Suzanne Gordon - "Wounds of War: How the VA Delivers Health, Healing, and Hope to the Nation's Veterans" - January 10th

Time Tested Books

is pleased to present

Suzanne Gordon

reading / discussion / Q&A

Wounds of War:

How the VA Delivers Health, Healing,

and Hope to the Nation's Veterans

Thursday, January 10th, 7:00pm

*Co-hosted by Democratic Socialists of America, Sacramento

In Wounds of War, award-winning journalist Suzanne Gordon gives voice to veterans and VA caregivers. . . .

U.S. intervention abroad and military service at home has left 9 million Americans heavily dependent on the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Their “wounds of war” are treated by the largest hospital system in the country—one that has come under fire from critics in the White House, on Capitol Hill, and in the nation’s media. The resulting public debate about the future of veterans’ health care has pitted VHA patients and their care-givers against federal policy-makers who believe that former military personnel would be better served by private sector providers.
This high stakes controversy led Suzanne Gordon, an award-winning journalist and author, to seek insight from veterans and their families, VHA staff and administrators, veterans’ organizations, and proponents of privatization. Gordon spent five years closely observing how the VHA cares for patients suffering from complex service-related injuries, both physical and mental.

Gordon describes how the VHA—tasked with a challenging patient population—does a better job than private sector institutions offering primary and geriatric care, mental health and home care services, and support for patients nearing the end of life. The VHA, Gordon argues, is an integrated health care system worthy of wider emulation, rather than piecemeal dismantling for the benefit of private contractors. In the unusual culture of solidarity between patients and providers fostered by the VHA, the author finds a working model for higher quality health care for all Americans that is not based on “for-profit” medicine.

“Wounds of War highlights what the average American rarely gets to see in the news media but what many veterans know first-hand: day in and day out—and with little fanfare—the Veterans Health Administration provides high quality, patient-centered care to millions of our nation’s veterans.”

— U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

SUZANNE GORDON is co-editor of a Cornell University Press series on The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work. She has written or co-authored many books, most recently The Battle for Veterans’ Healthcare and Beyond The Checklist.

  

This event is FREE & all are welcome