PULASKI CO., Va. – The Pulaski County Adult Day Service Center provides veterans and the elderly a place to get out of their homes and avoid ending up on the streets. But recently, some attendees have received troubling letters.
Linda Davis, executive director of the Pulaski Adult Day Service Center, said, “Our veterans here that have been qualified for five days a week in adult care. The families have been sent letters from the VA saying that they will be cut back to two days a week.”
Patrick Parah, a veteran and employee of the Pulaski Adult Day Service Center, said, “I can’t fathom why they would ever come up with something like this. To save a penny here or a dollar there.”
DD Munsey, whose father attends the Pulaski Adult Day Service Center, said, “It gives him something to do. It gets him out of the house. It allows him to socialize with other people besides just myself.”
The change will go into effect next year. It would leave thousands of veterans with dementia and other conditions without the support they require daily.
“It makes me very angry,” Munsey said. “Nineteen, twenty years old he didn’t choose to go. He was told to go and he didn’t back off from that at all. And now that he’s home and he’s dealing with all of these things that he experienced, now it feels like they’re turning their backs on them.”
Families of attendees and staff at the center are also concerned.
“Even though I’m only three days a week here, they’re like family. You get really close to them,” Parah said. “And for them to have to sit at home by themselves — I don’t know if you know the statistics on how many vets we lose a day. We lose 22 vets a day to suicide.”
“If you’ve never been there, then you don’t understand,” Davis said. “And the stress will kill you. It causes burnout, and the veteran ends up in a nursing home and usually dies soon after.”
To assist the Pulaski Adult Day Service & Fall Prevention Center, you can find their website here.