Thank you, Ms. Blaney.
I'll quickly give another anecdote of what happened with my son when I went in for the heart procedure in the hospital. My son can't be away from me. At 4:30 a.m., as I'm lying in the hospital bed, I get a call. It's my son and he's crying. He can't sleep. He hadn't slept all night, until 4:30. He needed to hear my voice before he went to bed. That is a burden on a six-, seven- or eight-year-old that is just too much to bear.
When I suggest what can change at Veterans Affairs in terms of this collaborative care, the continuum of care program that's independent, that care team has to include the family members and the veterans, and the family members and veterans get to decide how to deal with the problem. It's not Veterans Affairs saying how they'll deal with the problem. It's the family who gets to say that, and the family gets empowered. Even the children get empowered.
That's what I try to do with my son—empower him—but I would really like some extra assistance to know that he's going to be safe when I'm not with him. That's why we had the care in place, and that's why it was so devastating when it was taken away.