3 Things to Know About In-home Care for Veterans
When it comes time to make in-home care decisions for yourself or a loved one, it is a good idea to educate yourself on all of the available options for your particular circumstance. This is, perhaps, most clear when it comes to senior care options for our veterans.
Here are our top 3 things to know about in-home care for veterans.
Pensions Pay Off
The two most significant pensions designed to aid veterans in their senior care needs are the Aid and Attendance Benefit and the Housebound Pension.
The Aid and Attendance Benefit is meant to help those veterans who are able to maintain most of their independence but may require some additional support or care to keep up with their home and daily activities.
The Housebound Pension is exactly what it sounds like. It is there to provide aid to those who are limited in leaving their home and need some assistance to maintain their independence.
For more information about these two pensions, visit the government website at
Time of Service Matters
Perhaps the most important consideration when considering what aid might be possible to a veteran is their time of service.
For example, for the Aid and Attendance Benefit, the veteran in need of in-home care needs to have served a minimum of 90 days on active duty with at least one day served during an active period of combat as defined by Congress. Currently, those include WWII, the Korean conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.
You should talk to your caseworker or an in-home care agency about your unique situation to find out more about qualification requirements for either pension program.
Get a Doctor’s Recommendation
In many cases a doctor’s recommendation for in-home assistance is, at the very least, extremely helpful in getting the aid that you need, and in many cases, a prerequisite for getting clearance from the VA to get coverage.
While a report from the doctor is usually sufficient, you should make sure that the report includes the following: the applicant’s physical state of coordination, observations of mental faculties, the ability to dress and undress by themselves, to cook and consume meals independently and to wash their own body, what their typical day entails, and where they normally go.
Pursuing Veterans benefits is worth every moment you spend to gain access to them from the VA, but it can seem daunting at times. Spend some time doing research or reach out to an agency that you trust to get more information that pertains to your specific case.