VA Steps Up Programs As More Veterans Enter Hospice Care

Starting last year, more military veterans are passing away in hospice care than in all of VA trauma and ICU wards combined.

That's because the millions of Americans who served in Korea and World War II are reaching their 80s and 90s; Vietnam veterans are reaching their 70s. That means the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is focusing on how to make veterans comfortable in their final weeks and months.

"I think they call it end of life care. But whatever it is ... they treat you like gold," says 68-year-old Thomas O'Neil, a resident at St. Alban's VA in Queens, New York.



from Rhode Island Public Radio http://ift.tt/1BmZKe7