What is a BROS? It stands for blind rehab occupational specialist. Samantha is from the Kansas City VA, and talks about her job traveling through a three-hour radius from Kansas City to help blinded veterans in their homes.
She is a certified low vision expert, and can perform a wide range of rehab support to blinded veterans. Sometimes it’s because they returned from a BRC, and need further training. Sometimes there could be a family or medical issue that restricts them from traveling to a Blind Rehab Center.
Receiving training in the veteran’s home can be helpful, because the training can be streamlined to their personal lifestyle, environment and community. Samantha can also do limited training in CATS, Computer And technology Systems. It’s of course her time is limited, and sometimes an area that requires high attention may be needed. In those cases, a trip to the BRC might be needed.
There are grants available to some veterans to adapt their homes for accessible lifestyles. In these cases, someone like Samantha can come out to inspect and offer recommendations to the contractor to build the proper accommodations. As a low vision expert, she can sometimes detect an area that the contractor or veteran might miss.
Despite her busy lifestyle, and complicated job, Samantha loves what she does in helping blinded veterans.
We opened the floor to take questions from the vets who are in attendance. Topics include using telehealth for remote visits. More details about the home improvement grants are shared. Six is very common service or support that veterans often need from the BROS office?
Our operations officer lets us No our time is up, and we welcome Samantha to come back at a later time for another interview.
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