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With 18 years experience in sales and marketing. Melissa Delieto
said, it was her job as a Director of Community Relations for
an assisted living that made her see that she wanted to help
senior veterans and their families in a big way. “I had a resident
many years ago who depleted his savings with monthly medical
expenses and with only $1350 a month in income, he had no where
to go. I remember feeling so helpless. He was a veteran and
then I found out about the improved pension benefits
or AID & ATTENDANCE through the VA. It became a calling
to do this.”
Born and raised in New York, her first experience with seniors
was a job she took as a home health aid (HHA) many years ago
while attending classes in college as a working single mother.
“Working as a caregiver and then an EKG technician for Kimberly
Quality Care helping seniors in their homes was my most rewarding
work to date. I also hated leaving after my 4 hour shift of
home care knowing they still needed me and those 4 hours was
all they were able to afford. At that time I had never heard
of Aid and Attendance” After a big move to California, she worked
as a Pharmaceutical representative for GSK (Glaxo Smith Kline)
detailing senior based products to doctors in southern CA. “I
realized I didn’t get to work directly with seniors in this
position, it didn’t satisfy me.” I went to work in an assisted
living as a Community Relations Director and finally as a placement
agent with a national company helping seniors locate services,
she saw the need again to talk about VA benefits. It was starting
to become more known.
IN late 2005, Melissa started Veterans Express locally;
it was early in 2006 that they decided to take the company nationally
to help seniors everywhere. “It exploded! We had no idea that
it would take off this way. It was a bit scary. Keeping it free
was crucial and we looked at every possible option to make it
free.” We hope to see that some day every senior in the country
has an easy way of learning more about Aid and Attendance benefits
to help them pay for home services as well as find quality communities
to live in. We think it should be free to help a senior and
our goal is to help them work harmoniously with the VA and us.
It took a long time to develop our relationships with VA offices,
advocate groups, accredited agencies who want to help our veterans
as well as assisted livings and home care agencies across the
country that support our program. We have an impressive support
system. We are very happy with what we have done. We still have
a long road ahead of us. Part of that is to empower the seniors
and their families with the knowledge they need to get what
they deserve and learn how to fight for it”
”We love that everyday we get to help a senior find the money
they need to live comfortably in a community they never thought
would be possible with just a little education and guidance.
I love my job as well as helping other communities and providers
find ways to reach out to the seniors in their area and help
them more.” Our staff feels they contribute in helping solve
a growing problem in America with the cost of eldercare services
vs. their low incomes. We know what we are doing is important.
We also keep learning more and more each day how to do this
right. It’s a feel good job.”
Melissa Delieto
President and founder
Veterans Express
email:
melissa@veterans-express.com
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“Knowing personally about the experience of
finding services for a loved one, |
I jumped at the chance to create
Veterans Express once I saw the
need for it. It’s so rewarding to help a family
find a quality eldercare provider as well as educate
them on VA benefits free of charge. We never get
tired of hearing thank you so much; we couldn’t
have done it without your help.”
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