Navajo Warriors Home would be first for veterans

WINDOW ROCK

Navajo Nation veterans may soon have a nursing home to call their own.

If a bill (No. 0048-22) is approved by the Navajo Nation Council and President Jonathan Nez, $29.2 million in Sihasin Funds will be allocated for the construction and first year of operation for a 60-bed veterans nursing home.

Called the Navajo Warriors Home, it would be located in Chinle on Navajoland Nursing Home Inc. property.

“The service of Navajo veterans has brought high honor to the Navajo Nation and to the Navajo people and their communities,” states the bill. “As Navajo veterans become elderly, they require access to quality care and reliable services.”

The Navajo Warriors Home would be built next to the Dr. Guy Gorman Senior Care Home, the only Arizona center licensed for Medicare/Medicaid services on the Navajo Nation.

Under the current leadership of Director Wayne Claw, Navajoland Nursing Home has 50-plus years of experience in elder health care and has operated the 80-bed Dr. Guy Gorman Senior Care Home, formerly known as the Chinle Nursing Home, since 1971.

“As we move forward as a Nation, we must stop and put the words into action to support those who have served the United States representing their families, heritage, culture and Diné people,” Jonathan Hale, Navajoland board vice president, said about the bill. “This legislation is a testament that through ideas and investments, other large communities on the Nation can plan and establish facilities.”

In 2015, Navajo Housing Authority provided $250,000 to the Navajoland home for project design for the veterans nursing home by Dyron Murphy Architects out of Albuquerque, so it is construction ready.

“When you look through this legislation you see the effort that’s been made to put for design and plans, site surveys, clearances,” sponsor Carl Slater, vice chairman of the Health, Education, and Human Services Committee, told the Resources and Development Committee last week. RDC approved the bill unanimously.

Slater said it is his hope that the project will be a template for the construction of more nursing homes across the Navajo Nation with the goal of having at least one in every agency.

“I think all of us have family members or friends or constituents who have to expend costly amounts of their own personal funding to be situated either off the reservation for health care or for long-term care,” he said.

Currently, Navajo veterans have to leave their families and travel off reservation to the nearest Veterans Administration facility for health care.

If a Navajo veteran requires a nursing home due to health or age, there are no veteran-specific nursing homes on the Navajo Nation, and the only solution is for the veteran to be admitted to a VA nursing home often hundreds of miles away.

Furthermore, admissions are contingent on space availability and priorities set by the VA.

“The current locations of veterans homes pose a financial burden on families, as drive-time is very long,” said Linda Onesalt, Diné Sa’anii Sila’otsooi. “I feel having a veteran home within the Four Sacred Mountains of Dine’Tah will improve the quality of life for those veterans who will be there, including their families.”

‘A step forward’

Slater said the Navajo Warriors Home would provide a healthy, safe option for veterans who would like to stay on Navajo to receive care.

“We need to help the veterans,” Claw said. “We talk about it every four years. Politically, we do it all the time, with nothing to show for it. I think it’s like that nationwide. Hopefully if I can help them, it’s a step forward for everybody else.”

Vern Lee, co-commander of the Northern Navajo Veterans Organization, commented that as a sovereign Nation, Navajo should have a place for veterans that need nursing, health and mental health care.

“Our veterans are forgotten Navajo warriors and that needs to change,” said Lee. “Let’s start by establishing the Navajo Warriors home and make a paradigm shift to care for our veterans.”

The Central Navajo Veterans Organization and Low Mountain Veterans Organization have also submitted resolutions supporting the bill.

Of the $29.2 million in the Navajo Warriors Home expenditure plan, $19.3 million is allocated for construction, $6.8 million for project management/utility costs, and startup service costs of $3.2 million for the first year.

The Navajo Department of Health and HEHSC would provide administrative oversight for the plan.

Slater said he hopes that if the Navajo Nation can put up funding for the Navajo Warriors Home, leadership can go to Congress and state of Arizona to request that they make contributions to offset the cost of the Navajo Warrior Home.

In addition to Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements, Slater also hopes the Indian Health Service and the VA can provide long-term care funding and additional health care services to sustain operations of the facility past the first year, including through P.L. 93-638 contracts.

Wayne said, by law, Navajo veterans and nursing homes are entitled to receive adequate health care resources.

“If we get the ’638 funding, veterans won’t have to pay to stay here,” said Claw. “To me, veterans should not be paying to stay in a nursing home.”

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