Veterans with special needs find relief in new foster home
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Veterans in Harker Heights have new alternative when it comes to nursing home care.
Close to Stillhouse Lake, the home provides 24-hour care specifically tailored to veterans with special medical needs.
Having spent four years in the U.S. Navy, 57-year-old Virginia Hernandez needed a peaceful place where her medical needs could be cared for.
Fearing that living with her sisters was cumbersome to the family, Hernandez wants to find a home of her own.
"I know that I wasn't a bother to them, but I felt like I was because I had to ask for rides to go to the store to go shopping,” she said.
Once she took a tour of the facility, she found her new home.
"I fell in love with it,” Hernandez said. “I said I want to live here."
Residents pay about $1,800 a month to live at the home. Along with rent, that money provides a personal caregiver available 24 hours a day.
"It's like I'm an extra pair of hands for them,” caregiver Anusia Johnson said. “I want to feel like that's their refrigerator and that's their cabinets—just like if they were to go into the kitchen at home."
Only three residents live in each of the new homes. Veterans Affairs officials carefully select residents that have a good chemistry with one another in their new long term home.
It's an alternative to nursing home care that Foster Home Coordinator Tiffany Love has been working on for a while
"Homes like this are a dream come true for me to be able to offer something different to our veterans,” Love said.
VA officials are looking to establish more Medical Foster Homes in Texas, but first they will need more qualified caregivers. If you’re interested in becoming one, contact Tiffany Love at (254) 742-4927.