Nextgov, Oct. 23: How VA Gets Innovators to Focus on Veterans’ Challenges
Hackathons—and the meaningful strategic partnerships they can spark—help the Veterans Affairs Department turn innovation that only seems imaginable into reality, a VA official said Tuesday. At the Veteran Health Administration’s second annual Innovation Experience event in Washington, Suzanne Shirley, an entrepreneur-in-residence through the VHA’s Innovation Ecosystem, highlighted some of the impacts the solution-centered hacks have inspired over the last year.
KRGV (ABC-5, Video) (Weslaco, Texas), Oct. 23: VA Now Using Video Games to Help Rehabilitate Veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs is now using video games to help rehabilitate veterans. The VA partnered with Microsoft back in May. Microsoft donated more than 170 controllers specifically designed for people with limited mobility, giving disabled veterans a way to play again and help them cope with life after service.
Muskogee Phoenix (Muskogee, Okla.), Oct. 23: Veterans can enroll in VA’s Million Veteran Program online
Veterans can now join the Million Veteran Program online (MVP) as part of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) effort to improve the lives of veterans through health care research and innovation. More than 775,000 veterans have already joined MVP, a national, voluntary, research initiative that helps VA study how genes affect the health of Veterans.
KPAC (NPR-90.1, Audio) (San Antonio, Texas), Oct. 22: As Veterans' Cemeteries Run Out Of Space, The VA Is Providing An Alternative To Burials
For the first time in decades, veterans and local military families have access to a final resting place alongside fellow servicemembers in the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles National Cemetery, closed to new burials since 1978, is once again accepting applications for interment, as the Department of Veterans Affairs pursues new options for veterans cemeteries that have run out of real estate for gravesites.
FOX News, Oct. 20: Vietnam Marine veteran in New Mexico hospice care reunites with beloved dog one last time
A New Mexico veteran who served with the Marines in Vietnam said a final goodbye last week to the beloved dog he had to put up for adoption when he entered hospice care. John Vincent was reunited with Patch, a 5-year-old Yorkie, for one last time Thursday at the Hospice Center at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, according to reports.
Military Times, Oct. 21: More questions answered as installations get ready for the potential 3 million extra shoppers
A little more than two months before a new shopping benefit takes effect for about 3 million newly eligible shoppers, defense officials have tested and rolled out the system that will allow these shoppers through the gates.
Patient Engagement HIT (Danvers, Mass.), Oct. 21: VA Expands Care Access, Suicide Prevention to National Guard
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS) have partnered to expand patient access to mental healthcare and suicide prevention education materials, according to an agency press release.
Chicago Crusader (Chicago, Ill.), Oct. 21: The VA’s radical redesigning of its healthcare delivery system
The Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, is leading the mission to reform healthcare by moving from traditional, disease-focused care to the Whole Health Systems (WHS) model. The WHS model asks veterans to place their visions of well-being at the center of their care.
Military Times, Oct. 18: Community partners and support key to veteran suicide prevention
As the leaders of the Veterans Health Administration and the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS) Task Force, we fear the oft-repeated, “one suicide is too many” will one day lose its impact.
