The Department Of Veterans Affairs’ Medical Foster Program Helps To Dignify Aging Veterans

The VA began a medical foster program in 2002.

In 2002, the Department of Veterans Affairs launched a medical foster program to provide additional care for aging veterans. Now, the program supports over 700 veterans with the help of 500 dedicated caregivers.

Shantel Cross and her family in Baltimore are among those fostering veterans. They currently care for three veterans in their home: Charles McCoubrey, Peter Samaras, and Ekkehard Thies, all of whom served in the military during the 1960s and 1970s.

According to a one-pager on the program from the VA, “Medical Foster Homes are privately owned homes that provide caregivers and supervision 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This caregiver can help the Veteran carry out activities of daily living, such as bathing and getting dressed. VA ensures that the caregiver is well trained to provide VA planned care. While living in a Medical Foster Home, Veterans receive Home Based Primary Care.”

Samaras told CBS News that it is a better experience for him than it would be in a nursing home, “It’s nice here. And being in a nursing home, they just throw you away, they ignore you. But here we’re like part of the family.”

Cross, a former nursing home employee, told CBS News that she treats the men like members of her own family. “The daycare center they go to is wonderful. We take the guys out to the mall, let them do some walking, somebody might want coffee, we get ’em ice cream.”

Dayna Cooper, the director of home and community care at the Department of Veterans Affairs who oversees the medical foster home program, said the dynamic between Cross and her three foster veterans is emblematic of the aims of the program.

“Our caregivers treat the veterans as their own family,” Cooper said. “The caregivers have to live in the home with the veteran, and so we really see that family bond and relationship. I believe that every veteran has a right to remain and age in place and be with people who surround them with love.”

According to data from the U.S. Census, nearly half of veterans in America are 65 years old or older. Nursing homes can be expensive, often costing upwards of $100,000 a year. However, the medical foster program costs under half that amount and caregivers receive on average, $2,800 a month from each veteran who lives in their home. In addition, any veteran who is in the Veterans Affairs system is eligible for the program.

“It gives me a peace of mind to know that I’m able to help others and give back,” Cross said. “I love helping others and I love giving back. I don’t ever want to stop.”