Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues. It's 816. We have sunny skies. Temperature at 39. Let's welcome in our guest. It's Ellen Hay. She is the Chief Clinical Officer from Finger Lakes Community Health. Ellen, good morning. How are you this morning?
Ellen Hay: Good morning, sir. I'm well. And how are you?
Paul Szmal: I'm doing great, doing great. And first off, I want to mention that you are also a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Army. So thank you for your service.
Ellen Hay: It's my honor. Thank you much.
Paul Szmal: And one of the things that we want to talk about is veteran services, kind of a recurring theme. We talked about this yesterday with Michael Tedesco from the American Red Cross. But we want to talk about health services that are available to veterans. And you are in a unique position because of your prior service, Ellen, to really understand what veterans are dealing with coming out of active duty.
Ellen Hay: Correct. Or even individuals after the last several decades. You know, a lot of our reservists and National Guard serve on active duty for several periods of time, you know, on and off, on and off active duty. So, yeah, it's been very helpful having that experience and then bringing that to my, you know, my civilian practice.
Paul Szmal: And the point being that veterans may not realize the amount of services and where they are offered.
Ellen Hay: That is correct. Or even so, that maybe some of your health conditions that you have now, you know, might not be acknowledged or recognized as being service related. But, you know, 10 years from now or 20 years from now, they might. So it is very helpful that your health care providers have an awareness that you have served in the Armed Forces and maybe potentially where you kind of served.
Paul Szmal: And one of the things that Finger Lakes Community Health did was they took a little extra step. They enrolled in what's called the Veterans Community Care Program.
Ellen Hay: That's correct. So that if somebody does receive services at the VA, at the Veterans Administration or have active service, we actually can be one of your community partners and have services for you at a more local setting versus having to travel extended distances.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that is a big help because sometimes the nearest VA hospital is quite a distance. There can be transportation issues, things of that nature. And you can also work with the VA to help coordinate a care program.
Ellen Hay: Absolutely. And that's even one of the stronger points is knowing that, you know, letting your health care provider know that you actually do receive services at the VA because often times sometimes there's services that we need to get for you that might be cost prohibitive or can help to use some of their ancillary services like their pharmacy or help them with some durable medical equipment they might have at home or to help to get them enrolled with. As we age, we sometimes need to have services brought to our house and then have to be able to advocate for them to have those services potentially through the VA.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Ellen Hay. She's the chief clinical officer and a retired lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army. She's working with Finger Lakes Community Health now. And you made an important point just a couple of minutes ago that I think is worth reiterating not only for veterans but for people in general to realize, and that's that the VA only covers service-connected conditions.
Ellen Hay: That is correct. So oftentimes when you go to the VA for services, it's usually related to either an exposure or an injury or something that happened while you were on active duty. And then, too, sometimes, as you can see with a lot of our Vietnam vets, a lot of their exposure to certain chemicals wasn't recognized until they've had many years past their service time. So sometimes you've got to continue to advocate for those services to be covered and have awareness. So it's helpful to, again, some of your documentation with your other health care providers help to document your health conditions so that you have those resources to advocate for to get services through the VA. But oftentimes people will go to the VA for certain things and then come to your primary care for other things. And then it's always a great communication and conversation back to the VA to say, hey, is this potentially an extension of a service-related event that we can expand their services?
Paul Szmal: One of the things I think is quite a shame is when a veteran says, you know what, I probably can't afford to go to the doctor.
Ellen Hay: That is. Well, for anybody, but even more so, yes.
Paul Szmal: Yes. That tucks at my heart.
Ellen Hay: Yeah. Yeah. Now, Medicare, let's use oxygen for an example. Medicare covers about 80 percent of the oxygen costs, but you can actually, again, with that line of communication with the VA, you can actually communicate with the VA and see if there's maybe other ways for that remaining 20 percent to be covered.
Paul Szmal: That's correct. It's just another resource to have in somebody's toolkit to say, what else can help us? What else can help this person get the care that they need and the services that they need?
Ellen Hay: It's important, too, to define what the word veteran is in this particular context, because I think even people who have served in the military are probably guilty of thinking that, well, you have to have been an active duty member to be considered a veteran. Not the case in this. Or combat.
Paul Szmal: Right. Right. Right. Not the case in this context.
Ellen Hay: Yeah. I'm guilty of that. Like, for many years, I would not have felt I was in that category or felt, even now, I still struggle sometimes with saying that I did enough to really be in that, you know, to get special things or services. But is anyone who has served on active duty, you know, has joined any of the armed forces, you know, so it's a reservist, your National Guard, your Coast Guard, we don't think of it, but a lot of times it is something that people don't identify that term. So oftentimes, I'll just ask people if they had actually served in the any of the armed forces, because that kind of helps the conversation start, because maybe their time in the service wasn't a healthy time for them. And maybe some things went away and was a bad outcome. But there's oftentimes now that we've acknowledged more what substance use disorders are and mental health disorders, there's ways to kind of have individuals get services, even if their time in the service wasn't a positive outcome.
Paul Szmal: And one of the other facets that we haven't talked about yet, is not only people who have completed their service, but families who have members who are actively serving.
Ellen Hay: Right, right. So a lot of our families, you know, my family, when I was on active duty stayed home, right. So they're in our community. And, you know, that's just as important to acknowledge that and to know there are adjustments that happen when you suddenly leave or you suddenly come back or, you know, again, the whole emotional things when people, you know, are struggling with the results of being in a combat area or having experienced some trauma. But oftentimes, our families stay home or people with that are on active duty, a lot of times, when they deploy, their families will come back to where they have family support. You know, it's one of the key thing is that it does truly take our full community to raise families and come back where that support is available. But that's important to know, because children and spouses carry a heavy load when you, you know, go off for a period of time, whether even if it's three months, six months, a year or two years, you know, it's an adjustment in your life. And it's being a single parent, you know, with their other parent kind of gone. And sometimes there's the financial components of it, but also just the anxiety and other components that happen with that, the unknown.
Paul Szmal: Ellen, you wrote an article, it's called Caring for Veterans in Our Community, and in it, you share a local success story. I'd love for you to share that with the audience.
Ellen Hay: Yeah. So, you know, I had a young patient that, you know, had oftentimes self-treated himself with other substances, was homeless for a period of time. Oftentimes, unfortunately, getting into the VA and getting services is not as simple as knocking on the door. I mean, I think the VA is working hard to make that be different. All of our counties have a veteran service officer that really is an advocate to help people get the information, collect the information, and help to advocate and help with the paperwork to get into the system. So this young person now, you know, was able to get connected with the VA, has both medical and mental health services, you know, now has a disability rating so that that brings some stability to the table, and, you know, now is housing, health care, and in a stable space for himself, which is wonderful to see.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that is an excellent example of that synergy that we're talking about between Finger Lakes Community Health and the VA in this particular case.
Ellen Hay: Absolutely. And your local veteran service office that each of the counties have, that's a significant representative to kind of have in your back pocket and appropriately just ask the question.
Paul Szmal: If veterans or people that have served in the military want to find out more information about some of the services and these connections that can be made, Ellen, how do they do that?
Ellen Hay: Absolutely. So, you know, they would reach out to the VA, a local VA, but again, I would encourage them to go to your county and talk to your veteran service officer. They have both, you know, a lot of the local resources and connections, but also can kind of help to, you know, gather all the paperwork that's needed because, you know, a lot of times there's paperwork involved with it, but help you to walk through those steps so they'll know a lot of the local resources. And then again, openly talk to your health care providers to just let it be known that, yes, you are. So it helps us get connected with case managers that can help to facilitate some options and explore the options for individuals.
Paul Szmal: We appreciate the information, Ellen. Thank you so much. And again, thank you to all of the veterans for their service and dedication.
Ellen Hay: Thank you very much. Have a great day.
Paul Szmal: It is 826 on FLX Morning.
