Veterans Care Today: Naomi Rodda Of MPTF (Motion Picture & Television Fund) On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans Over The Past Five Years
An Interview With Eric Pines
Setting limits and boundaries is healthy and often necessary.
As social workers, we often must model for our clients, many of whom live in chaos. We owe it to them to create structure while also empowering them to individuate. Boundaries and limits can feel harsh or withholding, but they are actually freeing for both our clients and ourselves.
The daily headlines remind us of how countries around the world care or do not care for their military service members. How does the United States hold up with regard to how it cares for its veterans? We know in the past questions have been raised about the VA system, but it seems that a corner has been turned and veterans’ care has improved. How exactly has the VA system been improved? How does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries? What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes? To address these questions, we are talking to successful physicians, healthcare workers, veterans, or other VA employees and officials who can share stories and insights from their experience about the state of veterans’ care today and how the US has improved its care for veterans over the last five years.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Naomi Rodda.
Naomi Rodda, LCSW, is the Director of Home & Community Based Services at MPTF (Motion Picture & Television Fund). She is a licensed social worker and federally accredited VA claims agent who helps U.S. Veterans secure their rightful benefits.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and a bit about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was “that person” whom people came to with their struggles. I stayed up many nights in college, listening to people’s stories, secrets, feelings. I knew I wanted to help people. I wasn’t sure what it was called. I majored in psychology, but I realized I did not want to be a psychologist. I was not interested in talking with people in a vacuum for 45 minutes and then saying, “Our time is up.” I was (and still am) deathly afraid of needles, so medical school and psychiatry was out. So, I researched and found this discipline called social work.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Probably attending the 2021 Oscars to accept the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (along with another 99 of my MPTF colleagues) for the 100 years of service that MPTF has provided to the film & television industry. I’m one fourth of the way to my EGOT!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I am a huge admirer of the late composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and often find meaning in his lyrics. I always go back to this particular set of lyrics from his masterpiece, “Sunday in the Park with George.”
“Stop worrying where you’re going. Move on…
If you can know where you’re going, you’ve gone.
Just keep moving on.”
I think we all have periods of our life where we feel stuck. During those times, we have existential questions about the life we are living — personally and professionally. We wonder if we have chosen the right path for ourselves and those who depend on us. These particular lyrics remind me to keep moving forward, even if I am not sure where the path will lead me and what will be at the end.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
My passion project at MPTF is our Veterans Benefits Assistance program. Our goal is to assist veterans and surviving spouses of all conflicts in securing pension benefits. Financial stress is one of the leading causes of adverse health outcomes, including self-harm and death by suicide. As such, financial stability is considered one of the leading social determinants of health.
This project continues to evolve from its humble beginnings. We recently crossed the $1.5 million threshold in retroactive benefits secured for our clients. I consider it a new project because I am continually learning something new every day. It is challenging, labor-intensive, frustrating, and one of the most rewarding and exciting things I have ever done in my 20+ year career as a social worker. It has taught me patience, perseverance, tenacity, diplomacy, and the power of one.
I do not just think it will help people. I know it will help people because it already has.
How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?
Excellent health-care providers are person-centered and approach their patients/clients holistically. They are active listeners who do not focus only on the “presenting problem” or “chief complaint” that has brought the client to their office. They are curious and seek to understand their clients beyond their diagnoses.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. Based on your experience can you please share three recent improvements to veterans care that you are really pleased about?
- See below for the technological improvements that have reduced barriers to care.
- VA is now allowing veterans who may not yet be service-connected for mental health issues to access treatment while their claims are being decided.
In contrast, can you highlight three areas of veterans care that still need improvement? What would you suggest needs to be done to address those challenges?
- There needs to be a greater emphasis on collaboration between the Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Benefits Administration. These entities seem to operate in silos, which fragments not just physical health care, but social determinants of health, including financial stability.
- As noted above, financial stability is a social determinant of health. The service-connected disability claims process, which is the primary source of lifetime financial benefits for veterans who have been physically injured or developed mental health conditions during service, is highly stressful and is often dragged out over months and even years. It is not uncommon for mental health claims to take 6, 12, even 18 months to decide, while the VA “verifies” a veteran’s stressor through its own research of a veteran’s service treatment record and military personnel file. We know that reporting mental health issues is discouraged in service, and actually can result in administrative discharge. Therefore, mental health treatment often is not found in service treatment records or personnel files, and claims are subsequently denied. It is a terrible Catch 22. Culture change within the military is the best way to address these challenges — easier said than done.
- Older frail veterans and their surviving spouses are eligible for a pension benefit based on care needs, war time service, and level of assets. This benefit is meant to assist these older veterans and surviving spouses to remain in the least institutional setting for as long as possible by supplementing the cost of in-home caregivers or residential living facilities. However, there is tremendous paperwork burden on these physically frail and cognitively impaired veterans and their families. Applying for these benefits without the assistance of a knowledgeable veterans’ service officer usually results in denials. However, most veterans’ service officers do not take appointments and only see clients first-come, first-serve. Most physically frail and cognitively impaired older veterans and surviving spouses cannot manage to be at these service providers first thing in the morning (often before 7am) and then potentially wait for several hours to insure an appointment. How to address this challenge? Allow veterans over the age of 65 to schedule an appointment!
From your perspective how does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries?
Note to editorial team: I do not have the appropriate experience or frame of reference to answer this question.
What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes?
Telehealth for certain medical appointments is a game-changer. Veterans who live in rural areas, who have barriers to access reliable transportation, who are too frail to leave their homes, etc. can receive essential care that does not require an in-office visit.
The E-Benefits portal allows veterans to proactively manage both their health care and benefits. It provides real-time updates regarding benefits claims, allows for medical appointment scheduling, online enrollment in programs, etc.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
- I don’t know is a perfectly acceptable answer.
Our clients often look to us to have the right answer to solve their problems and relieve their pain and suffering. However, we are not all powerful and all knowing. When we truly do not know, or when the work actually is to help the client to realize the answer with our guidance, I don’t know is not just the right answer. It is the only answer. It humanizes us.
- Setting limits and boundaries is healthy and often necessary.
As social workers, we often must model for our clients, many of whom live in chaos. We owe it to them to create structure while also empowering them to individuate. Boundaries and limits can feel harsh or withholding, but they are actually freeing for both our clients and ourselves.
- We are not that powerful.
As social workers, we often feel overly responsible for our clients’ well-being. We worry about saying the right thing, doing the right thing, making the perfect intervention, keeping them safe, keeping them from self-harm. We are not that powerful. We support them; we guide them; we hope for them; sometimes we pray for them. However, our clients have agency and choice and the right to self-determination. When we parentify them, we take that away. And that is far more harmful in the long run.
- If you think you are doing enough self-care, you are not doing enough self-care.
Self-explanatory. This work is not for the faint of heart.
- “To Do” Lists are a suggestion only.
- I start every day with one and the best intentions. I have come to learn that if I cross one or two items off per day, I need to consider that a hard fought win.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Talk Less. Listen More. Simple but so needed in our culture.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can keep with me by following me on Instagram @nar_for_vets and MPTF’s social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter- @mptf.
Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.
Veterans Care Today: Naomi Rodda Of MPTF (Motion Picture & Television Fund) On How The US Has… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.