Category: Community
Military Gathering
This is an invitation to all veterans to join at Crossroads on 8/21/18 at 6:30 pm in meeting room C. Our goal is to bring the veteran community together to be a force of action, a force for good, and to explore what God wants from us – our next set of orders. There are many veterans in our midst that are isolated and needing support. They may be unaware there are other veterans around to support them. This is open to all veterans. Snacks and drinks provided.
Veteran community
A day of #guns, the smell of gun powder, and #veterans/#military family is one good remedy for #depression or #anxiety for some of us. Spending time we people that speak the same language as we do is a very good thing. I’ve been promote the app to this warriors and the have like it a lot. I hope the promote it in their circle.
Free app with a free book.
Check out the app: No Warriors Left Behind. Now downloadeble on IPhones and Android.
Helping prevent suicide among veterans. Because ONE suicide among veterans is too many.
The free book is located under PTSD Facts
FREE mobile application for suicide prevention
FREE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.
Under this tab you will find a list of about 30 links that will connect you with organization that committed to help veterans specially to prevent suicide. Most of the organizations are national except the last one on the list that is local to Cincinnati, Ohio. On my next update I will include local organizations from other cities and state. The information is not only for veterans it is also for civilians and love once that want to help veterans. By getting familiar with the app a common person can help a veteran.
I can directly speak about three of the organizations.
1. Wounded Warrior Project, oh thou with some controversy few years back it is a very committed organization to the well being of the warriors. I have been to Soldier Ride a three-day program to enrich the lives of the veterans it is a more community builder event. Another event I have taken part in is Project Odyssey, this is a kind of 4 days retreat for PTSD warriors. Project Odyssey is a game changer and a life saving event.
2. Operation Home Front, this organization paid some of my bills directly after I lost my job.
3. Simper Fi Fund, this organization mailed a check to pay for the repairs of my car so I could go to school after I lost job
You need to have your DD214 or any other document to prove your service.
For an Android Device they should be redirected to:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appmakr.nowarriorleftbehind
For an iOS Device they should be redirected to:
Suicide Prevention Mobile Application
As you may have noticed, I have not been posting the last couple of weeks. The reason is I’ve been devoting all my time and effort to complete a project I spoke about a few weeks back.
I would like to introduce my initiative “Suicide Prevention App” named “No Warriors Left Behind”. The app is currently in its infancy stage. There will be more information and upgrades to come in the future.
I’d like to hear your response about the app and hope it will prevent someone from taking their own life. The app is published in the Android store and Google Play. It’s not currently available in the Apple store, as the publishing process for the Apple/ITunes takes a bit longer. As soon as it is in the Apple store, I will let you know.
I am compiling a list of all the suggestions from you so I can modify the app for needs. I am doing this for the veteran community. My goal is to save lives and improve the living standards of all services members, and their families, and to bring the veteran community together. This app is our way to give back to the ones that have given so much.
Under PTSD facts is a book written by Dr. Steve Rose title Making People Change it is not a PTSD but it has good information about helping people with mental health problems. as freedom is not free!
Re-director Links
The URL you chose for your app can redirect users to different sites, depending on the device they use to access it. When people visit:
http://theapp.mobi/nowarriorsleftbehind
On an Android Device they should be redirected to:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appmakr.nowarriorleftbehind
On an iOS Device they should be redirected to:
http://h.theapp.mobi/nowarriorsleftbehind
On other Mobile Devices they should be redirected to:
http://h.theapp.mobi/nowarriorsleftbehind
On a Desktop browser they should be redirected to:
http://apps.appmakr.com/nowarriorsleftbehind
Women Veterans: Her Own Field of Combat
We met her at an LA Collaborative meeting. That’s the Los Angeles Veterans Collaborative, a group of community stakeholders, agencies and representatives serving veterans and military families in Greater Los Angeles. Like the NVF’s Women Veteran Outreach Coordinator Leaphy Khim, this woman Is a veteran. The two of them sat together in an early morning focus group for women veterans. Melanie Brown raised the issue of the scarcity of services for women who were pre-9/11 vets like her. Many agencies serve post 9/11 veterans only. She was quick to volunteer to put together a list of agencies who work specifically with women veterans. She and Leaphy struck up a conversation that led to more conversations about their experiences as women vets, and the needs of women veterans.
Brown’s experience as a US Army veteran in the years before 9/11 held its own kind of combat. In a war zone, yes, but not what you’re expecting. This wasn’t the desert or the jungle. This was basic training. Brown made a short, animated documentary about her experience. Her “Lion in a Box” is available on Vimeo.
Watching it, I remembered the nurses in Vietnam, what they experienced in the field hospitals and also after hours. How their lives were so different from what they would have been stateside. And I thought of the women vets we see in our outreach. Mary Ann Mayer, our Women Veteran Outreach Director, says this about them. “Here is the incredible strength of women veteran survivors of MST. These women can get knocked down, and still not break. They inspire me every single day.”
It takes a special kind of woman to want to train for combat. Melanie Brown is that woman. It riles her when someone makes the assumption that because she was not in a designated combat zone, she had an easy time of it. Her experience of harassment and unfair treatment is painful to watch, the more so because you know it’s not unusual. At the risk of repeating myself, here’s from my blog of 8/4 this year:
Forty percent of military women have experienced MST (Military Sexual Trauma) while 67% have experienced sexual harassment. And these figures don’t include unreported cases. Multiple studies show that PTSD from Military Sexual Trauma (MST) is twice as severe as combat PTSD.
The level of reported incidents of MST have risen, but the number of cases actually going to court hasn’t kept pace with the increase of reports. What we (still) have here is a situation where there doesn’t seem to be accountability for actions. Attention is drawn to problems and issues, and that’s all well and good. That’s the first step. What we need is substantive change.
There are ranking officers in the military justice system who see the need for change. Likewise in the Senate. Likewise in the ranks of women veterans who are telling their stories now. Let’s hope it’s just a matter of time, but let’s do keep the pressure on.
If you know a veteran who needs help, here’s our Lifeline for Vets number where they can talk vet-to-vet: 888.777.4443.
Wounded Warriors Family Support
Percent of total expenses spent on programs and services: 83%
Not to be confused with the Wounded Warrior Project — which also does fine work, but allocates just 60% of its donations to programs while spending a staggering 34% on fundraising initiatives — Wounded Warriors Family Support lends its assistance to the loved ones of injured veterans.
The publicized version of their job includes family retreats where loved ones can blow off steam, but some of their lesser-known initiatives include a welding program for veterans with the United Auto Workers union and Ford and a caregiver respite program that provides supplemental services for those taking care of wounded veterans. It addresses not only the injured veterans themselves, but the impact their injury has on their family and loved ones. It’s simple recognition that when one person goes off to war, their family isn’t immune to that war’s effects — and needs just as much help getting back to “normal” as veterans do.
The KKK Unmasked
…those who advocate for these ideas perceive themselves as victims in a world where their status has come under question.
Source: The KKK Unmasked
The Link Between Traumatic Brain Injury and Combat PTSD
Unfortunately, many soldiers experience traumatic brain injury when in combat, but is traumatic brain injury (TBI) linked to later combat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Two recent studies examined the link between traumatic brain injury and PTSD in marines and army soldiers.
Link Between TBIs and Combat PTSD
In a study published last year, Association Between Traumatic Brain Injury and Risk of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Active-Duty Marines1 shows that 19.8% of Marines reported sustaining a deployment-related TBI where most (87.2%) were mild in nature. It was noted that while predeployment PTSD symptoms and severity of combat intensity did predict a higher risk of postdeployment combat PTSD, a better predictor was the experience of a TBI during deployment. Moderate or severe TBIs predicted the presence of PTSD symptoms at three months postdeployment more than mild TBIs did.
What this all means that a TBI during deployment actually predicts the presence of PTSD symptoms better than other known risk factors and that the more severe the TBI, the greater the risk of combat PTSD.
Deployment-Related TBIs and Future Risk of PTSD and Other Mental Illness
In the latest study, Prospective Longitudinal Evaluation of the Effect of Deployment-Acquired Traumatic Brain Injury on Posttraumatic Stress and Related Disorders: Results From the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS)2, 4,645 soldiers who were deployed to Afghanistan were studied and results showed that 18% of soldiers experienced mild TBIs while 1.2% of soldiers experienced more-then-mild TBIs during deployment. Even after taking into account other known risk factors for combat PTSD causes such as pre-deployment mental health, prior TBIs and severity of deployment stress, it was found that:
- There was a greater risk of posttraumatic stress disorder at the three month and nine month mark.
- There was a greater risk of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) at the three month and nine month mark.
- There was a greater risk of a major depressive episode at the three month mark.
- Suicide risk may be elevated at the three month mark but the relationship did not reach statistical significance.
This study shows that there is a risk of, not only PTSD for those who have suffered a TBI, but also other mental health issues as well.
The Link Between Traumatic Brain Injuries and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
While we don’t currently understand why the link between TBIs and PTSD exists, it’s clear that it does. What this, like other studies, suggests is that PTSD is, indeed, a physical illness and not “all in one’s head” like some would have you believe (You Don’t Have A Mental Illness: It’s All In Your Head!). What this means for soldiers is that greater care should be taken in screening for PTSD after a TBI is sustained and, critically, even mild injuries can increase a soldier’s risk of PTSD.
While this may seem like a bleak finding, really it is not. What this finding does is further our understanding of combat PTSD and it allows us to further target risk groups to better treat those in the military as a whole; because, we know that treatment of combat PTSD is possible and we know that people successfully recover from combat PTSD every day.
Article link: https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/understandingcombatptsd/2015/09/the-link-between-traumatic-brain-injury-and-combat-ptsd/
