The state Legislature is now taking up bills that would change the governance and oversight structures of the two state veteran homes in our state, including our beloved Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke.
The bills clearly illustrate that people in government over the years have failed the staff and the residents at the home.
We have been calling for real reforms in how our state veteran homes are both governed and managed since we learned about the horrific deaths of 77 veterans at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke. In addition, at least 30 veterans also died while under the care of the Soldiers’ Home in Chelsea.
We certainly agree that the state must now act and get it right, but we are disheartened that the conversation so far on Beacon Hill has been about further consolidating the control of our state’s two veteran homes under the Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS) and, incredibly, with eliminating each of the homes two governing bodies, the boards of trustees.
As currently crafted, these bills, if passed by the Legislature, would be business as usual – placing control of our veterans further under bureaucrats in Boston with a structure that doesn’t understand our region or our historic ties to the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke.
If the tragedies that occurred in Holyoke and Chelsea have taught us anything, it is that DVS failed miserably in keeping our veterans safe. This is why we feel the medical care of veterans at both institutions should be placed under the auspices of the Department of Public Health where the expertise to deliver humanitarian, compassionate and complicated management of medical care is well established rather than continue to fall under DVS, a governmental agency never designed to provide medical services. This obvious need is clearly demonstrated by the rate of COVID death at DVS facilities being nine times that of the state’s public health hospitals.
Our coalition has asked the Board of Trustees at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke to take a stand. We have asked them to support our recommendations:
First, place the two veteran homes under the supervision of the DPH Bureau of
Hospitals, where they belong, not under an agency such as DVS, which clearly has no ability to properly run a long-term care facility.
Second, give more strength, not less, to a board of trustees at each home to include family representation. Give each board of trustees true local autonomy and appoint members who are nominated from the veteran community and who sincerely represent the diversity of the community and who understand the interests of the veterans it serves.
The recently introduced legislation may serve as a start point for discussion; however, we look to the Joint Committee on Veteran and Federal Affairs to implement true reform and call on the Board of Trustees at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke to support our recommendations.
We also call on our fellow citizens to appeal to their elected officials and to the trustees for the same.
John Paradis is a member of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Coalition.
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