RESOLUTION 2010-2
SUPPORT FOR ADMISSION TO STATE VETERANS HOMES OF ANY PARENT WHOSE CHILD PERISHED WHILE SERVING ON ACTIVE DUTY IN THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES.

WHEREAS, State Veterans Homes were founded for soldiers and sailors following the American Civil War, and have ably served veterans and some of their immediate dependents and survivors for nearly 150 years; and

WHEREAS, currently there are 140 State Veterans Homes in all States and in Puerto Rico, on a daily basis providing hospital, skilled nursing, skilled rehabilitation, long-term care, dementia and Alzheimer’s care, domiciliary care, respite care, end of life care, and Adult Day Health Care to 28,500 veterans and dependents; and

WHEREAS, Title 38, United States Code, authorizes State Veterans Homes to care for non-veteran residents, but only to the extent that non-veteran residents constitute no more than twenty-five percent of bed capacity at Such State Veterans Homes; and

WHEREAS, Title 38, Code of Federal Regulations, defines eligible non-veteran residents of State Veterans Homers as immediate dependents and survivors of veterans with antecedent residence in State Veterans Homes, and parents, all of whose children died while serving in active military service to the United States; and

WHEREAS, recognizing the contemporary trend of the all-volunteer military force, the wide array of career paths available to American citizens, and modern asymmetrical wars and military conflicts that require both periodic and episodic deployments to combat engagements throughout the world, a post-World War II policy that requires all of a parent’s children to have perished in war as a precondition of eligible residence of a parent in a State Veterans Home under Title 38, United States Code, as interpreted in its Code of Federal Regulations, is unwarranted and exhibits an exclusionary intent toward parents who have suffered irreparable loss of a child, or children, who served their Nation in uniform.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Association of State Veterans Homes (NASVH) supports and amendment to Title 38, Code of Federal Regulations, or in absence of such revision, amendment to Title 38, United States Code, to authorize admission to State Veterans Homes of any parent whose child perished in active military service to the United States; and fully supports the legislative objectives of the National Association of State Veterans Homes (NASVH) to receive from VA a per diem payment that equals 50 percent of the national average cost of providing care in a State Veterans Home.



COLLEEN RUNDELL, M.S., LNHA
President
National Association of State Veterans Homes
Dated this on 30 Day of April, 2010