A growing number of ordinary families across the U.S. are opening their doors and their hearts to elderly veterans to give them a loving home as an alternative to spending their remaining years inside long-term care facilities.
As TODAY reported, the medical foster home program, run by the Department of Veterans Affairs , offers aging veterans the opportunity to receive 24/7 care inside private homes where they can enjoy a family setting and perhaps even experience the sort of camaraderie they’ve missed out on in their lives.
The program first began in Louisville in 2008 and now operates in 44 states all across the country.
There are currently 700 foster care providers looking after around 1,000 veterans with chronic conditions who opted for the familial arrangement over admittance into a long-term care facility when they were no longer able to stay in their own home.
“Veterans who enter the [fostering] program typically do so because they lack a strong family caregiver,” Dayna Cooper, director of home and community-based programs for VA, told the Washington Post . “So we’re looking for individuals or families willing to take over that role and provide the care and assistance needed for them to remain in a community setting.”
Families who participate in the program are allowed to take in up to three veterans, so long as they meet the requirements and have enough room, of course.
As outlined on the Department of Veterans Affair website , eligible foster families must have a valid State foster care license to provide care and must go through rigorous training which includes certification in CPR.
Veterans who enter the program also receive at-home care and support from a team of VA health care staff members, which includes doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, and social workers.
There is certainly a cost benefit to choosing a foster home over a nursing facility.
The average nursing home can cost around $8,000 per month, whereas the medical foster program is only $2,500 per month.
But for these ailing and disabled veterans, it’s about more than just the money — it’s about the familial experience, something which traditional nursing homes simply cannot provide.
Vietnam War veteran Carroll Botts lives with two other veterans in Indiana with homeowner and caregiver Barney Musselman.
Lori Paris, a medical foster home program coordinator, told TODAY that when she first met Botts, 70, he was living a lonely, isolated life inside a nursing home.
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“His room was dark and he was just laying in bed,” she recalled. “He didn’t want to leave his room.”
Now, less than two years later, Botts “has come completely alive”, Paris said, adding, “It’s like night and day.”
“I’ll stop by and Mr. Botts is relaxing on the deck or hanging out in the living room,” she said. “I’ve never once seen him in his bed.”
The vet now regularly attends concerts and even enjoys visiting children at a local elementary school.
World War II veteran Norman Miller, 93, has also discovered a new lease on life after entering the foster program.
He moved in to caregiver Musselman’s home in Indiana with fellow veteran Botts on Halloween in 2019 after breaking his hip.
“I jumped at the idea of coming here,” the 93-year-old Miller told TODAY . “It’s a family situation and I like that.”
h/t: TODAY , Washington Post , Department of Veterans Affairs