It’s almost impressive just how hard it is to go from being master of your domain in the world of military pay and benefits to expert in nothing after your spouse gets out and moves into the care of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Surely something will prepare you for that moment, right?
Not so much. Other than a tolerance for extremely slow bureaucracy, I was frustrated to find that shifting into VA-related life was like learning an entirely new language.
Worse still, I knew just enough about it to understand that whatever decisions were made from day one regarding my soldier’s various service connected injuries and “rating” could haunt us forever. This felt like an incredibly important series of decisions for which I was completely and totally unprepared.
He was going to need loads of medical help and appointments, and I was just over here knowing everything there is to know about Tricare … and that’s it. I didn’t get to attend any of his military transition classes since they were only offered as “space available,” and were full when I tried to go, or held in the middle of my work day when I simply could not attend. I didn’t understand anything surrounding what was about to happen.
Fortunately, there are some people out there who know that the VA is super confusing but incredibly important. Some of those people are over at Psycharmor. They have worked with the VA to come up with a short video course designed for people like me that breaks down exactly how VA health care works.
In about 10 minutes they cover how the VA is organized, who can use it, how to enroll, what you need for enrollment, what their healthcare team looks like and more. Even after watching my husband use the VA for over a year, I still learned something new when I watched the video. Winning.
Psycharmor has produced a whole bunch of helpful caregiver videos that you can find on Military.com or on the Psycharmor website.
More videos:
