• Mar 28, 2024
  • 11:25 AM

Message from the Director – October 2020


Message from the Director

To my fellow veterans, families, and veteran advocates:

Veterans Day is right around the corner and we are hard at work preparing Veterans Day observance plans, knowing that many in-person events throughout the State, including parades, have been cancelled.  Like many of you, we are disappointed that we will not be able to celebrate in the historical fashion, but we are enthusiastic about creating an exciting, patriotic Veterans Day video that will be distributed statewide through our social media pages, website and this newsletter distribution list.

If you haven’t followed us on social media, please do so: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

An important event this month is our Military Sexual Trauma (MST) Educational Series, developed in partnership with the Perry Foundation and supported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  The first day of the event, Oct. 6, is for survivors and their supporters.  If health care professionals attend the first day plus the additional two days, they can earn Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) under the “ethics” category.  As it is sometimes difficult for these professionals to find “ethics” CEUs, consider letting your health care providers know about this course. Please visit the MST event page on our website to register.

As of this writing, all residents and staff in our State Veterans Homes have recovered from COVID-19.  We continue to adhere to all CDC guidelines to keep our staff and residents safe and healthy.  If you go out in public, please continue to do your part to help limit community spread by wearing a face covering, physical distancing and washing your hands often. It will take the efforts of each of us to defeat this enemy in our battle against the virus.

Keeping our residents and staff safe from the virus isn’t the only challenge we face. Keeping our residents connected with their families and communities is almost as important.  NDVS created a statewide Family Connection Task Force, which has developed recommendations on improving connections between families and the residents in nursing facilities.  I am excited to start implementing these recommendations as we continue to ensure that our veterans and families in care facilities not have only excellent quality care, but excellent quality of life.

Finally, I do not think it can be said enough—please keep in touch with family, friends, and comrades; we all need each other now more than ever.  Until we can meet in person again, please take care of yourself, your families and each other.

Respectfully,

Kat Miller