Hospice is defined as wherein a person diagnosed with an advanced life-limiting disease receives supportive and comfort-oriented services. In September 2008, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) agreed to a contract to provide to rural-area and homeless veterans.
Contract
Initially implemented to meet the needs of the specific veteran population of homeless and rural, the "Reaching Out: Quality Hospice and Palliative Care for Rural and Homeless Veterans," provides hospice care. In the contract base year, 10 selected proposals from hospice organizations in the community in collaboration with VA Medical Centers (VAMC), Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN) and other VA facilities started the program. Designed to identify and meet the target population needs with grant monies, outline programs define the needs of the veterans, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization website. By February 2009, 15 states had end-of-life care programs funded by 18 grants through the "Reaching Out" program.
Veterans' Needs
Through the awareness of the communities' granted monies, the needs of veterans became apparent, according to the nhpco.org website. Consequently the "Reaching Out" program continued to change and evolve to include more use by hospice providers of the Military History Checklist and improved care coordination between providers. Also, this established more contracts between community hospices and VAMC.
Effects
A number of positive outcomes resulted from these established partnerships between community based hospice programs and the VA, according to the nhpco.org website. VA enrollment increased, allowing more veterans access to benefits that meet their needs. A volunteer educational program formed, involving 75 veterans trained to teach other veterans about end-of-life care and benefits available to them. This increased the veteran outreach workers hired by hospice programs and established private host homes for homeless veterans.
Tags: end-of-life care, Hospice Palliative, Care, , according nhpco, according nhpco website
