The Therapy Pool Story

By Cyril Miller 

At The New Pool: (Back): Laura Mathers, Diane Tice, Ron Brant; (Front): Cyril Miller.

The therapy pool at Puget Sound VA Healthcare System is now open and it's beautiful. Actually, it's two pools: one at 92 degrees for people like me and one at 85 degrees for MS and PTSD patients. They can do kayaking in there. We have a lift to accommodate spinal cord injury patients and bariatric patients. We have roll-in showers to accommodate handicapped patients. In the same building there's an Advanced Physical Therapy Room. To put this in the tool box of the VA was mind boggling, but it took lot of work by a lot of people - both veterans and friends of veterans - a lot of people.

 

1. "We Don't Have The Money"

About 7 years ago, after I had my kidney transplant, they told me "aquatic therapy" would be one of the best ways to do rehab. My renal specialist, Dr. Rodrigues, put the request in but it was kicked back because the pool was not available. So I went to the director, Stan Johnson, and I asked how come.

There Is No Pool Like An Old Pool

He said, "Mr. Miller, the pool's seven years beyond its pull date. It's been leaking profusely. It's like a canal down in in the basement any time they fill it, so we had to pull the plug."

I said, "Well, what about aquatic therapy?"

He said. "Well, now we have no aquatic therapy program.

Mr. Miller, I have $19 million with which to run this hospital. That's it. I do not have money to repair the pool."

So I said, "So what about aquatic therapy?"

He said, "We will just have to do without."

I said, "We got all these people coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, limb loss, bariatric patients, PTSD patients, MS patients, who are in need of this particular therapy, and tell me you don't have the money?"

He said, "We don't have the money"

I said, "Well, suppose we go out and raise the money. Would you accept it?"

He said, "I certainly would."

 

2. Getting The Facts

The board of directors of Veterans and Friends of Puget Sound talked it over:

Tom O'Keefe, the founder of Tully's Coffee, Diane Tice, Co-founder of the Pacific Institute, Meredith Tall, the CEO of the Victoria Clipper, my sister the Reverend Zelda Kennedy, Senior Associate Pastor of All Saints in Pasadena, Evan Hundley, Head of School at Explorer West, Debbe Harata, the voice actress, and others.

They agreed this was an important project, but we needed to do our research.

 

Director Johnson set up a meeting with VA Facilities Management, who gave us the price of $950,000 to repair the pool as is. He helped us get the Corps of Engineers report on the building and future plans, plus all kinds of meetings with the people who would be using it - spinal cord injury, occupational therapy, physical therapy, recreational therapy. 

 

We asked for information about what was needed and they gave it to us. Because we were private citizens, we were free to say what they could not, "Tell us what is needed; we're getting the money."

 

3. Getting The Money

Seattle is the flagship hospital for VISN 20, which serves Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, parts of Wyoming and part of northern California. I went to the League of Women Voters Guide and counted 45 federal elected officials in the area that this hospital services.  We wrote to them all (see letter next page).

 

Skip Dreps, former director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America association here at the hospital, was an ally. He got us on the docket for the Seattle City Council and the King County Council. We went before both Councils and asked them to help us by writing to our elected officials that they were behind this program.

 

The State of Washington Department of Veterans Affairs got involved, and also Governor Christine Gregoire. The PI and the Seattle Times ran stories; Comcast did an interview; all kinds of business and community leaders joined in and started talking to their senators and representatives.

 

There isn't room to list everyone who got involved, but Jim McDermott, Representative for the Seattle area, was the first to come on board. He's a Navy veteran, a military psychiatrist, and he's always supported veterans. Senator Murray became the Chair of the Senate Veterans Committee, so I had quite a few sessions with her chief of staff, Joshua Jacobs. With Norm Dicks on the House Appropriations Committee, they got 12 million dollars for the pool, a Polytrauma Clinic and an exercise room in the same building.

 

4. In The Meantime

It took five years to build the pool. In the meantime we needed a program for veterans who couldn't wait 5 years to come and dip their toes in the water.

 

A program got going down at Evergreen Pool twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, serving 16 and 18 veterans at a time, and the VA provided therapists. When the county announced it was closing Evergreen, I went before the Seattle City Council and Richard McIver got me an opportunity to talk to the Parks Department. They moved us to Westside.

 

I have to tell you from day 1 those guys at Westside met us with open arms. They made accommodations for us. If you want to see how efficient operations run, you have to see the two ladies who are running that program. They made room for us for 3 years, and I was really sad to leave them.

 

5. How It Gets Done

Do you see how it got done? Congress got us the money for the pool and the rest, but first we, the people, had to go and tell them to do it. We had to get a lot of people, find out the facts, talk over what we wanted, and ask and ask and ask again until we won.

 

We won because every 2 years, 4 years or 6 years, the politicians re-apply for their jobs. That's called an election. Veterans and our friends have to get together; there are millions of us and if we want improvements then it's up to us. We don't have to accept anything less that the best for our veterans, because public officials work for us. However, we cannot get them to act by standing on our own. You have to work together. You got to have a team.

 

6. Links 

• "Retirement Halted For New VA Pool", Mike Barber, Seattle PI, October 29, 2007.
• "Go-getters Pool Their Talents For Vets",  Skip Dreps, Seattle PI, October 2, 2008.
• "Veterans and Friends of Puget Sound: VA Pool Project", Tony Ventrella and Cyril Miller, Comcast, May 15, 2008.
• "New Therapy Pool & Expand Polytrauma Project: 663-377" - Solicitation Number: VA26010IB1081,  FedBizOps.gov, August 10, 2010.

Do You Have The Drive To Volunteer?

 

 

How To Take Action Yourself

 

CRDP and CRSC: For Military Retirees

Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay and Combat-Related Special Compensation

 - rewinn

About Veterans And Friends of Puget Sound

Veterans and Friends of Puget is a group of volunteers who are a voice and a presence helping our veterans get the help that they earned through their service. We concentrate on the VA Puget Sound Health System, where we assist veterans in getting access to the best. We advocate both for individual veterans who need help accessing the system, and for the system itself when it needs additional resources. We don't duplicate services provided by the many other fine organizations serving our veterans, but find it more useful to cooperate with them, as some of the stories above may attest.

For more information, see our blog at vafpugetsound.blogspot.com, email vafpugetsound@gmail.com, call 206-446-4667 or write PO Box 46378, Seattle WA 98106.