WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today announced the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs will hold a field hearing in Tupelo on Thursday, July 3, 2008.  The hearing will examine advances in America’s long-term care system, such as the Green House Model currently used by Mississippi Methodist Senior Services at Traceway in Tupelo.  Additionally, the hearing will feature testimony from a top Department of Veterans’ Affairs official and long-term care policy experts. 

The entire field hearing is open to the public, and veterans, their families and interested citizens are encouraged to attend.

Sen. Wicker, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said the hearing was important for veterans in Mississippi and across the country.

“I have encouraged the VA to consider the implementation of creative and innovative new concepts to long-term care and memory support care,” Sen. Wicker said.  “One of those concepts, the Green House Model, was pioneered in Tupelo.  A focus of the hearing will be to determine how the more flexible, warm and open setting created by the Green Houses might be used in VA facilities across the country.”  

WHAT: 
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee
Tupelo Field Hearing on Caring for America’s Aging Veterans
**HEARING IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC**

WHEN: 
Thursday, July 3, 2008
10:30 a.m.

WHERE: 
First United Methodist Church
412 W. Main Street
Tupelo, MS

WITNESS LIST:

• Christa Hojlo, Ph.D. Director, VA Community Living Centers and State Veterans Home
  Clinical and Survey Oversight
• Bill Thomas, MD, Founder, The Eden Alternative
• Steve McAlilly, Chief Executive Officer, Methodist Senior Services, Inc.
• Robert Jenkens, Director, The Green House Project
• Lois Cutler, PhD, Research Fellow, School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Administration, University of Minnesota

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