How a Lehi army sergeant is taking care of senior military veterans
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- Scott and Candi Mickiewicz and their children are pictured.
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- Sgt. Scott Mickiewicz is pictured in uniform.
Sgt. Scott Mickiewicz estimates 50% of United States war veterans have never utilized Veterans Affairs.
That indicates many senior veterans, which include over 6 million living people who fought in the Vietnam War, have not received critical-post war assistance.
Mickiewicz is determined to aid these individuals. And his 8 years of experience in the U.S. Army Reserve and deployments to Afghanistan and Cuba offers him and his wife, Candi, the background to do so in a profound way as franchise owners of Seniors Helping Seniors in Lehi, a senior center that offers in-home care.
“We’re different generations, but on the same level. And for a lot of veterans, it’s just about dignity and respect,” Mickiewicz said. “And I really understand that, and my wife really understands that, and we just go out of our way to make sure that that’s what they’re provided with.”
Mickiewicz, a Utah native and Lehi resident, knows what proper treatment looks like. When he returned from home Afghanistan in 2010, he was offered an abundance of resources to help deal with challenges. Many veterans that came before didn’t have the same luxury, though. Through Seniors Helping Seniors, Mickiwicz interacts with roughly a dozen veteran clients and sees their persisting struggles first hand.
Former Vietnam fighter pilots face physical ailments from experiencing constant G force. Other veterans have spinal or leg injuries or other mobility issues. Mental illness and suicide rates remain high.
“You’re talking about trauma that you’re not dealing with,” Mickiewicz said. “And the level of trauma that combat veterans went through in Vietnam was 10 times, 20 times, 100 times what I went through in Afghanistan. Obviously, a very different war and different era. But if you just bury that, it’s just left to fester, right? And then it can come out in later stages of your life.”
Mickiewicz and his staff, many of whom are people in their 50s, 60s or 70s, are there for veterans, and other senior citizens, by attending appointments, providing companionship and helping seniors maintain a certain level of independence.
They also connect veterans with the VA. Mickiewicz referenced one client, who’s life had been impacted by his service as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, yet he had never received disability payments.
“He should have had a 100% disability rating for the last 50 years,” Mickiewicz said. “You’re talking about thousands of dollars a month that he could have been making this whole time, but he just didn’t know about it. So over the course of the few months that we worked with him and his family, he ended up getting, I think, 80% disability, which is still ridiculous. It should have been higher than that. But it just takes somebody who’s going to put forth the effort and make the phone calls and jump through the hoops.”
The occupation is a perfect fit for Mickiewicz, who describes himself as a service-oriented person. This fact did not go unnoticed in his military career, where he was awarded the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal for his volunteer efforts. He also currently serves as a first sergeant at a training battalion in Salt Lake City, were he embeds with deployment units and trains their officers.
Service is what prompted Mickiewicz to get into the care-center business, and the military man hopes to continue making an impact on veterans and their families along the way.
“It can be really, really difficult to navigate the system for our seniors,” he said. “When Candi and I get into somebody’s home, we always ask if they served, we find out veteran status, and we ask them about what they’ve done within the VA.
“My advice for any family that is looking to help a parent or help a grandparent and check on these benefits is to not wait and to just do it right away,” he added. “They need to get their discharge papers or get them seen at the VA so they can see if they qualify for these benefits.”
