The true origin of the Long Island State Veterans Home can be traced back nearly six decades to the early 1940's. Franklin D. Roosevelt was President and the Axis Powers, led by Nazi Germany, were marching through Europe in a quest to achieve global domination. By December of 1941, after the Japanese had successfully bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt and the United States Congress had had enough, and as a result, summoned America's young men and women to fight in World War II.
Four years later, after the U.S. and its allies had won the war, Uncle Sam discharged nearly 25 million soldiers, 2 million of whom started families and took up residence on Long Island. By the late 1970's, more than 35 years later, many of these veterans were well into their 60's and began realizing the need for long-term care services was imminent. This realization served as a catalyst for local veterans and legislators and sparked a massive grass-roots effort which led to the creation of the Long Island State Veterans Home in 1991.
Now, over 30 years later, the Long Island State Veterans Home has emerged as one of Long Island's premiere providers of long-term skilled nursing services and adult day health care and has compassionately cared for more than 15,000 United States veterans.
The Long Island State Veterans Home opened its doors to its first residents on October 25th, 1991, after more than twelve years of intensive planning and building. Located on the gold coast of Long Island, on the campus of Stony Brook University, the Veterans Home is a 350-bed skilled nursing facility that provides round-the-clock nursing and sub-acute care to veterans of the United States armed forces.
The mission of the Long Island State Veterans Home is twofold. First, to provide the highest quality and most comprehensive health care services to Long Islands veterans, and second, to serve as a model site for research, and the education and training of tomorrows long-term care and geriatric professionals.
The Veterans Home is a major teaching affiliate of Stony Brook Medicine, and continues to be one of the only nursing homes in the country that is fully integrated into the health and educational mission of a major teaching and research university. This affiliation enables the Home to offer Long Island's veterans access to the New York metropolitan region's best health care professionals and most advanced medical technology.