Honor Veterans' Right to Heal this Veterans Day

Add your voice: Tell the Chicago VA to make good on promised improvements

At a meeting last spring with IVAW and National Nurses United, Chicago's Jesse Brown VA Medical Center Director, Michael Anaya, promised immediate action on a number of changes that will greatly improve the health care for veterans and working conditions for the nurses who serve them with such dedication. But after six months, we are still waiting.

Remind him that veterans should be getting the highest quality of care with dignity and respect. These are the issues:

1) Better staff to patient ratios in the mental health ward

2) Staff training in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Military Sexual Trauma, and Traumatic Brain Injury

3) Better patient garments that ensure dignity and privacy

As IVAW and NNU prepare to launch this campaign at other VA's around the country, we need to add your voice to the struggle.

Send an email to Michael Anaya using the tools below. Feel free to edit the sample email and subject line, but please keep your language clean.

Subject:

Your Letter:

I support efforts by Iraq Veterans Against the War and National Nurses United to work with you to improve the quality of care at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. You already have improved care for women veterans by ensuring that the women's clinic is accessible only to women, and I commend you for that. But I have learned of a number of important issues at your facility that have yet to be acted upon by your administration, including the following:

1) The nurse to patient staffing ratio is dangerously low, especially for mental health care. Current nurse-patient ratios are as high as 1-13, and often there is insufficient coverage when clinical staff is out on sick days or vacation. This puts patients at risk and makes working environments for staff unsafe.

2) All VA staff need to receive mandatory and comprehensive training in PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma, and Traumatic Brain Injury. Currently the only training your staff receives on these issues is watching a short video. VA professionals can't to do their best when they lack the knowledge they need to deal with the root causes of the epidemic of suicide and depression among veterans.

3) Your patient hospital gowns and pajamas have snaps and enclosures that don't actually work! The current clothing you provide patients is notorious for coming un-done at the worst times. This is embarrassing at the very least. But for a veteran who has experienced Military Sexual Trauma, this experience can re-traumatize her and gets to the heart of treating veterans with dignity and respect.

The changes you have implemented so far, such as at the women's clinic, are commendable. However, as a nationally recognized institution, Jesse Brown must continue to make improvements to set the example for other VAs by implementing these other important changes. On this Veterans Day, I'd like you to remember that there is still work to do to give veterans top-notch care.

I intend to monitor your progress on implementing these improvements at your medical center, and I hope that you will continue to work in good faith with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and National Nurses United to live up to your mission of 'honoring America's veterans by providing exceptional health care.'

After more than a decade of war, our service members have earned this.

Sincerely,

Michael Anaya, Director

Jesse Brown VA Medical Center
820 S. Damen Avenue
Chicago, IL 60612
US

Iraq Veterans Against the War is a 501(c)(3) charity, and welcomes your tax deductible contributions