Veterans Reducing Isolation During COVID 19

This book consists of the slides and transcription of Jeff Jewell's and Mark Decker's presentation to The Viet Nam Veterans of the Diablo Valley on March 3, 2022.

"I do want to say, first of all, it's an honor being here tonight. And I know that everyone in this room, like myself as a veteran, that you served not only in your country, but I want to thank every one of you because I know every one of you continues to serve, because veterans do, especially combat veterans. They come back they have families; they have a job. They pay taxes. They're public servants. They're teachers. They're educators. They're businessmen and they give back to the community. So I want to thank all of you for not only serving your country, but I know that each and every one of you continues to serve. And that's what I want to thank you for. So give yourself a round of applause.

I'm going to do a little presentation tonight. I was recently after I retired, I was contacted by Yolo hospice. They were having a lot of difficulty with veterans in their program. And not only were these veterans in hospice and they're dying, but the social workers and the staff and the veterans... We're all struggling with how to deal with isolation with veterans because veterans have some really We're going to discuss tonight. They have some really unique issues. So we're going to talk a little bit tonight about how some of the veterans can cope with the isolation that's brought on by the post-pandemic world.

And I got a little bit of help tonight. Because part of the section of this is we're going to talk a little bit about pets and how pets can impact and help reduce blood pressure, help reduce isolation, depression. And I want to introduce you to Matt Decker and Larson. Once you come up here and when I get that little section, I'm going to have Matt talk a little bit about service dogs and how pets can help and what we call medication without side effects." Jeffrey Jewell 03MAR2022