If you or someone you know needs coordinated care, the national Federal Recovery Coordinator Program just released this new call line.
Share this information with anyone you know who may need to refer wounded warriors and their families to highly specialized and highly trained care coordinators.
Federal Recovery Coordinators are one of the recommendations of the Dole/Shalala Commission and there are currently 13 of them assigned across the nation, including one in Augusta at Eisenhower Army Medical Center's Warrior Transition Battalion.
The Federal Recovery Coordinators are assigned out of the VA Central Office in Washington, and that's where this phone number rings. The program director works for the Secretary of the VA as a Special Assistant.
The staff in the DC office encourage anyone (friend, neighbor, loved one, self) to call if they have someone who may need coordinated care. They have criteria they must follow, but they are willing to refer people to other resources if they do not qualify.
Please share this with anyone you know who could benefit from it.
Federal Recovery Coordination Program
Toll-free Referral Phone Lines
1-877-461-0034 or 1-877-732-4456
The Federal Recovery Coordination Program (FRCP) toll-free phone line is an outreach to service members and veterans who are, or who may be, eligible for that Program. If a staff member is not available, the caller may leave a voice message. Calls will be returned the same business day. Any calls received outside business hours (M-F 9am-5pm Eastern) are returned the next working day. General inquiries, referrals or specific questions from family members, healthcare providers and interested others are welcome.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
NBC Nightly News Coverage: March 23, 2009
The NBC Nightly News "Making a Difference"story tonight featured Augusta's Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit located within our VA Medical Center. It's the only such unit like it, and correspondent COL Jack Jacobs (ret.) covered the powerful healing work going on at this unique facility. The unit is an example of Army/VA collaboration, and according to Jacobs, is a "Model for the nation."
COL Jacobs ought to know. This Medal of Honor recipient was wounded in Vietnam, and chronicles his experiences in his new book,
"If Not Now, When?"
COL Jacobs ought to know. This Medal of Honor recipient was wounded in Vietnam, and chronicles his experiences in his new book,
"If Not Now, When?"
The stories of MSG Tom Morrissey and others are featured in COL Jacobs' story. MSG Morrissey credits the Active Duty Rehab Unit at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center and its collaboration with Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta with saving his limbs from amputation after he was ambushed with an AK-47 in Afghanistan in 2006. You can hear more of MSG Morrissey's interview here.
LT Joshua Darnell's story isn't all that different from MSG Morrissey. COL Jacobs asked LT Darnell about his injuries, and he reports he's miles from where he was when he arrived at the Active Duty Rehab Unit. You can see LT Darnell's story here.
Both stories join more than 610 other warriors' examples of restoration and healing in August, Georgia. To find out what you can do to support the warrior care mission already underway in our community, check out our website link "How You Can Help."
Both stories join more than 610 other warriors' examples of restoration and healing in August, Georgia. To find out what you can do to support the warrior care mission already underway in our community, check out our website link "How You Can Help."
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Computers and Training for Veterans: Collaboration
Since February of 2009, we've been exploring a collaboration with the National Cristina Foundation, a non-profit that is dedicated to supporting people with disabilities, students at risk and disadvantaged persons. National Cristina Foundation matches computer technology donated from corporations and the public as it comes out of its first place of use to training programs such as ours.
In July of 2008 the Cristina Foundation launched a special initiative with the American Legion in Texas working to provide refurbished computers and access for free computer training to veterans with special needs. The initiative, Linking Together for Veteran's Futures, in coordination with the CompTIA Educational Foundation's Creating Futures program and the Art for Soldiers Foundation, targets eligible veterans who require IT support, many of whom include returning Iraq and Afghanistan service members.
Representatives from the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project, the Charlie Norwood Iraq and Afghanistan Program, and CompTIA's Educational Foundation met recently to determine how to connect the information technology training and certification with returning service members looking to pursue careers in information technology.
The next steps will be to identify ways in which donated technology from the National Cristina Foundation and training from CompTIA Educational Foundation can help veterans in Augusta and prepare them for rewarding careers in IT. The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center is our primary partner for identifying those Iraq and Afghanistan service members who are transitioning out of active duty and would benefit from access to both the technology and the training.
If you'd like to learn more about this new collaboration, or to support it, contact me at: laurie.ott@csrawwcp.org or (706) 434-1708.
In July of 2008 the Cristina Foundation launched a special initiative with the American Legion in Texas working to provide refurbished computers and access for free computer training to veterans with special needs. The initiative, Linking Together for Veteran's Futures, in coordination with the CompTIA Educational Foundation's Creating Futures program and the Art for Soldiers Foundation, targets eligible veterans who require IT support, many of whom include returning Iraq and Afghanistan service members.
Representatives from the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project, the Charlie Norwood Iraq and Afghanistan Program, and CompTIA's Educational Foundation met recently to determine how to connect the information technology training and certification with returning service members looking to pursue careers in information technology.
The next steps will be to identify ways in which donated technology from the National Cristina Foundation and training from CompTIA Educational Foundation can help veterans in Augusta and prepare them for rewarding careers in IT. The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center is our primary partner for identifying those Iraq and Afghanistan service members who are transitioning out of active duty and would benefit from access to both the technology and the training.
If you'd like to learn more about this new collaboration, or to support it, contact me at: laurie.ott@csrawwcp.org or (706) 434-1708.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Initiatives Update: Veterans Court, March 2009
Today I was given the privilege of speaking to the Augusta Bar Association with board member The Honorable Doug Barnard, our retired 10th District Congressman.
Judge Jim Blanchard spoke about the Drug Court launched in Richmond County last year, and the program's successes. I was invited to observe this Drug Court a week ago, and I was very impressed with the enthusiasm for sobriety on the part of the participants and the impact treatment options have on those who would otherwise be in the throes of their addictions, or in jail, or worse, dead. This treatment court model is of great interest to our project, as we look at the potential to launch a Veterans Court similar to the program in Buffalo, NY and a few other locations across the country. The idea is to connect veterans who end up in front of a judge with the programs, services and benefits they have already earned through their service. The focus of the court in New York state is treatment, and a team approach to challenges facing veterans.
We are fortunate to have a wonderful VA Medical Center in Augusta (the Charlie Norwood VAMC) and program managers and leadership there interested in exploring how to implement the treatment model court for veterans in our area.
March 27th, the Charlie Norwood VAMC will host the Buffalo judge who started the Veterans Court there, for an all day session to discuss how the program works. The CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project is hosting a meeting on this day to bring judicial and law enforcement leadership together with our VAMC staff and the Buffalo judge to explore implementing this here. This small work group will look at the needs of this generation of returning service members' needs, and veterans and their families needs in transition, and ways to meet those needs in collaboration with the Charlie Norwood VAMC.
From the response today from the Augusta Bar Association, it appears our community is ready to collaborate on this type of initiative, and ensure our veterans get the care they need, when they need it.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project Update
It's been an exciting 9 weeks on the job so far for me as Executive Director of the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project. In that time, I've had 2 trips to Washington, DC, with 3 visits to Capitol Hill, one meeting at the Pentagon, 2 meetings with Veterans Affairs staffers, and a meeting with Senator Bob Dole and another President's Commission member. Senator Dole co-chaired the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors (PCCWW) and has come up with a plan to "serve, support and simplify" the system helping our returning wounded service members. (To see the report for yourself, go to http://www.pccww.gov/ and click on the final report, or to see where Augusta's mentioned, go to the 149 page subcommittee report.)
Senator Dole thinks Augusta's resources should be used their fullest potential, and served as a wonderful sounding board for me as I continue to explore whether Augusta is uniquely qualified to play a larger role in wounded warrior care.
Some of the findings I have shared with Senator Dole and others:
* The Dole/Shalala Commission has called for recovery coordinators to be placed across the country to lead each wounded warrior through a recovery plan. Since 2005, the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing has had a Clinical Nurse Leader program, which we are exploring as a match for the Recovery Coordinators. Graduates of the School of Nursing's CNL program are decision-makers and leaders who ensure the best outcomes for patients.
* Eisenhower Army Medical Center is a major destination for air evacuees from Iraq and Afghanistan and is home to the Army's Southeast Regional Medical Command. Augusta was listed second only to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in numbers of evacuees from Iraq and Afghanistan in the July 2007 Dole/Shalala Commission report.
* Augusta's Uptown VA Medical Center is home to the nation's only Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit located within a VA facility. It has treated nearly 500 in-patients and more than 1,000 out-patients, all of them on Active Duty. The gold standard of care given at the ADRU to Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen was highlighted in a U.S. Senate field hearing in August. (To see WRDW's coverage of the hearing, go to http://www.wrdw.com/csrawwcp/headlines/11081346.html)
* a disproportionate number of the returning service members come from the southeastern United States (30% of service members call Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky home).
* Of the communities with a regional medical command, Augusta is the most affordable housing market in the nation.
* We have two new employers who are bringing more than 2,000 jobs to the area, which could offer either permanent or temporary employment to the family members of wounded warriors.
* The Savannah River National Laboratory, a Department of Energy research facility, is the only lab of its type that does rapid prototyping. Within weeks, they put robotic cameras in the rubble at Ground Zero after 9/11. The have existing capabilities to be an independent determiner of the robustness and appropriateness of technologies and devices developed for amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Walton Rehabilitation Hospital (CARF-certified) has expertise with both traumatic brain injury and spinal injury rehabilitation services and has experience in setting up and running transitional living, assisted living and independent living facilities for those with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. The capacity at their transitional living facility can be doubled with very little capital investment.
All of these areas merit full exploration, and I hope this leads us to a consensus of the best way to better serve more of America's men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senator Dole thinks Augusta's resources should be used their fullest potential, and served as a wonderful sounding board for me as I continue to explore whether Augusta is uniquely qualified to play a larger role in wounded warrior care.
Some of the findings I have shared with Senator Dole and others:
* The Dole/Shalala Commission has called for recovery coordinators to be placed across the country to lead each wounded warrior through a recovery plan. Since 2005, the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing has had a Clinical Nurse Leader program, which we are exploring as a match for the Recovery Coordinators. Graduates of the School of Nursing's CNL program are decision-makers and leaders who ensure the best outcomes for patients.
* Eisenhower Army Medical Center is a major destination for air evacuees from Iraq and Afghanistan and is home to the Army's Southeast Regional Medical Command. Augusta was listed second only to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in numbers of evacuees from Iraq and Afghanistan in the July 2007 Dole/Shalala Commission report.
* Augusta's Uptown VA Medical Center is home to the nation's only Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit located within a VA facility. It has treated nearly 500 in-patients and more than 1,000 out-patients, all of them on Active Duty. The gold standard of care given at the ADRU to Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen was highlighted in a U.S. Senate field hearing in August. (To see WRDW's coverage of the hearing, go to http://www.wrdw.com/csrawwcp/headlines/11081346.html)
* a disproportionate number of the returning service members come from the southeastern United States (30% of service members call Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky home).
* Of the communities with a regional medical command, Augusta is the most affordable housing market in the nation.
* We have two new employers who are bringing more than 2,000 jobs to the area, which could offer either permanent or temporary employment to the family members of wounded warriors.
* The Savannah River National Laboratory, a Department of Energy research facility, is the only lab of its type that does rapid prototyping. Within weeks, they put robotic cameras in the rubble at Ground Zero after 9/11. The have existing capabilities to be an independent determiner of the robustness and appropriateness of technologies and devices developed for amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Walton Rehabilitation Hospital (CARF-certified) has expertise with both traumatic brain injury and spinal injury rehabilitation services and has experience in setting up and running transitional living, assisted living and independent living facilities for those with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. The capacity at their transitional living facility can be doubled with very little capital investment.
All of these areas merit full exploration, and I hope this leads us to a consensus of the best way to better serve more of America's men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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