{"id":31708,"date":"2023-10-19T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=31708"},"modified":"2023-10-20T06:41:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T06:41:55","slug":"battle-creek-va-hosts-mental-health-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=31708","title":{"rendered":"Battle Creek VA hosts mental health summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Battle Creek VA<\/a> hosted a Mental Health Summit at Western Michigan University\u2019s Grand Rapids location Sept. 29. The theme for the summit was \u201cImproving Health Care for Aging Veterans,\u201d and it provided 12 breakout sessions which delivered information on how to approach and deliver care to older Veterans. In total, it held more than 150 participants in person and online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Russell Bell, local recovery coordinator. \u201cThis also helped to make sure they know we are a resource they can utilize when appropriate and when the Veteran is eligible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of 16 million Veterans, nearly half are 65 or older<\/h2>\n

As of 2022, there were 16.2 million Veterans in the United States and nearly half are 65 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn aging Veterans, there are unique risk factors associated with aging related changes, how the body metabolizes medications, natural changes to cognition\u2014such as slower processing and reduced efficiency of new learning,\u201d said Dr. Jeremy Bottoms, a neuropsychologist who co-chairs the Battle Creek VA Dementia Committee and is associate training director for the Residency Program in Clinical Neuropsychology. \u201cIf we do not account for these factors in our treatments, which may be quite appropriate for younger Veterans, we may put our older Veterans at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Goal of the summit was to connect with community partners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The summit also allowed individuals and representatives from both civilian and federal organizations to learn about eligibility and what services can be offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cCare 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 outcomes for elderly Veterans,\u201d Bottoms continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing that Veterans who are in the golden years of their lives often need more services, more assistance and more care,\u201d said Bell. \u201cAs they get older, some of these issues are debilitating and they can no longer provide the care they need. We want to make sure we\u2019re accessing the community partners and making sure those Veterans are not languishing outside of VA but coming in and accessing the care they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breakout sessions included topics on Alzheimer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cElderly Veterans are unique and often complex. We should strive for personalized, person-centered care,\u201d said Bottoms. \u201cThere is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to caring for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Battle Creek VA hosted a Mental Health Summit at Western Michigan University\u2019s Grand Rapids location Sept. 29. The theme for the summit was \u201cImproving Health Care for Aging Veterans,\u201d and it provided 12 breakout sessions which delivered information on how to approach and deliver care to older Veterans. In total, it held more than 150 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":31710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,240,737],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-mental-health","category-mental-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31714,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31708\/revisions\/31714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}