maybe my husband's newly diagnosed with something in your six years in going, I am beyond exhausted at this point, and I'm going, I'm still energized. I'm going to be superwoman this year. And I can't wait to see all that I can do. And then six months in, I'm plummeting down the hill going, I have so tired already, you know. So yeah, that's

JJ: 30:31

exactly right. Well, Natalie, I think that what I've learned Dr. Richardson from you is that the components of the program, I only can say I hope that those carry over into the general public. What you're addressing with what we hear from caregivers, respite, mental health, support all of those components, they're all the same for caregivers, regardless of who you're caring for. And so everything I've heard, I'm like, Okay, we need you to get this perfected documentaries. And so you can come over and

Natalie: 31:03

cure the worship to the civilian world because we'd love that with our health plans, both commercial and Medicaid. Alrighty, you know, Jay, we've been so blessed by Dr. Richardson and sharing so much great information. For so for whether you are you are a caregiver for a veteran, or it could be that you're you are transitioning out. So this keep this on your radar as, as you and your spouse or potentially your the military, active duty military personnel are transitioning out, this could be an option for you. So we'll make sure that we have the FAQs in our show notes, we'll have it on our website, we'll make sure that folks have enough information. And of course, they can go to the website, I believe it's caregiver.va.gov. And we will make sure that you all have that in there also on all the social media. So we will have all your contact information. So guys, Dr. Richardson, thank you so much for being with us today. We very much appreciate you and the work that you do to support not only our veterans, but our caregivers, our military man. Thank

Unknown: 32:11

you, ladies for having me. I really appreciate it. And thanks for letting us share all this wonderful stuff. And we'll tackle the civilian world together next.

Natalie: 32:18

Oh, thank you. We're right. Where are your ladies? Thanks, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you for listening to our special series heroes caring for heroes. Please visit our website to learn more about our feature organizations supporting hero caregivers. Before you go, please take a moment to leave us a review and tell your friends about the confessions podcast. Make sure you connect with us on your favorite social media site to stay up to date on all things caregiving. And of course, you will find the video recording of our episodes on the confessions website and our YouTube channel. Okay, let's talk disclaimers. You may be surprised to find out but we are not medical professionals and are not providing any medical advice. If you have any medical questions, we recommend that you talk with a medical professional of your choice. As always, sisters night at Confessions of a reluctant caregiver have taken care in selecting the speakers, but the opinions of our speakers are theirs alone. The views and opinions stated in this podcast are solely those of the contributors and not necessarily those of our distributors, or hosting company. This podcast is copyrighted and no part can be reproduced without the express written consent of the sisterhood of care LLC. Thank you for listening to The Confessions of a reluctant caregiver podcast. We'll see you next time when we confess again