VA Telehealth improves access to nutrition services

Diet is an vital aspect of a nutritious lifestyle. Nourishment and Food Services plans made available by VA can assistance with bodyweight management and concentrate on health and fitness situations relevant to nourishment, these kinds of as diabetes, coronary heart illness, higher cholesterol and renal disease.

Accessing those people applications is simpler than at any time due to telehealth engineering, this kind of as VA Movie Connect, VA’s safe videoconferencing app.

Kari Mularcik, chief of Nutrition Solutions at Central Ohio VA, has witnessed the positive effects of virtual nutrition care. Quite a few Veterans have joined these specialized diet programs due to the fact they are handy. They might not have joined if they had to check out a VA facility, but the virtual element makes them obtainable.

Only 10{b574a629d83ad7698d9c0ca2d3a10ad895e8e51aa97c347fc42e9508f0e4325d} of appointments are in man or woman

Today, every VA facility presents virtual appointments. At Central Ohio VA, only 10{b574a629d83ad7698d9c0ca2d3a10ad895e8e51aa97c347fc42e9508f0e4325d} of nourishment appointments are in person. This has opened the doorway to Veterans who price the accessibility and advantage of a movie appointment.

“Instead of taking a few or 4 hours off do the job to arrive and see us, they can take a crack at get the job done and use 30 minutes for a virtual appointment,” explained Mularcik.

It is also a gain for a lot of facilities that might not have the bodily place for so quite a few in-human being appointments for the duration of the day.

Central Ohio VA in Columbus available VA Video Hook up visits just before the COVID-19 pandemic. It is specifically beneficial to Veterans who stay in rural spots far from the VA facility. But Mularcik reported the variety of Veterans who use VA telehealth has elevated tremendously since 2020.

Telehealth programs for nutrition care

Apart from video clip visits, VA delivers telehealth programs to support Veterans with nutrition treatment:

• Shift! is a national bodyweight administration method that aids Veterans set body weight decline, acquire or maintenance plans. Veterans can meet virtually in a group placing with VA suppliers.
• The Household Telehealth plan monitors Veterans’ health information remotely by connected products. These devices consist of action trackers, blood strain and glucose monitors, smartwatches and more.
• Healthful Teaching Kitchen is a virtual cooking course that demonstrates Veterans simple competencies to assistance them maintain a nutritious diet plan. These lessons also aid Veterans with precise nutrition requirements, which includes people with serious ailments such as diabetes and heart ailment.

Learn much more about virtual treatment selections for Veterans.