Trauma-informed design constructs an environment that promotes healing and evokes psychological and physical safety, connectivity, empowerment, self-worth and happiness. The VA takes trauma-informed design to heart, incorporating patient-centered technology and features throughout its facilities and patient rooms.

Each year, the VA serves more than 27,000 veterans with spinal cord injuries (SCI), making it the world’s largest health system providing lifelong SCI care. In many cases, veterans with spinal cord injuries are long-term residents. These veterans may stay in an SCI unit for months or even years. Their daily living and care environment must be conducive to promoting each veteran’s independence and quality of life.

To provide this personalized experience, VA hospitals are intentional about the design of the SCI unit and patient rooms. This commitment includes the use of eVideon’s Vibe Health Engage, Digital Signage and Digital Whiteboard solutions with four specific goals in mind.

Key Considerations for Trauma-Informed Design in Smart Patient Rooms

The team at eVideon understands the basic components of creating an exceptional experience for veterans and their families. In working with the VA to design and implement smart room technology, we considered critical traits that adhere to the principles of trauma-informed design.

Flexibility
It is imperative that the design of patient rooms is flexible to support specialized experiences for patients and their families. Specifically for SCI patients who often require ongoing assistance and dedicated care, smart patient rooms should give veterans much-desired autonomy and empowerment to control their environment. Here are two examples.

Interactive TVs with autonomous control units allow veterans to control their room environment, watch TV, engage with educational videos, order meals, and more. The system is also integrated with assistive devices such as sip-and-puff, eye gaze, and voice controls.

Our Clinical Solutions Director spoke on a recent webinar, saying, “Spinal cord injury patients lose a lot of control in their lives… they usually have to call a staff member to control the TV. The ability to manage something as simple as changing a TV station was an awesome experience for these patients and their families.”

Consistency
Messaging, communication and education for VA patients should be consistent and relevant. For example, educational training in the SCI unit includes topics such as healthy eating, addiction, mental health and suicide prevention. Furthermore, the clinical team is equipped with a workflow process to follow up training units with in-person patient conversations.

Engagement
Veterans depend on their families as crucial members of their extended care team. Connectivity, a tenet of trauma-informed design, helps patients feel supported throughout their care journey. The VA equips family members to support ongoing care, whether long-term in an SCI unit or in post-acute healthcare environments.

Vibe Health Engage TV promotes activities that both patients and their families can participate in. This includes learning and educational videos to help families provide ongoing care and support for their loved ones.

Recognition
Showing appreciation and gratitude for veterans is extremely powerful in their extended well-being and overall care. In trauma-informed design, this directly impacts psychological safety and a sense of self-worth. At the VA, consistent messages of recognition are purposefully built into the design of the patient room environment.

Using Vibe Health Engage TV and Insight digital whiteboards, patient rooms and living spaces include the veterans’ branches of service and messages of gratefulness. One particular VA facility uses Vibe Health Banner digital signage to display custom videos of staff expressing their personal appreciation for veterans’ service during Veterans Week.

These four traits – flexibility, consistency, engagement and recognition – lay the groundwork for safer and more patient-centered care environments for our Veterans, their families, clinicians and staff. One that supports their ongoing care, empowerment and healing. We are proud to serve these patients who selflessly have served our nation.

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This week the US House of Representatives passed a bill giving veterans access to no-cost contraception through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The legislation passed with bipartisan support 245–181.

This bill intends to give Veterans access to birth control like all other Americans who have enjoyed free access to family planning services since the 2008 Affordable Care Act.

Green spoke on the House floor in opposition to the legislation. The speech is filled with incorrect statements and misinformation. No one is surprised anymore by Green’s nonsensical rants. She has mocked victims of the Parkland shooting and blamed California wildfires on Jewish space lasers.

Green even compared wearing a mask to prevent the spread of a respiratory virus during a pandemic to the Holocaust stating, “We can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany.”

Representative Green’s statements about Plan B and emergency contraception are simply incorrect and ill-informed. Here is what she said.

Green states, “contraception stops a woman from becoming pregnant. The Plan B pill kills a baby in the womb once a woman is already pregnant.” This statement is entirely false.

Plan B is the brand name of one form of emergency contraception. Emergency birth control prevents pregnancy and is not an abortion medication.

RU486 (Mifepristone) is a medication used to induce abortion. Abortion medication terminates a pregnancy and is not a form of emergency contraception.

Plan B and RU486 are not the same medication. One has nothing to do with the other.

Emergency contraception (EC) contains progesterone, a hormone produced naturally by the ovaries. It is often called “the morning after” pill. Common brands, such as Plan B, are available over the counter without a prescription.

Emergency contraception is formulated with a high dose of progesterone. This hormonal blast disrupts, delays, or prevents ovulation. When people take Plan B within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, it reduces the risk of pregnancy by 70–80%. If a woman is already pregnant and takes Plan B, then nothing happens.

Emergency contraception is called Plan B and not Plan A for a reason. It reduces the risk of pregnancy and does not cause an abortion.

Here is a chart outlining the hormonal changes that occur during a menstrual cycle. The hormones must follow this particular pattern for the ovary to release an egg successfully.

Plan B emergency contraception sends a shock to the system through a high level of progesterone to disrupt or delay ovulation.

The high dose of progesterone in Plan B also thickens the cervical mucus creating a toxic environment for sperm. 

Plan B will not terminate an already established pregnancy. Plan B progesterone does not cause abortion.

Emergency contraception decreases the risk of pregnancy by inhibiting ovulation. If a person is already pregnant and conception has occurred, then Plan B will do nothing. It is too late for emergency contraception.

Taking emergency contraception after one is already pregnant will only add more progesterone to support the developing fetus.

Progesterone can be helpful in certain high-risk pregnancies. Obstetrician gynecologists and infertility doctors often give extra Progesterone to help prevent miscarriages.

Marjorie Taylor Green also stated, “Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act is not contraception, it’s providing with taxpayer dollars the ability for women to have an abortion.”

Once again, Taylor is wrong. Birth control methods do not work by causing abortions. In addition, Federal law bars the use of Medicaid funds for abortions through the Hyde Amendment.

Green got one thing right when she stated, “Words matter and their meanings need to be exactly clear.” 

I agree. I wish Green had paid attention in her junior high health class and learned the basics about human reproduction and contraception. 

The post Marjorie Taylor Green Needs a Primer on How Birth Control Works appeared first on Medika Life.

The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Metrocare is a non-profit mental health clinic serving veterans and their families throughout North Texas. The Addison clinic previously offered couples and group therapy to active duty servicemen and women. This expansion of services announcement opens the door for any active-duty personnel to seek individual treatment.

Veterans and active-duty members face a variety of potential mental health challenges. Like civilians, Covid-19 has exacerbated these life stressors.

Metrocare providers have been offering North Texan veterans evidence-based care since 2016 for a wide range of mental health challenges. Help is available for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. Other families seek help for adjustment issues, anger management, and grief counseling. The clinic also provides therapy for service members struggling with family issues and relationship problems. The family-friendly environment also provides care for children.

The Cohen Clinic at Metrocare also offers case management services to connect veteran families to community resources and services.

The Addison clinic is nearing its fifth anniversary serving the community. This office is one of the original sites of the now nationwide Cohen Veterans Network (CVN). Military families now can get the help they need at one of the 19 Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinics across the country.

Clinic Director Dr. Amy M. Williams highlights the need to provide mental health care throughout the continuum of military service, stating, “By including the individual active duty service members, we can begin to address problems closer to their onset instead of waiting until after service discharge. Providing timely and effective mental health care strengthens our military and, ultimately, our veteran population.”

The Cohen Clinic is partnered locally with Metrocare, the largest behavioral health services provider in Dallas County. Together, they have served over 2,000 North Texas veterans and family members.

To reach more people in need, The Cohen clinic builds on existing partnerships with the Department of Defense, the VA, and veteran service organizations (VSOs) throughout North Texas. The VA offers specific tools to help veterans cope with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. They acknowledge making the transition to civilian life was already difficult. The pandemic adds to the stress and mental toll.

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the Department of Defense to find community-based care for veterans if DoD could not arrange an internal referral. The Cohen clinic fills the void for our service members making the transition to civilian life.

The Covid-19 did not stop the Cohen Clinic at Metrocare from providing mental health treatment access. Telehealth and virtual care access continued through the CVN Telehealth platform. Virtual therapy options expanded access for service members in various military installations across the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.

As in-person visits resume the clinic plans to restart its Military Family Clinic Classes to help provide holistic and comprehensive care to the entire family.

Improving access is an essential step in caring for those who serve in the Us military. Data from 2012 showed veterans reported severe psychological distress more often than nonveterans, but less than 5% report the distress. Public health experts now prioritize the well-being of military personnel and their families.

Any active-duty service member is eligible for care with a Tricare referral.

For more information, check the company website: Cohen Veterans Network news release.

Learn more about the Cohen clinic’s mission and values here.

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