Veterans Health Care: Resources for recovery, finding purpose in adaptive sports, ringing the victory bell, and reclaim your confidence through whole health

View as a webpage / Share Veterans Health Care  July 8, 2021 Providing health care to America’s Veterans The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is home to America's largest integrated health care system, serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year. Join your fellow Veterans. Here are some of their stories. After nearly 600 combat operations, a Veteran faced invisible enemies He had a feeling of invincibility. He was the best of the best and could do anything he wanted. A year later he was lost and felt useless. He had hit rock bottom and wanted to go away forever. Read how Chris VanSant found the courage to work hard, keep pushing forward and recover.  Read More Army Veteran finds purpose in Adaptive Sports – and a new career After a spinal injury left her in a wheelchair, Army Veteran Desiree Emilio-Duverge reinvented herself by embracing change, learning to use adaptive equipment and finding a new passion in adaptive sports. “It changed me to my core,” she said. “I needed adrenaline, not pity."  She also embraced possibilities for a new career, which is what led her to Compensated Work Therapy. Read More   Cancer patient’s final treatment ends with a victory bell After eight weeks of radiation treatments and chemotherapies for throat cancer, Veteran Anthony Thomas received his last radiation dose but still had one final step before recovery: ring the victory bell.  “To ring that bell, you’ve earned it. I’ve earned it. I really have,” said Thomas. “To me, it’s a glorious feeling because that bell means it’s over.” Read More   Veteran reclaims his confidence through Whole Health Marine Corps Veteran Christopher Young, a former athlete, became immobile due to migraines and other health issues. “It messes with your spirit,” he says. “I know what good shape is and I knew I wasn’t in good shape.” Now, thanks to his work with Whole Health at Orlando VA, Young has lost 23 pounds and kept it off through healthy eating and exercise. “I just feel happy to be alive and I feel much more outgoing now,” he says. Read More Read more stories here

 

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9 Ways to Measure Digital Marketing Success

A positive return on investment is the goal of every digital marketing campaign. However, while the endgame of digital marketing is to increase profits, not every campaign directly leads to dollars and cents. Some campaigns raise awareness of your brand, while others might bring visitors to your blog — both help increase profits in the long run, but short-term results can’t be quantified with monetary values. This begs an important question: how do you know whether your digital marketing efforts are successful? Here we’ll review nine ways to measure the success of your digital marketing campaigns. And to add further clarity to the question above, we’ve split these methods into two categories: conversions and website behavior.

 

 

Conversions Conversions occur when visitors or customers take specific actions as a result of your digital marketing. Unlike website behavior, conversions are more directly linked to sales and revenues. Since your ultimate goal is increasing profits, making sure your digital marketing converts is absolutely essential. Here are five types of conversions that can indicate successful campaigns: #1. Online sales Online sales from your website is perhaps the simplest conversion for gauging success. Tracking your online sales is easy if you use Google Analytics or another Web analytics platform. After installing a small snippet of code on your website, you’ll be able to see which of your campaigns are driving the most online sales. This is the most important conversion for strictly e-commerce business owners. #2: Online-to-store sales Not everyone who finds your business online will buy from your website. Local customers are likely to visit your store and make in-person purchases. How do you measure these conversions? Don’t worry, there are ways to gauge online-to-store sales. For example, you can collect information from prospective customers on your website, such as email addresses, that can later be compared with data collected at the cash register. Or, you can offer a special discount code on your website so when customers redeem the discount you’ll be able to easily match it back to the marketing campaign. Or, you can be really low tech and just ask customers whether they found your business online. Clarify how they found you – such as via a PPC ad, Facebook or a Google search — and record their answers in a spreadsheet. Then you can see which campaigns drive more in-store conversions. #3: Leads from Web forms Most websites have forms that customers can use to request services, schedule appointments or get more information. If you’re using Google Analytics, you’ll be able to see which campaigns result in the most use of your various Web forms. Any visitor who completes a Web form to request a quote could later convert into a customer. Therefore, marketing campaign success can be measured by the number of leads (Web form submissions) generated. #4: Leads and sales from phone calls Tracking leads and sales from phone calls is also important for businesses that drive sales via the phone. To track calls, you’ll need to set up dynamic number insertion (DNI), which shows visitors different phone numbers depending on how they arrived at your website. You can then view your phone logs to see which campaigns result in the most calls. #5: Leads from live chats Does your website offer live chat for visitors? If not, then you might consider adding it as another way to engage your visitors. Once you have chat installed on your website, then you need to track which marketing campaigns are driving the most chats. This can be done using the built-in tracking in your chat program or by integrating Google Analytics into your chat tool. In both cases, you’ll be able to see which campaigns are driving more leads for your business via live chat. Now that we’ve covered 5 ways to measure conversions from digital marketing, it’s time to move on to tracking how visitors behave on your website. Just because a visitor doesn’t convert right away, doesn’t mean she’s never going to. For that reason, it’s not enough to only look at conversions. We must also review website behavior metrics to measure digital marketing success… Website Behavior Here are four ways to determine digital marketing success based on website behavior: #1: Website visits This one is simple – which of your digital marketing campaigns are putting the most eyes on your website? Although this is a rather shallow metric compared to e-commerce and web form conversions, it’s still important to measure visits per marketing channel. This is especially helpful when you view traffic trends over time. For example, you’ll want to measure traffic from Organic Search (SEO traffic) over time so you know if your SEO efforts are working. Plus, you’ll be able to spot potential problems early on if you see a sudden drop in SEO traffic. #2: Page Views per visit Website visits are important, but they don’t really indicate whether people are engaged by your business. What if nobody who visits your sites clicks around to your various products and pages? Fortunately, Google Analytics can show you how visitors click through your site while also providing average numbers of page views per visit. Pay close attention to which webpages your customers are visiting most. You might find that online customers are more attracted to certain aspects of your business or specific products in your inventory. If you’re promoting your blog, you can also get ideas about the topics your visitors find most interesting. #3: Time spent on the website How much time are people spending on your blog or website, and which of your digital marketing campaigns is bringing in the most engaged visitors? Analytics can track this, too. Again, time spent on your website doesn’t directly lead to sales, but folks who spend more time browsing are more likely to later buy. #4: Bounce rates In the world of digital marketing, bouncing is bad for several reasons. If any of your campaigns have high bounce rates – meaning people hit their “back” buttons as soon as they land on your website — then there’s probably a serious disconnect between your marketing strategy and your landing page. Just as bad, though, Google might interpret websites with high bounce rates as low-quality or spam, resulting in an SEO penalty. Use Google Analytics to measure your bounce rates over time to spot trends in each of your marketing campaigns. Conclusion Knowing how to measure the success of your digital marketing campaigns will save you a lot of stress down the road. You won’t need to guess whether you’re wasting your time with various campaigns. You can adjust or turn off campaigns that aren’t working, or you can sharpen campaigns to really hone in on your goals. And one more thing — always know how you’ll measure a campaign’s success before you launch it. Yes, this requires a more carefully constructed game plan for your marketing efforts, but you should never launch a digital marketing campaign that doesn’t have a specific goal. Plan ahead, aim at your target, and you’re more likely to get good news when measuring the success of campaigns.

 

 

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HHS Secretary Insists It’s “Absolutely the Government’s Business” to Know Your Vaccine Status

Xavier Becerra, pictured above, said “The federal government has spent trillions of dollars to keep Americans alive during this pandemic, so it is absolutely the government’s business, it is taxpayer’s business if we have to keep trying to spend money to keep people from contracting COVID and helping reopen the economy. It is our business to make sure Americans can prosper, freely associate, and knocking on the door has never been against the law. You don’t have to answer, but we hope you do so we can help dispel some of those rumors that you’ve heard and hopefully get you vaccinated.”

National Review

Taking Care of Your Mental Health

Since the COVID-19 crisis arose, life has become more stressful for almost everyone. It’s normal to feel worried. But for people with conditions such as diabetes and heart disease — who face a greater risk from the virus — anxiety might be overwhelming.

Now’s a good time to take a breath, examine some of your habits and see if you can make positive changes.

For example, are you staying up too late or overindulging in your favorite comfort foods? Is it harder to concentrate or make decisions? If so, you’re not alone. Here are some more questions to help you gauge your level of anxiety:

·        Are you overwhelmed with fear about your own health or that of your loved ones?

·        Do you feel more anger, hostility or irritability than usual?

·        Are you deeply upset about how life has changed since the coronavirus appeared?

·        Have you been neglecting routine hygiene and self-care?

·        Are you having headaches, muscle tension, digestive issues or other physical symptoms?

·        Have chronic health problems or mental health conditions worsened?

·        Are you using alcohol, tobacco or other substances more frequently?

If stress interferes with your daily activities for several days in a row, call your health care provider.

Anxiety can make the best-laid plans fall apart. But it’s vital for people with conditions like heart disease and diabetes to stick to their treatment plans and to consult their health care providers if they are struggling.

Meanwhile, there are a number of things you can do to reduce your anxiety about COVID-19. Focus on self-care, including eating well, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep and avoiding alcohol and other substances.

Make a point of limiting how much pandemic-related news and social media content you take in every day. Know when enough is enough! You’re in control. Stop scrolling and pick up a book instead. Here are some more tips:

·        Try meditating, stretching, deep breathing, yoga, mindfulness or other stress-reduction techniques.

·        Indulge in a calming ritual like a hot bath, a nature walk, journaling or quiet time with pets.

·        Set aside time for hobbies, music, movies or other enjoyable pastimes.

·        Agree on a daily schedule for everyone in your household to help reduce day-to-day friction.

·        Find people and things that make you laugh.

·        Establish your own special space where you can quietly relax.

·        Tackle projects on your long-term to-do list, such as cleaning a closet or reorganizing your office.

·        Connect with your usual support network as well as other loved ones, share how you feel and support them as they cope with the pandemic.

·        Find an online support group.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by anxiety or sadness, contact your primary care provider, your health insurer or your employer’s Employee Assistance Program, if available, to find a mental health provider. (Remember, many appointments are being conducted by phone or video during the pandemic, so you can avoid in-person contact.)

 In an emergency, call:

·        The federal government’s 24-hour Disaster Distress Helpline at 800-985-5990 (or text TalkWithUs to 66746).

·        The 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.

For More Information

·        Coping with Stress

·        Managing Mental Health During COVID-19

https://www.knowdiabetesbyheart.org/articles/taking-care-of-your-mental-health/?utm_source=know+diabetes+by+heart+fy+2122&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=july+newsletter&utm_content=feature+cta

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July 9, 2021

 

US Forces Korea mandates ‘immediate, aggressive’ restrictions amid record-breaking coronavirus surge The U.S. Forces Korea directive, which lasts through July 23, came as the South Korean government announced 1,316 new patients Friday. READ MORE

Marines bolster embassy security after unrest in tiny African kingdom of Eswatini Over a dozen Marines with a diplomatic security unit created in the wake of the 2012 Benghazi attacks were deployed to Eswatini after pro-democracy demonstrations erupted last month. READ MORE

Retired Marine sues Navy and Defense Department over denied promotion following false accusations his team killed civilians Maj. Fred Galvin was first denied promotion after receiving a poor fitness report — “the first ever in his career” — following accusations of his team “firing indiscriminately at civilians” in Afghanistan in March 2007 when he led a Marine special operations company there, according to the lawsuit. READ MORE   US Air Force in England to review coronavirus restrictions as country plans to end mask, social distancing mandates The U.S. Air Force, which operates on several joint bases alongside the Royal Air Force, says that it generally follows host nation rules. But U.S. forces in Europe also follow Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. READ MORE   Military commanders aren’t getting necessary legal training, government review finds The GAO report was released as Congress determines whether to remove commanders from prosecutorial decision-making in cases involving suspected sexual assault. READ MORE

Marines call out Japan’s public broadcaster for ‘inaccurate’ report on toxic wastewater A spokesman from the Okinawa Prefectural Enterprise Bureau, the agency responsible for the island’s water supply and quality, told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday that the water would be released into the sea around Okinawa and not into a river. He added that the water would likely not be PFOS-free. READ MORE   US sailor under house arrest after fatal crash in Naples A U.S. Navy 6th Fleet sailor is under house arrest following a car crash that left an Italian citizen dead.   READ MORE   USS Ronald Reagan celebrates former first lady’s 100th birthday with her favorite cookies The Reagan’s sailors enjoyed the cookies in the Arabian Sea, where the ship has been assisting with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. READ MORE   Montgomery Meigs, former commander of US Army Europe, dies at 76 Retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs was a combat veteran who commanded the Army in Europe for four years and hailed from a storied line of military officers. READ MORE   Biden tells Putin Russia must crack down on cybercriminals The warning to Putin was largely a repetition of the tough rhetoric Biden had used during their meeting in Geneva last month, when he warned that there would be consequences for continuing cyberattacks emanating from Russia. READ MORE   Across US government, views remain divergent on Afghan military’s readiness for US troop withdrawal The question of the Afghan government’s ability to face looming threats of Taliban gains, which have surged since the U.S. withdrawal began, along with the specter of civil war, continues to loom over the withdrawal. READ MORE

 

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