Poplar Bluff has a new veterans organization after Brandi Morgan Sparks of Elara Care and Hospice saw a critical need. The group is called the We Honor Veterans Coalition of the Heartland.
It benefits from the collaborative efforts of several existing organizations such as Southern Care and Comfort, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1056, Elara Caring Personal Care Services, Cedargate Nursing Home, Elara Care and Hospice, and others.
Sparks discovered a gap in the community’s veteran care infrastructure when her employer sought a higher certification.
She explained the Veterans Administration, along with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, ranks care providers from level one to five on the services they can provide to veterans. To qualify as level three, the organization must be a member of a Hospice Veteran Partnership.
Sparks found all of the nearby HVPs were defunct or inactive. After speaking with Tim Pennington, a social worker with John J. Pershing VA Medical Center, they came up with the idea to form a new HVP to serve the region.
The coalition will provide education and awareness campaigns to help facilitate the best possible care for those who served. The organization will also help veterans navigate the VA system and perform community outreach.
The coalition additionally assists with the transition between hospital and home care.
Larry Kimbrow, a Navy veteran and president of VVA Chapter 1056, intends on being very active with the HVP.
“I am proud to say that we are always interested in any organization that is attempting to assist any and all veterans,” he stated.
Sparks relayed the five-level rating system has been around since 2005, but “it takes a while to trickle to the rural areas.”
The HVP allows all of the veteran care providers in the area to seek level three certification if they desire it.
The fledgling group holds open meetings at 10 a.m. every third Wednesday in the Southern Care and Comfort building at 118 N. Broadway St.
“We’re really trying to generate interest,” Sparks affirmed.
With the broad participation of various care providers in the area, the We Honor Veterans Coalition of the Heartland is poised to fill a formerly vacant niche in regional veterans health care.