Listen Up Veterans at the Home.

Ya know, I'm getting tired of hearing reports from various people who are going OUT OF THEIR WAY to help veterans at the home. People who complain to me about what veterans say behind their backs if they are not able to help them immediately the way the veterans wants them to. 

Another one decided today that they would no longer be helping the veterans at the home directly. Only indirectly through donations to the home.

The Selfishness and self centered attitudes of Veterans need to change. You guys are driving people away from you who COULD and WOULD help you. You need to show some appreciation for those who are willing to help.  -- Especially now, when  you have driven away so many and there aren't many anymore who are willing to even TRY to help you.

You are running out of people. 

And you are doing it to yourselves. Stop complaining about it. You did it.

Update on Ron Stowitts, Latest successful escapee from Veterans home!

From Cathy Anderson- Stowitts:  

Up date on Ron. He is at Burcham Hills in Lansing and has settled in well. He has completed his 100 days of intensive rehab and is now getting restorative therepy 3 days a week learning to reuse his contractured hand and other adl . He has a terrific room mate and is social and stays busy. Ron has ben smoke free since Sept 29. We bring him to our house often and visit him 2 to 3 times a week and we call in between. He has special shoes now that help him balance and can transfer to bed and to the toilet without help.. They are working on him taking a few steps and regaining some of his skills. Gaining eight and so help me I am not kidding....... hes clean and so are his cloths and he has clean hair too. The Staff are wonderful with each and every resident and Ron is happy. His depression has been addressed and that's so much better. He thinks so often of his pals at the Home but says hes lucky to be where he is. We feel very blessed to have him alive. Thanks everyone for your concern and good wishes. 

 

 

Ed Note: For those who want to know.. Ron had an accident at the home while trying to use a toilet. This lead to his being sent to a rehab hospital. While there, he and his wife decided Ron was not going to return to the Vets home.

 

He is doing much better now that he is out of that hell hole.   This is proof that the Home is unfit for human habitation, if you ask me..

 

I remember Ron telling me many times, how the home was trying to force him to take medication for a family disorder that he did not show any signs of having.. And the year long battle the home had with his wife, trying to impose a state guardian on him..  a guardian he did not need.

 

Ron has avoided that, and is doing much better. He escaped the death trap the home has become for many.

 And Jim Dunn tells the legislature the home provides excellent quality care for our vets - bullsh*t!

Who cares about how the Veterans home is being run?

Chain of Command. One of the very first things a military person learns at boot camp. And you usually learn you are at the bottom of it. But it is one of the most useful tools available to a person in uniform.

The same should be held true at the Veterans home. But recently people have came up to me and told me they have no idea who is running the place.

Now in the past I have been told Board Member Meyers claimed HE was running it, (even though he didn't have a clue as to what was going on with the vets). Meyers is just a typical jar head, full of himself and is a proven liar, so what he has to say shouldn't matter to anyone anymore.  And since he is no longer chair person, well, we will see what this new board chairperson does.


Some people say Gary Davis appears to be running a lot of it. His participation in the top administrative decisions is very evident. As representative for disabled Veterans, he is not the top administrator, but his input to the administration has a lot of pull. Many vets wonder who he really is representing, their needs or the State governments need?

Then there are those who say Sara Dunn is supposed to be running it, as she apparently is the one someone in the state congress put into the position over the objections of many of the last sitting congress. And yet still others tell me shes been "demoted" and some of her authority taken away.

Seems to me if Sara is still in that front office, shes still top administrator.

And for those who like the idea of conspiracies, there are other reports that say some unnamed person in the state government (most likely the governor) is the real person running the home.

In my opinion, Sara was never the right person for this job. It should go to a veteran. Male, Female, doesn't matter. A military person has a better chance relating to what veterans go thru and have gone thru. It is impossible to make non military people understand the stresses of military life.

Sara has proved to be a good BOOK administrator. And be that as it may,  I still think she lacks a lot of leadership skills that the military teaches people. And she needs more training in people skills. That aside, I am starting to think someone is pulling her strings and shes just a puppet for someone in the Michigan government. And that someone is high up in the state government.

The fact is this is a government institution that tells the public that it is a HOME for veterans. Yet many of those at the facility would not call it a home, and too many would call it a kind of prison.

I place the blame on the Michigan Government and the local community. Local news Media has been contacted dozens of times in the past about things going on at the home. Little if anything is ever actually made public. Wood TV 8 ,  WZZM 13, WXMI 17, local to Grand Rapids, and even WKZO 3,  (now known as WWMT) in Kalamazoo have all been contacted.  A few investigated the stories only to be threatened with lawsuits if they aired. So much for freedom of the press.

Even the Grand Rapids Police department will not enter the property or respond to Veterans (or their family members) complaints. The only time the GRPD goes to the Home, is if the Administration call them.  A veteran can be assaulted, file a complaint with GRPD and GRPD who has jurisdiction, will ignore the complaint.  So the GRPD is useless to Veterans at the home.

Recently a post about Drugs killing veterans went from last to 2nd most read article on this blog with over 400 reads. Not one comment, not one person has stepped forward to ask why, or what can be done to stop this from happening again. No one.

The silence I hear is the suffering of the veterans because no one else cares about them. The public doesn't care, it only gives lip service on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and our Nations Birthday, the 4th of July. Other than that, its out of sight - out of mind.

Michigan should be ashamed of how its treated its veterans and Kent county in particular is responsible for a lot of the suffering those guys have to go thru every day.