RTW VETERAN CENTER’S HEALING BROKEN WARRIORS PROGRAM

Our “Healing Broken Warriors” program begins with our commitment in our mantra as a service organization “leave no one behind” and is carried out in our organizations overall Motto “Serving those who served as we continue to serve our country”.

Following the model of the “Good Samaritan” our veteran programs starts with our social services where the mission is to locate and stabilize veterans and their families by providing the basic needs of humanity; food, shelter, clothing, and economic empowerment.

Then becomes the part of our mission that is directed specifically at the mental condition and social support of the veteran and their family “Healing broken warriors”

These programs seek to give veterans a sense of purpose, direction, and self-worth. Our programs include our counseling, veteran services, alternative health care, and faith based support services.

To get veterans involved in collective activities and restoring their sense of purpose we are an impact organization that is working in the community to eliminate, poverty, drugs, gangs, crime, violence, and terrorism, and to restore the spirit of American patriotism. Our programs include working with the general public providing services, at risk youth development, and restoring the spirit of American Patriotism.

This leads into our National Veteran suicide prevention task force. In 2016 a VA study found that 20 veterans a day commit suicide, one veteran a day is too many. We have an American Crisis.

Veteran suicide is not just a veteran’s issue nor is it just a government and VA Administration issue, this is an American issue.

RTW Veteran Center is making plans to launch a “National Veteran Suicide Prevention Task Force” The goal of this task force is to first bring public awareness, then create an across the board gathering of expertise to focus on this crisis, and then implement of a collective sustained action plan.

To get involve to help resolve – register on our website www.rtwvetcenter.org//helppreventveteransuicide

Or call 800 974-2808 Extension 15

Support our “Golden Poppy Campaign” (Help Prevent Veteran Suicide)

Donate by going to our pay pal button or support our fundraising programs

Current program – Laugh Factory

RTW Veterans Group and AMP Promotions intend to collaborate for fundraising purposes to support the RTW Veterans Center program “Healing Broken Warriors” which provide support and resources for Veterans for Suicide Prevention and PTSD.

(Click to see read “VA Releases Report on Nation’s Largest Analysis of Veteran Suicide”)

Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs

VA Releases Report on Nation’s Largest Analysis of Veteran Suicide

August 3, 2016, 03:45:00 PM

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VA Releases Report on Nation’s Largest Analysis of Veteran Suicide

More than 55 Million Veterans’ Records Reviewed From 1979 to 2014 From Every State in the Nation

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today released its findings from the nation’s most comprehensive analysis of Veteran suicide rates in the United States in which VA examined more than 55 million Veterans’ records from 1979 to 2014 from every state in the nation. The effort advances VA’s knowledge from the previous report in 2012, which was primarily limited to information on Veterans who used VHA health services or from mortality records obtained directly from 20 states and approximately 3 million records.. Compared to the data from the 2012 report, which estimated the number of Veteran deaths by suicide to be 22 per day, the current analysis indicates that in 2014, an average of 20 Veterans a day died from suicide.

A link to the report may be found here.

THE REPORT CONCLUDES:

· Approximately 65 percent of all Veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older.

· Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults. This is a decrease from 22 percent in 2010.

· Since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while Veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period. After controlling for age and gender, this makes the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for Veterans.

· Since 2001, the rate of suicide among U.S. Veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent, while the rate of suicide among Veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent.

· In the same time period, the rate of suicide among male Veterans who use VA services increased 11 percent, while the rate of suicide increased 35 percent among male Veterans who do not use VA services.

· In the same time period, the rate of suicide among female Veterans who use VA services increased 4.6 percent while the rate of suicide increased 98 percent among female Veterans who do not use VA services.

SUICIDE PREVENTION MEASURES BY VA

VA is aggressively undertaking a number of new measures to prevent suicide, including:

· VA has implemented comprehensive, broad-ranging suicide prevention initiatives, including a toll-free Veterans Crisis Line, placement of Suicide Prevention Coordinators at all VA Medical Centers and large outpatient facilities and improvements in case management and tracking. In addition, VA announced this week the creation of a satellite Veterans Crisis Line site in Atlanta, Georgia, for increased staffing capability and geographic redundancy; the satellite site is expected to operational in October 2016 with 200 additional responders.

· Ensuring same-day access for Veterans with urgent mental health needs at over 1,000 points of care by the end of calendar year 2016. In fiscal year 2015, more than 1.6 million Veterans received mental health treatment from VA, including at over 150 medical centers, 820 community-based outpatient clinics and 300 Vet Centers that provide readjustment counseling. Veterans also enter VA health care through the Veterans Crisis Line, VA staff on college and university campuses, or other outreach points.

· Using predictive modeling to determine which Veterans may be at highest risk of suicide, so providers can intervene early. Veterans in the top 0.1% of risk, who have a 43-fold increased risk of death from suicide within a month, can be identified before clinical signs of suicide are evident in order to save lives before a crisis occurs.

· Expanding telemental health care by establishing four new regional telemental health hubs across the VA healthcare system.

· Hiring over 60 new crisis intervention responders for the Veterans Crisis Line. Each responder receives intensive training on a wide variety of topics in crisis intervention, substance use disorders, screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment.

· Building new collaborations between Veteran programs in VA and those working in community settings, such as Give an Hour, Psych Armor Institute, University of Michigan’s Peer Advisors for Veterans Education Program (PAVE), and the Cohen Veterans Network.

· Creating stronger inter-agency (e.g. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health) and new public-private partnerships (e.g., Johnson & Johnson Healthcare System, Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, Walgreen’s, and many more) focused on preventing suicide among Veterans.

Many of these efforts were catalyzed by VA’s February 2016 Preventing Veteran Suicide—A Call to Action summit, which focused on improving mental health care access for Veterans across the nation and increasing resources for the VA Suicide Prevention Program.

Suicide is an issue that affects all Americans. Recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data reported in April 2016 that from 1999 through 2014 (the most recent year with data available from CDC), suicide rates increased 24 percent in the general population for both males and females.

A link to the report may be found at: http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/2016suicidedatareport.pdf .

Other VA mental health information can be found on the VA Mental Health page at: www.mentalhealth.va.gov.

Information about the Crisis Line is available at www.VeteransCrisisLine.net; Veterans in crisis can call Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 (press 1) or texting 838255.

A Suicide prevention fact sheet may be found at www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/Suicide_Prevention_FactSheet_New_VA_Stats_070616_1400.pdf

Reporters covering this report are strongly encouraged to visit www.ReportingOnSuicide.Org, for important guidance on ways to communicate suicide.

New VA study finds 20 veterans commit suicide each day

By: Leo Shane III and Patricia Kime July 7, 2016

Pedestrians walk in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington, Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

This story was originally published July 7, 2016, at 6:03 a.m. EST. It has since been updated.

Roughly 20 veterans a day commit suicide nationwide, according to new data from the Department of Veterans Affairs — a figure that dispels the often quoted, but problematic, "22 a day" estimate yet solidifies the disturbing mental health crisis the number implied.

In 2014, the latest year available, more than 7,400 veterans took their own lives, accounting for 18 percent of all suicides in America. Veterans make up less than 9 percent of the U.S. population.

About 70 percent of veterans who took their own lives were not regular users of VA services.

The new data, being released publicly today, is the most comprehensive suicide study ever conducted by the department.

For years, the department has estimated the veterans suicide toll nationwide at around 22 individuals a day, but veterans groups noted numerous gaps in how that estimate was constructed. Most notably, the numbers were based on information from only about 20 states and did not contain full military records from the Defense Department.

The new study includes more than 50 million veterans’ records from 1979 to 2014, including every state. The data, compiled over the last four years, also comes from the Centers for Disease Control.

VA officials said in a statement that the information will allow them to "inform our suicide prevention programs and policies, especially for groups at elevated risk for suicide, including older and female veterans."

Together, the numbers point to a significant mental health risk for individuals who served in the military, though the specific reasons remain unclear.

Researchers found that the risk of suicide for veterans is 21 percent higher when compared to civilian adults. From 2001 to 2014, as the civilian suicide rate rose about 23.3 percent, the rate of suicide among veterans jumped more than 32 percent.

The problem is particularly worrisome among female veterans, who saw their suicide rates rise more than 85 percent over that time, compared to about 40 percent for civilian women.

And roughly 65 percent of all veteran suicides in 2014 were for individuals 50 years or older, many of whom spent little or no time fighting in the most recent wars.

Providing support and assistance to suicidal veterans has proven difficult, in part because of the lack of data on the scope of the problem.

In recent years, VA has hired 5,300 mental health providers and support personnel and upgraded its Veterans Crisis Line in response to the problem. It has also elevated the profile of its suicide prevention office within the department and launched new partnerships with community health providers to offer counseling to veterans.

Officials hope to use the data to further expand those offerings, targeting specific regions and populations within the veterans community to more effectively deliver care.

Veterans groups hailed the new research as a critical step ahead in addressing the problem.

"Of course, this is still 20 [deaths] too many," said Joe Chenelly, executive director at AMVETS. "But we are grateful for the deeper, more accurate data analysis. Much still needs to be done, and this gives us a better idea where to focus."

Full year-by-year and demographic breakdowns of the data are expected to be released by the department by the end of July.

Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at lshane@militarytimes.com.

Patricia Kime covers military and veterans health care and medicine for Military Times. She can be reached at pkime@militarytimes.com

What is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

You feel on edge. Nightmares keep coming back. Sudden noises make you jump. You’re staying at home more and more. Could you have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

If you have experienced severe trauma or a life-threatening event — whether during a time of war or in a noncombat situation — you may develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress, or what is commonly known as PTSD. Maybe during the event you felt as if your life or the lives of others were in danger or that you had no control over what was happening. While in the military, you may have witnessed people being injured or dying, or you may have experienced physical harm yourself.

Some of the most common symptoms of PTSD include recurring memories or nightmares of the event, sleeplessness, loss of interest, and feelings of numbness, anger or irritability, or being constantly on guard, but there are many ways PTSD can impact your everyday life. Sometimes these symptoms don't surface for months or even years after the event occurred or after returning from deployment. They may also come and go. If these problems persist or they're disrupting your daily life, you may have PTSD.

Some factors can increase the likelihood of a traumatic event leading to PTSD, such as:

The intensity of the trauma
Being hurt or losing someone you were close to
Being physically close to the traumatic event
Feeling you were not in control
Having a lack of support after the event

RTW Veteran Center makes plans to launch a National Veteran Suicide Prevention Task Force.

Golden Poppy Campaign (Help Prevent Veteran Suicide)

Plans are being laid to address the problem of suicide among our nations veterans.

To date we have served over 250,000 free meals, breakfast lunch, and dinner, 360 days per year in our previous facility at 5536 King Drive, in the Washington Park community that serviced five zip codes that included several surrounding communities. This helped to deter crime in where hungry people might have to commit crime in order to eat. With the veteran suicide rate being the highest among veterans 50 years and older our feeding program helped this population of veterans with the basic needs of humanity. In addition to providing hot meals at our facility we provided food and grocery items to thousands of individuals and families in our commitment to “Feeding America’s Homeless Veterans & Others”. We also operated a community garden where people could come and gather fresh produce for their families.

We’ve helped veterans and their families get their benefits from the veterans administration, helped provide job training and job placement for the unemployed adding several millions of dollars to the economy, helped those seeking to open or grow a business, provided housing assistance to the homeless, provided free clothing. Our “Young Soldiers Leadership Program” as a gang intervention initiative helped mentor 8 thru 16 year olds giving them a direction for their warrior nature as a direct alternative to the gang warlords and drug kingpins in our neighborhoods while helping to develop within them the spirit of American Patriotism.