By James V. Horrigan
Staff Writer
It’s easy to pass by the Maine Veterans Home (MVH) on Route 1 without giving much thought to what goes on inside, but the approach of Veterans Day provides the perfect opportunity to find out.
MVH-Scarborough opened in 1990; there are an estimated 150 employees, including medical, administrative, housekeeping, maintenance and dietary staff at the 150-bed facility.
“We really couldn’t do it without our volunteers,” said Bonnie Stewart, RN, one of the facility’s two admissions coordinators. At last count there were more than 100 area residents who donate their time and skills to the residents of MVH-Scarborough, Stewart said.
One of them is Jim O’Brien of Westbrook.
“I’m just giving back; I figure I owe these vets. Besides, it gives me something to do,” said O’Brien, a disabled Vietnam veteran who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “When I’m in a mood, when I’m going back to where I shouldn’t be, I can come here and the veterans, they know it. They say ‘Jim, are you all right?’ And when we start talking I feel better.”
Working with other veterans gives O’Brien the tools he needs to cope with PTSD and the haunting memories it brings of his 1966 to 1967 military service in Southeast Asia, he said.
“I realize what is happening; I’m not back where I’m helpless, where I know I can’t help them. That used to bother me. But of all the people in the world, I can trust these guys with my feelings. I don’t even trust my wife with my feelings,” he said.
O’Brien however is not the only former service member of his generation who volunteers at MVH-Scarborough. There are many Vietnam era vets who do likewise; but there is, he warns, one drawback.
“They come in here and they love it; the only bad thing is they get hooked,” he said.
One of the ways O’Brien has left his mark on the Maine Veterans Home and the men and women who reside there is by the creation of a Wall of Honor on one side of the recreation room, a large, open area where residents gather to meet, play cards and Bingo or watch television on a large, flat-screen television.
A flag from each branch of the service hangs on the wall over a list of the present and former residents who answered their country’s call to duty.
“It’s so we can honor them while they’re alive rather than waiting until they’re dead,” said Stewart. She pointed out that the wall has other purposes, too, such as reuniting long-lost war buddies under the same roof for the first time, in some cases, in more than half-a-century. “They go up there and look for names they know, people they knew in the service.”
O’Brian said he has noticed some residents of the Scarborough home check out the wall every day, looking for new additions.
“It’s to honor them, but also so they can relate to each other. In here all these people relate to each other because of the camaraderie they had in the service. There’s a lot of trust in here,” he said.
“They’re veterans, so you trust them.”
At the present time, Scarborough is the only one of the state’s six veterans’ homes to honor residents with a Wall of Honor. But O’Brien said he heard that other facilities, which are located in Augusta, Bangor, Caribou, Machias and South Paris, are considering something similar.
The homes, which are separate and distinct from Veterans Administration facilities, such as the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta, are public, not-for-profit organizations created by the state Legislature in the early 1980s. Although each home is administrated separately, the homes collectively are governed by a board of trustees comprised of wartime veterans.
MVH facilities provide three levels of care, including short-term rehabilitation.
“We have a unit where people come in temporarily for rehab after some sort of illness or injury,” Stewart said.
“They’ve had hospitalization and they need to get back on their feet so they can return home. That’s how most of the people come to us. A lot of them do go home.”
The other two levels of care at MVH are long-term nursing home care and assisted living, Stewart said. In addition, MVH-South Paris offers residential or boarding home care to those able to live in more independent environments.
MVH-Scarborough also offers physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy to qualifying vets.
And then there is pet therapy.
“We have lots of four-legged creatures that the vets and family members bring in,” Stewart said. Some are dogs and cats that have been formally trained for pet therapy, but most have just been brought in to keep the residents happy and occupied, she said.
More traditional medical services offered at MVH-Scarborough include skilled nursing care, Alzheimer/dementia care, respite care and comfort care. In addition, individual treatments plans are available, as well as family training and support.
Another amenity is the Quiet Room, where residents, visitors and family members can find privacy in comfortable, home-like surroundings. There is a barber shop and beauty parlor, as well as modern kitchen facilities where a registered dietician supervises the assembly of several varied menus.
In addition to veterans who served in both war and peacetime, the homes are open on a space-available basis to their spouses, as well as widows and widowers of veterans, and Gold Star parents, who lost a son or daughter in the line of duty.
But not every applicant is judged by the same criteria.  
“We have a priority of admissions; you need to be a resident of Maine or have entered the service in Maine,” Stewart said. The first priority goes to those with service-connected disabilities. War veterans come next, in chronological order, beginning with World War I and World War II, followed by Korea and Vietnam, the first Gulf war, Afghanistan and the current Gulf war, she said.
Currently, there are no vacancies at MVH-Scarborough; waiting lists exist at all levels of care.
“I don’t want to discourage people in the community to not apply, so I’m a little hesitant to say that we have a long waiting list,” Stewart said.
But there’s always room for more volunteers.
Anyone interested in volunteering at MVH-Scarborough should contact activities director Jane Brennick at 883-7184.
Jim O’Brien feels certain you won’t regret it.
“I get more out of volunteering here than I put into it. I go home every day feeling good about myself. That’s what it’s all about,” he said.