VA Caregiver Support Program + Benefits for Veterans on Hospice

Thank you for joining us for our Q3 meeting last week! Meeting Review: 2025 Holiday Drive HVPI is excited to launch our 3rd Annual United We Stand Holiday Drive. This year we'll be supporting Homeless and newly housed Veterans as well as Marion's Palliative Care Unit. We're excited to see how much our Partners can gather this year! Please see our sign up genius to see our Virtual Giving Tree as well as details on drop off/pick up options.  Wreaths Across America During the meeting we heard from Annie Brooks from Wreaths Across America. On December 13th, cemeteries across the country will be laying wreaths on Veterans' gravesites. To sponsor wreaths or participate in this great event, please visit their website, Wreaths Across America . If you have any questions, Annie Brooks (Location & Group Liaison) can be reached at 207-618-5322 or region5@wreathsacrossamerica.org . Suicide Prevention Nate Moore, VA Suicide Prevention Coordinator from Northern Indiana Healthcare Systems, shared with us VA's S.A.V.E. Training. See recording of presentation above and slide deck HERE Training resource: Psych Armor Free gun locks: VA can provides free gun locks for Veterans! Send the Veteran's name and address and # of gun locks needed to INDPsychSPTeam@va.gov and they will mail the gun locks directly to the Veteran. For more info or pictures of the gun locks we provide see this website : https://www.va.gov/reach/lethal-means/ Next meeting: December 3, 2025 @ 10-11:30 am EST via Teams

Thank you for joining us for our 2025 Quarter 2 meeting on 6/4/25. Meeting PowerPoint: DOWNLOAD HERE Navigating Difficult Conversations with Dr. Lyle Fettig (Chief of Palliative Care at Roudebush VA Medical Center) Recording above Handouts: IU Talk Skills Sheet & Values Mnemonic for Exploring Values and Goals VA Service Connected Conditions & Death Certificates – Liz Davis, LCSW (Roudebush VA Medical Center) See handout on summary of what is a service connected condition, how to confirm a Veterans SC condition, and the importance of including it on death certificates, when appropriate. Recording below

We Honor Veterans (WHV) website is a plethora of resources for agencies working with Veterans at End of life.

VA End of Life Benefits Overview: Learn about Benefits for Veterans and families at end of life including those offered by Veteran's Health Administration (VHA), Veteran's Benefit's Administration (VBA) and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA). Materials covered include home care, respite, nursing home benefits, survivor benefits, enrollment, hospice, concurrent care, and more

VA Suicide Prevention social workers present on how we can work together to prevent suicide amongst Veterans with a focus on end of life/seriously ill Veterans. Find resources on tele-mental health and community engagement.

Thank you to everyone that attended our Partnership meeting on 6/15/24. We had a very informative presentation by Erin Hamilton from the VA National Cemetery. Erin shared a plethora of great information. Here are 3 takeaways that hospice agencies can do to help Veterans and their families with planning for funeral arrangements are: 1. Make sure they have a copy of their DD14/military discharge paperwork: If they don’t, they can request a copy here: Request Military Service Records | National Archives . Erin also suggested they can check their local county gov’t offices if they were drafted. 2. Encourage them to call the National Cemetery Administration (local cemetery offices or the national scheduling office) to confirm Veteran’s eligibility for free burial in a national cemetery. See attached brochures for #s 3. Encourage them to contact a benefits rep that can verify if they are eligible for any Veteran’s Benefits Administration Benefits (i.e. Burial Allowance, medallions, headstone, etc). See attached handout “assistance with benefits” for a list of organizations that can help them verify VBA benefit eligibility. Additional National Cemetery Administration Resources can be found on their website: NCA

Here you will find all the resources needed to start your own Pinning Ceremonies. We encourage you to use these documents as is, or adapt them to meet the need of your Veteran based on their service, situation, and location. Attached you will find: We Honor Veterans Pinning Ceremony Description/Guide, sample Pinning Ceremony Script and branch poems.

Enrollment

Download the 2024 Indianapolis VA Palliative Care Fact Sheet for Hospice Partners. This documents the following: Brief description of palliative program Notification of Death Request Process for Enrollment Contact information for services at the Indianapolis VA