The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 23 - Florida Voices For Health, Fighting To Improve Healthcare for Veterans Not Covered By The V.A. And Floridians Thorough out Florida.

• Scott McLean

Share episode

Send us a text

Ever wondered why so many veterans in Florida struggle to access the healthcare they need? Join us as we unravel this complex issue with two exceptional guests. Nicole Grabner, a seasoned military spouse and veteran, offers a poignant look into her personal journey navigating VA benefits, while Scott Darius, executive director of Florida Voices for Health, exposes the systemic hurdles that veterans, particularly in rural areas, face. Together, we explore the importance of personal connections and local collaborations to better serve these communities.

The power of storytelling takes center stage as we delve into the emotional and psychological challenges veterans face. We discuss how sharing personal narratives can be a therapeutic tool, helping veterans feel heard and validated. Despite the reluctance some veterans feel, we strive to create a supportive environment for them to share their stories, even providing anonymity when necessary. This segment underscores the struggles veterans experience in recognizing their individual contributions and the healing that comes from feeling part of a community.

Finally, we shift our focus to the pressing issue of Medicaid expansion in Florida. Scott's advocacy highlights the devastating impact of the coverage gap on vulnerable populations, including veterans. Through compelling stories, such as a woman undergoing cancer treatment without sufficient health insurance, we illustrate the urgent need for systemic change. We also spotlight the inspiring journey of JJ Holmes, an 18-year-old with cerebral palsy, whose relentless fight for home and community-based services has led to significant legislative advancements. This episode calls on listeners to unite, share their stories, and advocate for a more inclusive healthcare system.

Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean. My guest this week is Scott Darius, executive Director of Florida Voices for Health, and Nicole Grabner, military spouse, veteran, mother and writer. Hey guys, how you doing Doing?

Scott Darius:

well, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.

Scott McLean:

It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. Scott and I were introduced. We kind of connected and hit it off and found out that, yeah, we have some things in common and storytelling is one of them. So and then I got the. You know, hey, nicole wants it, nicole wants to come on, nicole can come on. So I thought it was great that I have two guests. Let me start with you, nicole. Tell the audience, tell the listeners a little about yourself.

Scott Darius:

Okay, well, so I try to say first that I'm one of the few people I know that have kind of hit every aspect of military life. I was a military dependent. My father served for 28 years retired and I grew up overseas. Then I enlisted myself and I served for five years and I met my husband during Operation Iraqi Freedom and after we got married I separated and became a military spouse so and he recently retired, about four years ago, from the United States Air Force, go Air Force, for 20 years of service and now I'm doing advocacy work with my children and everyone in Brevard County, florida.

Scott McLean:

So, scott, tell us a little about yourself.

Nicole Grabner:

Sure thing. So I have the pleasure of being the executive director of Florida Voices for Health. I came to this work after graduating from UF undergrad and law school, so go Gators. And yeah, I've just always cared a lot about how to increase access to care for low-income and middle-income Floridians, and so, yeah, I've had the pleasure of being able to dedicate my life to this work.

Scott McLean:

And how did you come across Florida Voices for Health.

Nicole Grabner:

So actually, after I graduated from law school, I was in the middle of an internship with a health advocacy organization, florida Chain. That existed already and you know, after being there for so many years and doing this really great work of trying to connect with people around the state as we were trying to get Medicaid expanded to get more people covered, the organization actually closed while we were in the middle of all of that work and it just felt like a shame to walk away from it, to walk away from all these connections we had built. So, myself and our current board member, we helped create Florida Voices for Health in 2017. And we've been around ever since.

Scott McLean:

What are some of the healthcare challenges being faced by veterans in Florida?

Nicole Grabner:

You know, I think there's this assumption that every veteran qualifies for VA coverage and so they're all taken care of, right.

Nicole Grabner:

But what I've seen and what the data shows is that there's definitely this portion of non-elderly veterans especially who aren't eligible for coverage through the VA. I think typically right, like VA coverage is based on having some service-connected disability or having a VA pension or, you know, receiving the Purple Heart or Medal of Honor. There are all sorts of priority categories basically, and while that's great and I think it actually captures most people, there are still a batch of veterans who aren't eligible for care through the VA at all. There's also those who live, maybe you know, who aren't enrolled in VA coverage for one reason or another, either not knowing that they're eligible or just living really far away from a VA facility, and so it's a shame that there are these veterans kind of falling through the cracks. And, yeah, our work at Voices is how do we support those communities, those groups of people who are being left out of the system for one, you know, one reason or another, and how do we get them connected to the care that they deserve?

Scott McLean:

Now, how do you reach them, how do you get their attention, especially those rural areas, and Florida has a whole bunch of them, a whole lot of rural areas.

Nicole Grabner:

You know there's for those who aren't in rural areas right, there's the typical things that we do, like promoting things on social media and putting paid ads out there, but what I'm learning more and more is the value of personal connection, of building relationships with people in communities who are doing some of that outreach work themselves, right. So we have the pleasure of sitting in a lot of different collaboratives around the state, particularly in those rural areas, and working with, yeah, those organizations that are doing that direct outreach, and we try to get information to them and we've had the pleasure of meeting some great veterans through that, yeah, through some of that outreach.

Scott McLean:

Collaboration over competition.

Nicole Grabner:

All the time.

Scott McLean:

That's the key to all of it. Yeah, absolutely, nicole. What's your perspective on that same question the healthcare challenges being faced by veterans in Florida?

Scott Darius:

I think Scott had a really valid point, but I can tell you so when I first separated I was not aware of what the VA had to offer. I mean, I think it's a general understanding perhaps of healthcare, but usually my vision in much older people or something like it's just a lot of misunderstanding. I think about the system in general, but the first time I was awarded any disability rating was when we were in Texas, and Texas has different standards as far as qualifications and your entitlements based off of your percentage right Versus Florida. Florida you have to be 100% permanent and total disability to achieve any kind of statewide benefits, which is a struggle. I really wish that Florida would kind of mimic a little bit better the state of Texas when it comes to that. It used to be, I think, what is it? 60% in the state of Texas, so to have access to more health care.

Scott Darius:

But a lot of veterans also misunderstand that there are certain thresholds, like Scott mentioned, you know, to receive not just your health care benefits, you need to understand all the red tape you got to go through to get through that and that's really difficult. So I would say that you know not just the VA, but another thing I'd like to tack on, for that I found in particular with Florida, is housing. Affordable and accessible housing for veterans is incredibly difficult and a lot of that with your health care goes hand in hand with having somewhere safe and comfortable to be with your family and be protected from the elements, which in Florida can be pretty harsh. So a lot of that, like I said, goes hand in hand.

Scott McLean:

I think one of the reasons we got put together, scott, was the storytelling aspect of Florida Voices, and I just started my nonprofit One man, one Mic Foundation, which is about veterans telling their stories through podcasting, and I've learned myself that it's a very valuable tool. It's a healing tool. So how does Florida Voices for Health use storytelling to further their cause?

Nicole Grabner:

Well, you said it there, especially at the end, right, it's the healing aspect of it. So for I'll say that to do any kind of advocacy requires, like, a lot of different people at the table working together to move towards whatever outcome it is, and whether that's like policy, research, people you need data, people, you need all the, you need communications folks, right, so just a lot of different capacities there. The role that we, you know, the niche we try to fill, or what we try to provide to that space, is empowering people with stories, people who have been impacted by the healthcare systems in one way or another, and giving them a chance to advocate for themselves. It'll surprise almost no one right that the decision makers, in a lot of times, in a lot of cases, whether that's like on the state level or Congress or whatever, there's this disconnect between their understanding of the world and the way things actually are for the rest of us, those who are living through these systems, and so we try to bridge that gap, and the best way to do it right is you can, you can put stuff down on paper. You can, you know, bring as much data as you want and say oh, there are 500,000 people living without health coverage in Florida. But we know that each one of those, each one of that 500,000 is an individual in a story and the nuances of that story, the nuances of their perspective, is it's a more powerful thing than just hearing. 500,000 people need access to care and so, yeah, our job, we see, our job is just getting that foot in the door and holding the door open for other people to walk through and share what it is that they're going through.

Nicole Grabner:

And you know, it can be a tough, it can be a tough spot for us to sit in Sometimes. We hear, you hear horror stories. You hear, yeah, I was talking to someone just the other day who's, like, in the middle of cancer treatment and lost their health coverage. Right, and while we're not doctors, that's the hard part Right, like I'm not a doctor and I don't have like a million dollars to just give this person to say, hey, let's, let's fix this thing.

Nicole Grabner:

But what gives me a little solace, what gives me, right, like a little bit of hope, is me right, like a little bit of hope is and I hear this from the people who get to share their stories with us is the bit of healing that comes from just sharing, just being able to say, hey, here's what I'm going through, and how nice it is to be heard. Right, there's so many folks who just don't feel heard. They're not looking for, they're not looking for us to solve the thing. They just want to be heard. And so it's an honor, it's a privilege to be able to to do that and to hopefully use those stories to also make the system better.

Scott McLean:

So when you're doing that, what is the process? Do they readily say, oh yeah, I'll tell my story? Or do you have some people you have to say you have a really good story and you can tell us, but and and I can say that the veterans that I've been talking to, a lot of them say I don't have a story, no one wants to hear my story. Those two things, and it's shocking. Everybody has a story, especially if you're going through a traumatic experience or you've been through a traumatic experience. They don't find it relevant, but it really is. You've been through it's mad. They don't find it relevant, but it really is. So do you have some people that you have to kind of? You do have a story and let's just tell it. It's going to help other people.

Nicole Grabner:

Oh, it's a story begging or story collection, whatever you call it is. It's a war of attrition. I feel like there are a lot of different scenarios. You have folks who come to us in the middle of the night. Basically They'll write, submit something to the website and you can tell that mostly because it's, you know, being submitted at three o'clock in the morning and the length of it and the language that's used, you can tell it's someone like really suffering in that moment. But then you reach out, not four or five hours later, right Like in the cold light of day, and people are suddenly like reluctant and, yeah, there's like a fear. I think for those, that category of folks, it's a lot of time. It's fear that keeps them from taking that next step. Then you run into folks all the time who, like you said, will tell you that they don't have a story, that their perspective doesn't really matter, and it's when you you know, if you have this opportunity to kind of tease a little bit more out of them, you're like wait a minute. This is actually like a very compelling thing. But more importantly, you should know that you're not the only person suffering like this. So many times it's people who it's.

Nicole Grabner:

I'll say as an example we do a lot of work around access to oral health and there are a few things we put a call out for stories for that give us such a strong response. The amount, the number of people in the state who need access to better dental care is, yeah will absolutely blow your mind. But it was when we first started, as people started reaching out and like you're realizing, oh, you guys, like you think you're suffering alone. Like you, yeah, you really believe, like you're the only person going through this, and it's like no, there's so many others who don't have the nuances of your story, each of your individuals, but you have so much in common in the way that, like, yeah, the system is leaving you out and so you know it's working with people through that process. I meet with some storytellers, but we also have someone who's on staff full time, Karen Clay, who is maybe the most empathetic person you'll ever meet, Just sits down and hears people, tries to meet them where they are, and we try to make folks comfortable.

Nicole Grabner:

It's all about you. You can be as anonymous as you want. We find that that helps. So if you want to use a pseudonym or whatever it is if you want to do video or no video. We try to just make you comfortable and you don't have to do it all at once. You can share a little bit now, we can come back later. Yeah, Just whatever it takes for you to feel comfortable, and so I would encourage people every single one of you is a lived experience. Share that experience. Whatever that story is, whether it has successes, failures, personal failure, whatever it is, it's a story and it all is part of what's happening, and so is a valid thing.

Scott McLean:

So, Nicole, as a writer, you're a storyteller. So where do you see the value in all of this? In the storytelling, in the healing, in the veterans, in the non-veterans, just in the healthcare world in general?

Scott Darius:

I'd like to start to say that I think a lot of veterans struggle with acknowledging the impact that their service has had right. So we get a lot of times people will thank us and I don't know if it's like that for you, but you're like I don't sure. Okay, you know, I appreciate it, but I never know what to say. But I think our mentality is such, because when you're in the military it's a team effort. We're never thought or taught to look at the contributions that we've done ourselves. So it's a really difficult shift when you leave service, to consider myself as an individual and my experiences as an individual and the impact that that story could have for anyone else. We're never taught to think that way, so I think that that should be acknowledged. It's kind of a shift in the mindset that a lot of veterans need to go through. As far as advocacy and the power of the story, scott said this very well and I'll just reiterate I've just started doing advocacy work myself for probably the last year and a half. I ironically do as I say, not as I do, but I don't advocate as much for myself I do with other veterans, but particularly for my children because they're both on the autism spectrum disorder and so in the state of Florida, the work that I've been doing a lot has been trying to work within the disability realm generally to bring all voices together to share our concerns, to speak collectively and to collaborate, bring awareness. As Scott mentioned, when you go and you talk to a policymaker, whether that's a local elected official like a mayor, city councilman, county commissioner, school board member, all the way up to a US representative or a US senator or beyond, they get so many emails a day, so many phone calls a day, so many meetings they have to go to and it's a lot of noise. It's a lot of things for people to have to filter through. The only way that I've ever seen success happen in this realm for advocacy, it's with a personal story, because data is important for sure, and background information, facts those are all necessary. But what's going to stick with someone is oh yes, I remember she told me about how her kids were going through this or whichever.

Scott Darius:

To use a good example, I was just speaking about this last night with the Capitol Crawl back in March of 1990. I don't know if you remember this. It was all over the news and they had, you know camera crews. Everybody was out and it was a protest to help bring awareness and support to the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And so we had people that came to the Capitol. They put down crutches and they put down wheelchairs and they had family members kind of you know help. They crawled literally on their hands and knees up the steps of the Capitol to illustrate as clearly as they could that these government buildings, that all of these, this world, was inaccessible to them.

Scott Darius:

There was an interview one of them did of a little girl. Her name was Jennifer, I can't remember her last name, but she. They asked me do you want a drink, do you want a break? And she says no, she's screaming. I will be here all night if I have to. I remember that because of her. I remember that story, that moment in history. I remember it so vividly. I can see her picture in my mind. I can see her face because of what she said, her impact, watching that moment. That sticks with me and I use it a lot when I'm talking to legislators and policymakers about accessibility rights. So that's the impact. That's where the magic happens.

Scott McLean:

I remember that. By the way, I do remember that. I forgot about it until you reminded me, and I do remember it. Yeah, that's effective. Yeah, that was effective. So, scott, what's some of the advocacy that you're working on, and how does storytelling play a role in that?

Nicole Grabner:

Yeah, so a couple of big campaigns. Medicaid expansion is kind of top of our list right now. There are so many Floridians generally speaking, right just to start who make too much to qualify for Medicaid in the state where we're one of the more restrictive states in the country but don't make enough to qualify for health coverage through the ACA marketplace, and it's a phenomenon that impacts a good bit of veterans in Florida. When you think about those who fall outside of VA coverage for one reason or another and the more recent stat I saw about non-elderly veterans in Florida, it's about one in 10 who fall into the coverage gap. I think there are currently about 11,000 uninsured or 117,000 uninsured veterans in Florida and about 11,000 of those folks fall squarely in the coverage gap, meaning they don't actually have any viable option for care because they don't qualify for VA, they don't qualify for Medicaid and they don't qualify for ACA coverage or get coverage through an employer-based plan. So we've been banging our heads against the wall for the last 10 years trying to get that done, and every year feels like we get a little bit closer. We had some success in the legislature, just drumming up the conversation last year working with conservative legislator from the panhandle. He's a doctor up there and so you know, running a clinic in a rural area, he sees firsthand just how hard it is to deliver care to so many people who need it, many people who need it. We were able to bring down another conservative legislator from North Carolina who walked the halls of Tallahassee with us just to share the good news about the impact expansion has had in his state. There's also a ballot initiative happening on that particular question, hopefully to get expansion on the ballot in 2026. And so, yeah, we're sharing on the ballot in 2026. And so, yeah, we're sharing. We're capturing and sharing stories all the time.

Nicole Grabner:

To really illustrate just the depth of it, the woman I mentioned earlier who is in the middle of cancer treatments finds herself in this coverage gap, without any options for care at the worst time possible. Right, I'll say quickly that there's sometimes this thought about people who fall in this space and it's oh well, they should work harder. It's people not working hard enough, and the truth is these are mostly folks who are working, but if you work a little bit more, you're penalized and lose your Medicaid coverage, and that's exactly what happened to this woman, who is a court reporter, basically so she has a job. She got sick and had to work a little bit less and like a job. She got sick and had to work a little bit less and like, yeah, now it's basically she cannot get her coverage back until she loses her job completely. She has to completely lose her job, wait a month to demonstrate that she doesn't have any income and then they'll start the process of trying to re-enroll her. So like two or three months after that, and that's a devastating reality.

Nicole Grabner:

What we've also been talking a lot about is just access to care. In rural areas alone, we've had since 2020, march 2020, I realize that's a random time and date, but if you think really hard, you might remember March 2020 as a specific time We've had three rural hospitals close since March of 2020. Shands hospitals close since March of 2020. Shands Stark and Shands Lake you know I'm blanking on them Live Oak and Lake City, and those places, those hospitals, were the primary care locations for about 70% of the population, which includes a significant amount of veterans. I was actually just up in Panama City meeting with a veteran who lives and you know there's like a base up there. There's a whole veteran community.

Nicole Grabner:

They were devastated by Hurricane Michael. By the way, yeah, just to say a quick word for Hurricane Michael and the impact it had up there. I think the rest of us forgot about it because we live down here and kind of you know, can afford to forget it, but you had, just you've lost some serious access to care up there and there are folks still trying to like navigate it's still trying to get the care they need and you know all the other things. So just to say that all over our rural communities there's a lack of access to care where there are so many veterans who need it. You know, it's about capturing stories and relaying those stories to legislators. We've been hosting, having one-on-one meetings and I think once we're on the other side of this election we'll take that up again in full force and build up to the next legislative session in March next year, do you?

Scott McLean:

ever have a person that's in that situation come up and personally speak in front of the legislature.

Nicole Grabner:

Yeah, we do, and it's a hard thing for folks to do right, tallahassee is basically far from everywhere. Go anywhere in the state and you're far from.

Scott McLean:

Tallahassee. Both my kids went to FSU so I understand that's a long drive.

Nicole Grabner:

Yeah, that's my nightmare, also, Florida State fans. I'll circle back to that, but just to say that, yeah, it's really tough for folks to get up there, and so we try to make it easier. We'll give folks travel stipends, we give them a place to stay, we coordinate all the meetings, and so we've had we've been able to do that right, and it's never as many people as possible. Right, because who can afford to take the day or two off of work to make the trip up to Tallahassee? But when we have had people with us, you can see the impact on people's faces. You can't ignore the story someone's sharing with you in that setting, whether or not you end up ultimately agreeing with them, it's just really hard to ignore or escape that reality when someone's in your face sharing their personal perspective.

Scott McLean:

Nicole, how did you and Scott meet?

Scott Darius:

I attended the Florida Voices for Health Summit in Brevard County that they did earlier this year. What a fantastic event. But it was funny because I was like the only local person that came, I think, from Brevard County. I was like, oh, this is Summit that was being advertised and I was actually really shocked because the work that I do, you know, I figured I would have seen a lot more people there. I did see a lot of people that I've worked with from other state agencies, but nobody local. So I thought that was interesting.

Scott Darius:

But I introduced myself to Scott and Acadia after the event to let them know who I was, what I was trying to do here in Brevard County from my advocacy work, and we've been friends ever since. They're fantastic. The organization is just amazing.

Scott McLean:

And it sounds amazing.

Scott Darius:

And it sounds amazing Once I heard about it. And then I, you know, I did my research and I talked to Scott and I was like this is something I would love to in any way I anyone who has a story to share that you don't have to wait for legislative days. Go to city council meetings, go to county commissioner meetings, go to everything that's local. And you know, as we're in an election year and this is one of those times when people start paying more attention because it's a presidential election year more attention to politics they tend to forget that down the ticket's where most of the impact happens. So you know, you've got school board races, county commission races, city council. This is where a lot of governing happens and it happens right now, right next to you, right down the road. So if you want to get started and you want to have an impact, I mean absolutely come to Tallahassee. I'll be there with Scott and you know we'll welcome anyone that can come up and be with us.

Scott Darius:

But take action now. Do something. Go to a local meeting and get started of primaries. You know, in the state of Florida, what was the conversation overall? I think there was only 24% of registered voters that actually showed up to vote for the primaries, and that's you know. Crazy to me that you know this is a very significant election and even though it's not the general election, primaries is still an important race. And there are also races on there that don't get discussed. Like judges, judges have a huge impact and I'll go back to school boards. And so this is, you know, something that got decided already, you know ahead of November. So just to keep that in consideration as well.

Scott McLean:

Absolutely as far as Florida Voices for Health. How can veterans, if they're interested, how can they get involved?

Nicole Grabner:

Yeah, you know there's. It all starts with. Wherever you're comfortable. You can do the simplest thing, which is just reach out, have a conversation with us. You can share as much of your story as you want to, but, yeah, if you just want to connect with us, just to make the connection, and we'll tell you about the work that we do and the different campaigns, whether it's the rural access, increasing access to services for people with disabilities, we do a lot around oral health, like I mentioned, and all the time doing more right Like.

Nicole Grabner:

We take on basically whatever people come to us with, and I was happy you asked how Nicole and I met, because I think it's a really good example of like who we aspire to be, Just whatever it is you're working on, whatever it is you care about, bring that to us and you have a partner in that work. You have a partner who's willing to listen and support you in kind of like getting the word out or reaching, doing outreach, putting together materials, just sitting in a meeting I think we're just bringing coffee to a thing Nicole is hosting in a couple of weeks. You know what I mean Like, but that means a lot to us to be able to like support in that way and to be able to do that with anyone who you know formally served, it's an honor for me. It's a it feels like cause.

Scott Darius:

Listen you guys being modest, it's not just the coffee, but so we. So we're hosting the first ever disability-focused candidate forum event in Brevard County. It's going to be on the 20th of September. You can find the free registration. It's a free event, nonpartisan, and you can find information about this on Eventbrite Just Google Brevard candidate forum on the 20th of September, and the intent is to bring all local legislators together that are running for office all of these candidates, both Republican, democrat and independent with our disabled community and hear our concerns and have an entire day of just conversation about how we can help make an impact now. So, as Scott has been fantastic, the organization has been wonderful and super supportive in helping me with that, and so we're really excited about it.

Scott McLean:

Sounds like a beautiful event and it should be well attended. Get their attention.

Scott Darius:

I hope so.

Scott McLean:

Get their attention. Fundraiser Scott. What do you guys do? You're a non-profit.

Nicole Grabner:

We're a non-profit 501c3. We're lucky enough to be supported by some really great community foundations across the state who just want to see some good work done A couple of national partners who help to support as well. We, you know, we will take donations from our local community partners and stuff like that, but ultimately all just going back to really try to support folks to get up to Tallahassee, to get into their local hearings and meetings and things like that to share their own stories and perspectives. But yeah, I'll encourage anyone who wants to learn more, who wants to plug into the good work we're trying to do, just visit us at healthyflaorg. And yeah, you can email me directly at scott at healthyflaorg.

Scott McLean:

And now the listeners that listen to this podcast and and it's actually this thing has gotten some legs and I'm very proud of that and I thank all the listeners for growing this and it's catching on. And the ones that listen to every episode know what's coming right now. And it's those words Give them money. If you like what you're hearing and you like what they're doing, give them your money. It helps. It's better than buying McDonald's. Not any knock against McDonald's, I don't want any legal problems.

Scott McLean:

Just saying Give them money. So that's the plug. I always do it. They know it. As soon as I mention fundraising, they know it's coming, we'll take it.

Nicole Grabner:

Yeah, absolutely.

Scott McLean:

Absolutely so, Scott. Is there any particular success story that comes to mind?

Nicole Grabner:

like the, this was just an amazing thing that happened you know the I've been talking a lot about it lately and again, anytime I share something like this in the setting and I think it's going to be true flor Florida Voices for a long time to come that any success that we have isn't so much ours, it's that we like helped somebody to write to do the thing that they were doing already. And JJ Holmes is an incredible disabilities advocate based here in Florida. He, I think he's like 18, 19 years old now. But here's a kid with cerebral palsy in his wheelchair bound and his mom like takes care of him. He's been on a wait list for services, for home and community based services for, I think, basically his whole life at this point, like 17 years plus. And his mom, who spent so much time in the coverage gap herself because she was spending right like she couldn't work while she was taking care of JJ all this time. But JJ, the spirit that this kid has, the spunk this kid has I don't know how else to describe it, yeah, it will inspire you.

Nicole Grabner:

He reached out to almost every single legislator on social media, got in their emails, just bugged them right and he went to, had him and his mom in their van, drove around the state, showing up at county delegation meetings. They eventually connected with Senate President Pasadena and this past session by the end of it, right, like they had a couple of things that they were asking for. They got funding to help eliminate this wait list of 22,000 people waiting for home and community-based services. We'll see how many people it takes off, but you know they got some funding towards that. They got an online application system for APD services, which is crazy In 2024, we're like asking people to create an online and this is coming from someone who types in wwwfacebookcom on his phone to get them like yeah, right, I'm telling you that's ridiculous. Yes, that's okay, I'm telling you that that's ridiculous, right. And then they got some other yeah, some other important changes in the system itself to really make it easier for people with disabilities to get services in the state.

Nicole Grabner:

But the moment, all of that is part of the story, right, but the moment that stands out to me is when the Senate was debating it, debating this bill last year SB 1758. They called JJ and his mom down to the floor. Every senator signed on to co-sponsor this bill and they stood up and they applauded him and it was a moment, but a moment built off of jj going around the state and relentlessly sharing his story for the last couple of years, and he'll be the first to tell you there's so much further to go, but what a moment, what, uh, yeah, a thing that keeps me going when sometimes, yeah it feels like a hard thing to do yeah, no, jj like jj's caring, doing it for all of us, you know, and they'll be the first to tell you everything they do is not for them, because, yeah, they just don't care, it's for everyone else, and that's a really special thing and the unsung hero in that story is his mom.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, she. Yeah, he might be the face of it. She's that support system, and well, there's nothing like a mom, anyways, so you know that's yeah, yeah, but that's that's special.

Scott McLean:

That's a great story. That's a great story. See, yeah, and storytelling is effective, and I'm sure there was somebody out there that just listened to that and probably got a little tear in their eye. I almost did, but I can't because I'm the host. I have to keep it together. Gotta keep it, host. I have to keep it together. I've got to keep it together.

Nicole Grabner:

Someone's got to keep it together around here.

Scott McLean:

That's right. That's right, and the audience has no idea how this podcast really began and they'll never know. I'm going to leave that joke between the three of us, absolutely so. Do you have any events coming up in in the future? You have a monthly, a monthly event we do a monthly.

Nicole Grabner:

So for anyone who's interested in kind of getting involved in advocacy more broadly, right, we have a little coalition space that our advocacy director holds. Uh, so, once a month, the first monday of every month, folks get on and you learn how to share your story, how to talk to legislators, how to power map legislators, right? Yeah, it's a chance to learn about what's happening in terms of the different campaigns around the state, but we always try to do some practical skill building in that setting too. As we ramp up to session, there'll be other opportunities. There are a couple of in-person events that we're hosting around the state related to dental access, but details on that forthcoming and then we'll have our big summit again next May, the Florida voices for health summit. I'll be there, oh, you will. You don't know this yet, but yeah you will be invited.

Scott McLean:

I'm kind of in this now I love it. We're reprising this whole conversation, yeah except for the beginning of the conversation. That's again. I just circle back on that. The listeners will never know what happened, and I'm sure someone's going to come up and see what happened. I don't tell secrets, no, no, no, let's just say it was almost a technical disaster and we'll leave it at that. We'll leave it at that. Well, I think we covered everything. Nicole, what do you have? You want to add anything to this?

Scott Darius:

Well, you know, of course I want to say you know that the work that I've been doing in Brevard County, I'd like to recognize my community partners real quick, if that was okay, absolutely.

Scott Darius:

Because, as Scott says, and I think, as military veterans, understand more than many that you can't do it alone. We're a team, one team, one fight. And so a part of my fantastic team, outside of Scott from Florida Voices for Health, I have Alan as a friend from the Arc of Florida, valerie and Margaret from the Florida Developmental Disability Council, carrie Morse from the Florida APSE organization and then locally in Brevard, I want to give a shout out to the Parker Foundation, the SOAK organizations, that's supporting our autistic kids. I'd like to also shout out to the Brevard Autism Coalition, the Brevard excuse me Down Syndrome Association of Brevard, angels, bridging Gaps, the VFW and American Legion here in Brevard County.

Scott Darius:

I'm going to be forgetting someone and I'm sorry, but it's a coalition of effort, we, everybody. It's only works when we all come together. So, and what works one for one person usually end up helping everyone, and in the disability advocacy realm, that's one of those things that we talk about a lot. Just any of those incremental changes that works for one person usually is the, you know, that's the door that opens it for everybody. And they like to say nothing about us without us, and I kind of wanted to echo you know, be the voice. I love what you're doing, scott, with this podcast and encouraging veterans to share their stories, and, you know, if we can hashtag this, I would say be the voice. You know, be the voice, share your story and do something.

Scott McLean:

I like that. I absolutely like that. Yes, be the voice. Scott, before you give the relevant information of email addresses and contacts again, do you want to add anything on to what we were just talking about?

Nicole Grabner:

No, just to thank you guys so much for the opportunity to be in this space. Yeah, it's a space held particularly specifically for you all who have done this incredibly brave thing, and I'm humbled to have been invited and to share a little bit about what we do and looking forward to continuing to do the good work together.

Scott McLean:

You know, this is one of those rare interviews that I had where it's and I try to really stay veteran focused and I've had some, even some for-profits come on and it's just kind of single in on the veterans and you can talk about your other thing. But this was a different type of episode because it's healthcare and that affects everybody and not just veterans. Listen to this podcast. So I hope I'm sure that there's, you know, some listeners out there that never knew you existed. Just like I told you before the podcast my story, I never knew nonprofits that worked with veterans existed, which was the roots of this podcast. So this was a great episode to just put out that great information, because healthcare is absolutely one of the top priorities and problems that we as people in this country run into. So I want to thank you guys for coming on. I really looked forward to this. Nicole great addition. Scott, great addition.

Nicole Grabner:

Yeah, I got the email. Hey, Nicole wants to come on.

Scott McLean:

No, I think Scott told me Nicole is coming on. Okay, yeah.

Nicole Grabner:

Before I told her yeah.

Scott Darius:

Well, actually, yeah.

Scott McLean:

I said, okay, hey, that sounds good to me. Buddy, see, as the podcaster, you don't really argue with the guests. Sure, you want to bring, sure, just come on the podcast, I don't care who you bring. Well, I have limits. I do have limits, but again, I want to thank you both for your time, for what you both do. It's amazing and I have a feeling this is the beginning of something for us. I really love what you're doing and anything I can do through either my foundation or my podcast. Yes, yes, and I'll say this open mic. If you have anybody you think should be on this podcast, they have an open invitation. I'll push them to the front of the line. Sorry to the other 20 that are waiting, but I only do that on special occasions. You guys are doing a special thing for the state of Florida, and yeah, so we'll definitely be in touch again. So I'm going to do my rollout and you guys just hang tight, and then we'll talk when we get off the air. Well, we built another bridge today. This is a beautiful bridge, a very informative bridge, and well, I want to thank Scott and Nicole for coming on.

Scott McLean:

If you'd like the podcast, share it. Whatever format you're listening to share it, whatever format you're listening to it or whatever platform you're listening on. Give us a rating, give us a comment, reach out to us. You can reach us at vetsconnectionpodcast at gmailcom If you want to go to the website and see past episodes. Listen to past episodes v's connectpodcastcom and, as I always say, you'll hear me in a new episode next Monday. Oh and, by the way, listen all the way to the end. There's a very informative, important public service announcement that is beneficial to everybody that listens to it, and I recommend stay all the way to the end. It's only 30 seconds or something, so I think you can give me that time. So, with all that, everybody, again, you'll hear me next Monday with a new episode.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Scott McLean

Host