Office advises vets

Veterans’ Day has passed for many people, but one company operating locally is keeping its observations going throughout the month. How? By offering free help for someone who served.

Homewatch Caregivers, an in-home care company based out of Denver, is offering 20 hours worth of free in-home care and other services for a disabled U.S. military veteran who signs up. The Huntington Beach branch is actively reaching out to promote the program, through this week, which is Veterans Awareness Week, and beyond.

It’s not just about the company’s own services, Huntington Beach branch owner Bob Soto said.

“We can advise them how to get financial help how to get in-home care from the VA,” he said. “We try to point them in the right way.”

While veterans from all wars are eligible for the program, it’s mostly World War II and Korean War vets who have signed up with Homewatch, Soto said. It’s those elderly veterans who are the most in need of extra services, he said.

“Right now we have about 20 Korean War and World War II veterans” getting services from the company, he said. “We have some Vietnam veterans signed up. Those people are starting to get into that age, turning 60, where they’re going to need more help.”

Veterans from more recent wars aren’t yet lining up for his company’s program, he said. Even Gulf War vets haven’t yet had the self-sufficiency problems that bring people to seek this kind of help. Customer Maureen Fleming’s 81-year-old mother, Joan, served in the Navy in World War II, but had been getting all her medical care from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for decades. But as her health problems piled up, it became harder and harder to care for her at home.

“Always in the past, I could help my mom with everything,” she said. “But since I work full-time and live 10 miles away, she needed much more than I could give her.”

The company found a federal program that could help pay for care, and now Joan Fleming is living comfortably on eight hours of care a day.

“I really don’t think she would be around today” without the help, Fleming said.

For more information, call (714) 596-7157, or go to www.homewatchcaregivers.com.