Success Story

IAVA Helps Spearhead Critical Legislation for Women Warriors, Veteran Caregivers
May 5 2010

On May 5th, President Obama signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 (S. 1963) into law - an issue that IAVA has been pushing for over three years to help our nation's women warriors and fulltime caregivers for wounded veterans. Watch this quick video from IAVA's Tim Embree and Jennifer Hunt outside the White House about this critical legislation.

As part of our 2010 Legislative Agenda, IAVA actively advocated for passage of the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act to improve health care for our female veterans, support family caregivers and to get homeless veterans into transitional housing. To learn more about IAVA’s efforts working with the veterans' community to make this legislation a reality for thousands of female veterans and military families, click here.

"After months of pushing this legislation forward, IAVA was honored to be at the White House today to see this historic bill become law. This legislation mandates badly needed improvements to female VA health care, provides long overdue support for the caregivers of severely wounded veterans and increases mental health care access for rural veterans." -- Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA Executive Director and Founder

NUMBERS TO KNOW:

Beyond enhancing VA health care for female veterans, including new training for VA mental health providers to handle veterans who experienced military sexual trauma, the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act strengthens support for family caregivers of severely disabled veterans by giving them access to counseling, support and a living stipend. Some important stats to share on veteran caregivers from the Center for Naval Analysis:

19  Average number of months a seriously wounded servicemember needs a caregiver.

720 Number of new caregivers needed for seriously wounded servicemembers every year.

$38,100 Average yearly earnings and benefits of a caregiver.

$60,300 Lost earnings and benefits if a caregiver is needed for 19 months.

$43.4 million Annual earnings and benefits lost based on 720 new caregivers each year.

Source: These numbers are estimates from the Center for Naval Analysis, and provide a snapshot of the economic costs for caregivers.

PRESS & MEDIA:

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