Helpful Airmen Aid Homeless Vets

Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Carl Clegg | Members of the 108th Medical Group, New Jersey Air National Guard, provide blood pressure checks to homeless veterans at the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Stand Down Day at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center in Newark, N.J., on Oct. 10, 2015. The stand down day allows the veterans to get much-needed care and services from a wide array of state agencies and nonprofit organizations. Members of the 108th Medical Group have been providing care at stand down days for more than 10 years and were providing blood pressure checks as a means to have conversations with the veterans about their overall health and wellness. Stand down is a military term referring to exhausted combat units that were removed from the battlefront to a place of security and safety for rest and recovery. Today, stand downs are grass roots, community-based intervention programs to help veterans battle life on the streets. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Carl Clegg, Released)  

NEWARK, NJ, UNITED STATES

10.10.2015

Story by Master Sgt. Carl Clegg    

108th Wing

Members of the 108th Medical Group have been providing care at Stand Downs for more than 10 years and are providing blood pressure checks as a means to have conversations with the veterans about their overall health and wellness. “We service [the veterans] doing blood pressure checks and we ask them about their health history,” said, 1st Lt. Sara Kucharski, registered nurse. “We are more of a counselor than a provider of medical services,” Kucharski added. Kucharski has been volunteering at the Newark stand down event for the past three years and has been a nurse with the 108th Wing for about the same time.

This year’s participation may have been life saving for one veteran Kucharski encountered.
The veteran had not seen a medical provider in a few years and his blood pressure was extremely high. Kucharski and her team had him transported to the emergency room at the nearby Veterans Administration hospital for monitoring and continued care.
The Veteran promised Kucharski that he would use the incident as a wake up call and get seen by a doctor more frequently.

“I’m homeless right now,” said Blaise Jones, a U.S. Navy veteran from Newark, N.J. “I’m here to
see what kind of help they can offer.” After getting his blood pressure checked by 1st Lt. Stan Pang, Jones learned that it was a little higher than normal and that he needed to continue with frequent checks, exercise more and possibly modify his diet if it says high. Pang took the opportunity to educate many veterans like Jones about the risks of high blood pressure, including stroke and heart attack, and how to combat those risks with diet and exercise.

The one thing that stood out to Kucharski the most was the care being provided by the many organizations to the veterans and, in turn, the appreciation the veterans showed back to those organizations. The day included a hot lunch provided to the hundreds of veteran attendees by Soldiers from the New Jersey National Guard’s 2nd of the 113th Infantry.

Stand Down is a military term referring to exhausted combat units that were removed from the
battlefront to a place of security and safety for rest and recovery. Today, Stand Downs are grass roots, community-based intervention program to help veterans’ battle life on the streets.

• Date Taken: 10.10.2015
• Date Posted: 07.15.2016 14:43
• Story ID: 204113
• Location: NEWARK, NJ, US