Stand up for them
State should serve its veterans
Arkansas has the chance to do something for our veterans that is both symbolic and practical: Build and operate a new state veterans home. Such a home will give eligible veterans a concrete reminder that their service has not been forgotten, today or any day, by a grateful nation.
Most citizens don’t realize that Arkansas, like most other states, has owned and operated veterans homes for decades. Veterans homes are nursing homes with eligibility for admission limited to qualifying honorably discharged veterans.
In the past, we have not always given our veterans the care they should get. We have a tremendous opportunity before us now to provide veterans the place and care they so richly deserve.
Earlier this year in the 89th General Assembly, I wrote the legislation authorizing the construction of a new 150-bed home. With the stalwart support of House Speaker Davy Carter, state funds were secured to compete for federal Veterans Administration matching funding that will be necessary to build a new home.
Until last year, Arkansas had veterans homes in Little Rock and Fayetteville; the Little Rock home has since closed. The Little Rock facility had been converted from an old school building that had major design and maintenance issues, and it had also been plagued by mismanagement in recent years.
The Fayetteville home still operates in a nicer structure, formerly part of the old Washington Regional Medical Center. But recent investigations have noted the need for improvement of the quality of care at the Fayetteville home. The location also does not give easy access to the outdoors, and it complicates evacuation procedures in case of an emergency. It is not ideal.
Arkansas can and must do better by its veterans.
While not every veteran will want or need to live in a veterans home, the need for a new veterans home is greater than ever because our veteran population has changed. Military service was a common connector in our society for generations, so veterans could find comfort wherever they were, be it a church or a nursing home. This has changed. Veterans like the soldiers I served with in Iraq are much more at risk of being isolated from a society that does not know the burdens of military service firsthand.
What has not changed is the fact that the veterans of today, which now include a large percentage of women, enjoy and emotionally benefit from the company of their fellow veterans in 2013, just as much as their fellow veterans did in 1946 postwar America.
We have veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan who have returned home with serious combat injuries. Military medicine in combat zones has so drastically improved in recent years that we now have soldiers surviving injuries that would have been mortal in previous wars. These heroes come home with greater needs, both physical and emotional. Some of them will need additional care sooner rather than later. A new state veterans home would be a place they can live and be ensured of receiving proper care and having the emotional support of their fellow veterans.
Our sister state of Louisiana has made it a priority to provide quality care for its veterans. The state operates a total of five homes, with a veteran population just a little larger than ours. The leadership of Louisiana does not contract out what it sees as an obligation of the state to provide quality care to those who have served America. And the homes are self-sufficient, not requiring state revenue to operate.
Arkansas should follow that example. We need to build and operate a veterans home where the focus is on caring for veterans.
By securing state funding for a new veterans home, Arkansas has already accomplished what many states have been unable to do. Col. (Ret.) Cissy Rucker, appointed head of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs in May of 2012, deserves high marks for the careful and caring way she closed the Little Rock home upon discovery of its condition. Now she is reviewing locations for where a new home can be built. This is a step in the right direction and one which we should all applaud.
Our veterans did not let us down when we needed them. They stood for us in both war and peace. Now it is our turn to stand up for them.