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By Terri Hendry 
(Reno, NV)—Nevada Department of Veterans Services (NDVS) Deputy Director of Wellness, Wendy Simons has been selected as a Nevada Healthcare Hero. She will receive the award in an event at the Peppermill Resort on August 31, 2017 beginning at 6:30 p.m. 
 
The 12th annual Healthcare Heroes Awards honors outstanding healthcare professionals in Nevada across 10 different categories. Simons is the winner in the non-profit category. Simons and the others in each category were selected by a panel of blue-ribbon judges in the healthcare field. Simons and the other honorees will also be featured in the September 2017 edition of Nevada Business Magazine.  
 
The following is taken directly from Simon’s nomination form. It demonstrates why she was chosen for this honor:  
 
“Simons provides oversight for the operation of the Nevada State Veterans Home in Boulder City, which was established to provide long term care services, therapy and support to our aging and wounded warriors. She is also overseeing the establishment of a new Veterans nursing home in Sparks, Nevada, to be opening in early 2019. While waiting the opportunity to build the home in the north, it became evident to Ms. Simons that we have thousands of veterans in care facilities or home-bound throughout the state who have not had the recognition or fully understand the many veterans benefits they might be eligible. Often, we would find out too late that a veteran had spent down their or their families savings when they had not “tapped into” federal veterans’ benefits that they could use for their care. This raised the question….how many veterans do we not know about and how can we reach out to locate them? 
 
To address and resolve these challenges, Ms. Simons established the “Veterans in Care” (VIC) initiative in May of 2016. VIC is a “first of its kind” initiative that has not been done in any other state and is reflective of Governor Sandoval’s commitment to make Nevada the most veteran friendly state in the nation. The initiative is an effort to find our “silent veteran heroes” who may reside in community settings, and are not enrolled in the VA system or are not aware of benefits and services. VIC has three components: (1) connect veterans to Benefits and Programs; (2) educate care providers to assist them understand veteran specific needs, veteran culture, and important veterans benefits their charges might access; and (3) recognize the service of our Nevada heroes.  
 
In beginning her outreach to veteran in care, Ms. Simons reached out to over 400 Skilled Nursing and Assisted Living facility providers to identify veterans who reside in care facilities. Over the past few months, 100+ facilities have responded, helping her locate 1,400+ veterans in residence. As a result of this first group of responses, NDVS launched 60 information and recognition events at 60 facilities, informing and honoring 834 veterans. All received information regarding veterans financial benefits and were presented with certificates from the State and pins denoting them as “Nevada’s Heroes”. Over 400 of these residents were WWII veterans. Recognition events have been held in Las Vegas, Henderson, Elko, Fernley, Yerington, Carson City and Gardnerville. We anticipate finding more than 3,000 veterans in care settings as we move through 2017. 
 
CONNECTING VETERANS TO BENEFITS THAT IMPROVE ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE: 
It is NDVS’ statutory mission to assure all veterans, regardless of where they live, receive information, education and support to secure their federal and state benefits. Over the past few years, some of the qualifying criteria have changed and we have found many of our veterans are not receiving benefits they have rightly earned. In addition, many of our veterans have not been able to navigate the VA systems.  
 
Ms. Simon’s has coordinated the participation of Federal and State benefits advisors to attend VIC events. Under her leadership, over 800 veterans, and their families, received information about potentially untapped Federal VA benefits for which they might be eligible, and assistance filing for these benefits at no cost to the veteran. These monetary benefits have helped many receive the care they need in an appropriate medical setting. Sadly, we discovered that some facilities had no idea that many of their residents were veterans. Because of Ms. Simons outreach, many facilities have learned of the resident status of veterans in their care and have begun to develop veteran programming and schedule visits with veterans’ service officers in order to assist veterans and their families apply for monetary benefits. 
 
VETERAN CULTURE EDUCATION AND TREATMENT TRAINING: 
Facilities that are not veteran-specific may or may not understand the influence and impact of a veteran’s service experience on their aging process or health care needs. Certainly for those individuals with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, many behaviors are misunderstood when they actually may be influenced by past military experiences. Individuals who have served in the military are not always willing to ask for help when needed, and even more importantly, depending on which period of time served, may have “cultural bias” toward certain care providers.  
 
Ms. Simons recognized that the opportunity to have training on military culture and how it affects successful care giving strategies had not been available to facilities. A key component of VIC has been to partner with other state agencies and VA health partners to bring this training to the care facility setting and their front line staff. Ms. Simons oversaw the development and delivery of CEU training workshops for health care providers to help them understand the nuances of providing care to veterans. These workshops are provided at no cost to assisted living and skilled nursing facilities as well as health care partners. “Bravo Zulu” workshops launched in January of 2017 in partnership with the Perry Foundation and Dr. Jennifer Carson of the University of Nevada. The first workshops have been conducted in Reno and Las Vegas to rave reviews, with more scheduled in 2017, for a total of eight workshops (4 north and 4 south).  
 
In addition, Ms. Simons is working with Geriatric Education Center staff from the Sanford Center for Aging to conduct additional workshops on managing difficult behaviors related to care of our elder veterans, with Jeanne Clark, GNP through live trainings broadcasted interactively throughout the State. The workshop, called, “Well-Being in the Veteran with Dementia One,” will be live in Reno and broadcast to Las Vegas, Elko, and other rural sites across Nevada through Zoom Technology; another will be live in Las Vegas and broadcast to Reno, Elko, and other rural sites across Nevada through Zoom technology. The scheduled dates are June 7th and June 21st, 2017. The two live sites with the broadcast and Zoom will allow the most coverage and participation statewide. All of these workshops will have CEU’s for licensed Administrators, Social Workers and Nurses. The program objectives are: 
• Discuss three assessment tools to evaluate responses in veterans with dementia 
• Identify three interventions that can be applied to enhance well-being 
• Discern four causes of delirium and three ways in which delirium can present 
• Review three plans to better dietary intake 
• Compare and contrast models of bathing that can improve the bathing experience for the veteran with altered cognitive state 
• Enumerate three causes of sleep disruption and ways to promote good sleep 
Summarize and discuss several benefits and programs available to veterans 
 
QUALITY OF LIFE RECOGNITION AND COMMUNICATION: 
This third component of VIC is recognizing the service of our veterans in care—before they are no longer with us. Almost 1,000 veterans have been presented certificates of appreciation and “Nevada Hero” pins in gratitude for their service to our nation. When possible, the Governor, State Legislators, Congressional Representatives, and our community partners participate in these recognition ceremonies. Members of local veterans’ service organizations provide color guards, bugle salutes, and other military demonstrations. Local schools have provided choirs and cards. The affect on morale and attitude of our veterans in care is palpable and facility administrators have told us that the boost to the mental well-being of the residents after these visits is obvious and important to their treatment. 
 
In her drive to find all veterans and ensure they get the resources needed for their care and the recognition they deserve, her team has found and honored a 107-year-old lady veteran of WWII and 10 others over 100 years old (see the attached picture of Governor Sandoval presenting Ms. Allen with her recognition certificate). What has been amazing is that fewer than 200 of the 1,400 are noted to be enrolled in the VA medical system or receiving benefits. A few of the comments from those recognized: “I thought I was forgotten”, “I’m going to put this certificate on my wall so my family knows I was important once”, “No one believed I am a veteran, but this proves it because the Governor and the State of Nevada said so”, and “I didn’t want a fuss, but I so appreciate the recognition”. 
 
As the VIC program expanded, Ms. Simons is beginning to work with Nevada Veterans Advocates to visit home-bound veterans in order that they might also receive information about and access to benefits that would improve their lives, coordinating with Hospice, Home Health, Personal Care Agencies, Adult Day Care Centers and many other community partners. She has built a team of volunteer veterans who are visiting home-bound veterans in their veterans service organization uniforms to present to certificates and pins, provide benefit information, and to help coordinate visit by benefits officers.  
 
Whether in a facility or in an individual’s home, Ms. Simon’s VIC initiative It is proving to be both heartwarming and beneficial to the veterans and the facility staff; the program also demonstrates that we as a State truly care about those who served our country and those who provide care to our veteran population. 
 
In conclusion, Wendy is an amazing person, a respected professional, and a truly lovely human being. Our veterans and their families are tremendously fortunate that she is working to improve their lives and recognize their legacy.”