Thank you.

Your comment gives a well-thought-out solution to a complicated problem. I hope someone reads it who could implement it. Hopefully, Steve will get your comments to someone who is in a position to make the necessary changes.

Based on what I know about veterans’ hospitals, nursing homes, mental institutions associated with public hospitals, small-scale institutions for mentally-ill people, and group homes, I would say that the smaller and more “private” they are, the worse things get. The big institutions tend to be impersonal, but the small ones are often owned, operated and manned by people who are in it only for the money. Because there aren’t as many outsiders coming and going, there is a lot more opportunity for mismanagement and abuse.

We should also be careful about assuming that “community” care will be better. What community? Houses in single-family neighborhoods? That is not a good idea for the neighborhood.

But, there is a way to make things less impersonal and still have small-scale atmosphere: take a nice-sized section of land somewhere a little ways away from the hustle and bustle of the world, design an institution around a central common green (trees, grass, walkways, benches, picnic tables, maybe a duck pond) so that the administration office and common rooms are separate from the residences and the residences are like regular houses for maybe 4 to 8 residents and their primary caretakers.

The buildings should be designed to look like real houses, most economical and restful would be Old California Spanish Style. If they were made from adobe using modern building techniques they would be inexpensive to keep cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It would be a pleasure to be around beautiful buildings, and people who are broken in body and mind and spirit need both man-made beauty and the natural world. Don’t let’s have an argument about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Communist worker housing is ugly no matter who designs it.

The grounds could include a native botanical garden & arboretum. Places like that attract birds and other wildlife which provide a lot of interest to people who need rest and mild recreation. Watching birds is actually good for you!

You could have a common vegetable & herb garden so patients and residents can benefit from the outdoors, being involved in something beneficial and productive, and producing some of the food they eat. You might even want to have a few chickens for fresh eggs and some goats for healthy milk products. You could have some fruit trees, too. People can learn how to make pies, preserves and pastries from the output.

Therapeutic activities could and should be more real-world.

There should be a chapel on the grounds where services for Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and other religions can be held. There could be folk-dancing parties where the patients and residents and staff can invite their family and friends to come and join the fun (all you need are recordings and space inside or outside depending on the weather–but you could get some patients who play acoustic guitars and other instruments to provide the music). The food could be ethnic and prepared by the patients.

On holidays, there can be similar occasions. For veterans, a Veterans’ Day memorial service, military bands, speeches by dignitaries, barbecue, and so forth.

There can be a library on the grounds to which people can contribute books. There could be a reading club. There could be an annual journal that publishes the memoires of the patients who contribute. There can be an oral history program that allows students from colleges and staff from history museums to come and talk to the veterans before they are too old to remember.

There could be a History Club that invites a guest speaker to come every month. I mean, there are so many things that could be done–most that would NOT cost taxpayers money, but could be done by volunteers.

I don’t really have any idea how much money we “should” spend on veterans who need medical care or other assistance. But, if we are going to squander money on run-of-the-mill services, we might just as well spend the same amount on something really wonderful that will bring happiness to the veterans and the people who care for them.

The problem I see, however, is trying to “privatize” these services. Privatization is not, as many people believe, something that is done by the private sector, for the private sector, with private sector money. It is something done by a private sector for profit company or non-profit organization, for private sector beneficiaries, with public money. This is a recipe for corruption–you know “jobs for the boys” and so forth, and they are never properly supervised or held as accountable as a public institution. Better to have a public institution do these things so there is more oversight and accountability. If this is an essential service of government, then we should act accordingly.

Remember those hippy maggots we protected in their cribs?

Now they and their greasy spawn are defiling our fellow vets.

Disgusting