Veteran’s Day: Honoring Veterans, with Daphne Davis

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is provided by Pinnacles Senior Placements LLC and Answers for Elders Radio

And welcome everyone to Answers for Elders Radio on this very special Veterans Day weekend, as we are honoring our veterans and I felt it was really important for us to have somebody very special here this weekend because I don’t know anybody that honors our seniors and our veterans any better than Daphne Davis. Daphne, I’m so glad you’re here to start off our hour.

Well, thank you for inviting me. It’s a privilege to be here today.

You know, I know that you work with veterans and families all the time. Tell me a little bit about Veterans Day, why it’s significant, and also just a little bit about how it’s unique when you’re dealing with a senior veteran.

We have a lot to talk about.

I know, and we only have twelve minutes. Isn’t that crazy?

Well, let me tell you just a little bit of trivia that we have. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the signing of the armistice to end the Great War, or World War I, in 1918.

Interesting.

So we celebrate on November 11th in the United States. We now call it Veterans Day, not Armistice Day. That was changed in 1971 and now we are almost, I would say, in a revitalization of remembering and honoring our veterans. Unlike Memorial Day, for Veteran’s Day is to honor the people who are still alive and with us. Memorial days about those who have gone before us or whatnot. But so we celebrate and thank the Veterans for the sacrifices that they have made in terms of giving us our freedom in the United States. And so anytime you get the opportunity to thank someone for their service, please, please, just verbally do that.

You know, I love when I go to events, especially senior events, there’s so many veterans that will wear their hats, you know, the baseball hats that talk about the branch of the military. I think there is a mindset there and I know that. You know there’s a lot of veterans communities. They tend to kind of huddle together the rest of their lives and I’m sure it’s as we’re talking about culture and celebrations and connections. That is really a big piece of it.

Is it absolutely is. I mean here in western Washington and Auburn they have a very large parade that’s on Veteran’s Day this coming up weekend and they have twenty-five marching bands that are going to be there. I mean it is a great thing. So if you can’t make it this year down there, make it a mental note in the years to come, because I do it every year. It’s a great celebration. So having that community coming out and letting our veterans know that as a community we are supporting you is a really good way of doing that. Something is simple as if you have a veteran in your family that you know, just give a little extra hug, you know, a little extra thank you, the recognition of you know, I know it’s been a long time since you’ve served in the military, but I we’re not forgetting it. Thank you.

So, you know, I think that’s a really important thing because I think at least our older adults, they tend not to talk about things and you know sometimes we think of dad or grandfather, is just dad or grandfather. We don’t think about their military service. We don’t think about how much of a tapestry that it creates in their lives and there’s so much within them when they’ve come from that culture.

That’s exactly right.

And you probably deal with that quite a bit when you’re talking to families.

I do all the time. I mean, just as the community, our listenership out there right now. I mean you can focus on, certainly anytime, but certainly in the month of November, supporting the businesses that support our veterans. If there’s a restaurant that you know that is supporting our veterans, they might have a free meal or something. Give a little extra of your budget in your entertainment, personal, and entertainment, and choose to support those businesses.

I love that.

I mean it’s something very subtle, not over the top, but your consciously making an effort to support our veterans.

Well, and I think too, if you it doesn’t hurt to ask. I think a lot of times we just don’t think about it, but you know, if you go to a restaurant or something like that during this time, ask them just upfront, do you do anything for veterans? You probably would be quite surprised if you’re talking to an owner of a restaurant and they may do something very special for them. So the idea is obviously is to make sure that we’re just have a more of a mindfulness about the holiday. And what is it signify? And I know that I work, of course, a lot with the Seahawks and we’re going to have Mike Flood on at the end of this segment, but Mike fled from the Seahawks at the Salute to Service. Is certainly a wonderful thing that they do. But the Seahawkers, which is the booster club, they’re actually partnering up with Wreaths Across America and they’re going into the veteran’s cemeteries and putting a wreath on every single graveyard. You know, or grave plot, and I think that’s important as well.

It is it is we here in western Washington have the beautiful Tahoma National Cemetery. I can do and if we haven’t been there yet, if you haven’t visited it, I highly recommend. It’s out in Maple Valley and it’s beautiful, it is so serene and wonderful you can go out there, just walk through. They’re honoring, choosing, you know, maybe a branch of service that you’re near and dear to your family and spotting the people that served in the navy during, you know, the time that maybe someone you know, served in the name. You can get educated there, you can find people there and there’s a whole system of helping you navigate through that. That’s at that particular cemetery. It’s very beautiful. On the particular service holidays that we have, they go all out. So that’s one. One thing that you can do is to go out to the national cemeteries and just kind of show your respect there and educate yourself a little bit. The other thing is teach your kids, teach your grandkids about what this this day is, so that it doesn’t get forgotten and lost in our culture. We’re very busy people, but just to take out a little bit of time and breathe and say this is what Veteran’s Day has to be intentional.

And you know, it’s interesting too, because there’s something that everybody can do. I really believe that and of course I don’t have a veteran in my family, I do, as a cousin who is actually was awarded the Silver Star, which is amazing in itself. But I really don’t have somebody in my immediate family, but so many of us do. And but even me, you know, I talked to my husband and we sponsored wreaths. You know, we went ahead and purchase three wreaths and it was a small gesture, but it was something I felt that was important, that we can do things like that and it’s just a simple thing to either go online or to do something. So now you work specifically, Daphne, a little bit about you, with helping families navigate senior care and elder care and you certainly work with a lot of veterans. How is it different in later-life care for veterans?

There’s some things that we need to pay attention to, sometimes just on a very personal level, just personalities of people who have served in the military. Sure, you know, we need to be cognizant of what their roles were and the honor that they should have. Choosing my words purposefully, but they should have and deserve and so I make it a big deal to know if someone has served in the military when they have to move into some kind of care community, that they know about that and to respect them in that way.

Well, and that they honor the culture.

Exactly right. Yeah, exactly right. On a financial level, there’s certainly things that a lot of our listeners may not know about and it’s called a program Aid and Attendance, like financial aid and attendance in school, to Aid in Attendance. It does have some financial qualifications that are pretty generous actually, but it actually currently the monthly benefit for that to the veteran is just under two thousand dollars a month. It’s also available for spouses. It’s also available for in-home care, and so that is made a huge change in the last year in terms of the companies that have chosen to specifically serve our veterans, that they have qualified now to be able to do that. So if you’re looking at in-home care to have somebody come into the home for a given hours, be sure, if you are a family that’s tied to the military, to ask about that, because those are incredible benefits for our veterans and I personally believe that we should maximize the benefits that are there for our veterans. Don’t forget about any of them.

Well, I think the other thing that we need to think about and be more mindful of is if somebody served in combat or something like that, there are conditions like PTSD and things like that that even a younger senior might need assistance with, and it’s something that, you know, again, PTSD is still there’s so much we need to understand, but it’s something that is absolutely important to be mindful of and if they have to be in a situation where they have more care, like assisted living or something like that, to be in a community, you’re going to look for communities that specialize in that type of thing.

Absolutely. Yes, and you do bring up a really good point in an and we’re having now the generation from the Vietnam War that’s get very muchly and we’re having some obvious differences in terms of our veterans who are suffering through some things that happened during their wartime service, and so we do need to pay attention to those and have communities that are aware of potential behaviors, potential outburst.

Agent Orange.

Yes, a lot of Agent Orange issues. We’re having different disease processes coming up that are starting to show a pattern in our seventy and eight-year-olds now, particularly seventy-year-olds. That’s the generation now that’s coming up out of Vietnam, and so we do need to be aware of those and as family members supporting someone who’s served in that area, please don’t be afraid to ask the questions out loud and as more much as you can, with as much respect as you can to the person who is a veteran. You know, mom or dad, I just want to make sure that we get all the services that you are entitled to but, more importantly, that can add to your quality of life during this time of your living. And so don’t be afraid of talking about it, even though they’re not generally going to be open about that time period in their life. All veterans are little close to the chest on that. But please have the courage to ask the questions and you’ll know if it should be something privately with mom or dad. You’ll know if that is something to have a conversation with someone like me, a placement navigator, to help you with that conversation, or certainly during an intake. That’s an assessment of the health things going on. So be open.

I love that. So Daphne, if families out there have an elder loved one that is a veteran, obviously you can help them. How do they reach you?

So they reach me at my phone number of 855-734-1500. That’s 855-734-1500, or my website, Pinnacle Senior Placements dot com.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Daphne, for being here, and thanks to everyone who has served. I know I’m speaking for both Daphne and myself. We are very grateful for your service.

The preceding podcast was provided by Pinnacle Senior Placements LLC and Answers for Elders Radio. To contact Pinnacle Senior Placements, go to Pinnacle Senior Placements dot com.