sometimes the first, second or even third medication we tried is not one that works the best. but we owe it to ourselves to keep trying. the reality is that you're not a car who goes into the shop and gets fixed immediately. you need ongoing maintenance. there will always be work left to do. i can only do the work now because i truly believe that i'm worth it. and today, i'm so grateful for my life and i want to preserve and protect it. it is my personal mission to share with others of all ages, people who are children that are fans, people that don't know my music at all but hopefully my speech today can have some impact. it's my mission to share this with the world. and to let them know that there

is life on the other side of those dark times that seem so hopeless and helpless. i want to show the world that there is life, surprising, wonderful and unexpected life. after diagnosis. i'm proud to say that i'm living proof that someone can live, love and thrive with bipolar disorder if at tthey get connec with professional resources and accept support as soon as possible. that is why i'm participating in a mental health listening and engagement tour, by getting to meet people like you i'm learning more about the issues that face the mental health community. i hope to do my part to make things a little easier for

others and to reduce the shame associated with mental illness. i want to do what i can to make things better for others by becoming the most strong, informed mental illness advocate that i can be. today we have a chance to make history with nami. an organization that has been the forefront of advancing mental health in this country for decades. we've seen increased attention to our country's broken mental it system in the past few years, but we've seen very if little action. today, our message is very clear. it's time for congress to act for mental health by supporting the passage of a comprehensive mental health care bill this

year. i understand that the details around comprehensive mental health care are complex. i am not a policy expert in any way shape or form but i do know that the basis of comprehensive care make good sense, common sense, comprehensive care means that as a nation we step up our efforts to prevent suicide which is currently the second leading cause of death for young adults in the united states. comprehensive care means that if a man with mental illness gets diabetes or cancer his doctors work together to determine what the best approach for his mind and body. comprehensive care also means that when a woman leaves the psychiatric hospital there is a process in place to make sure she gets the care that she needs so she doesn't end up back in jail, hospitals, or on the street. or worst of all, even death.

at the heart of it, comprehensive care means that our mental health system reaches people early and far more often so that fewer people fall through the cracks and suffer alone. i'm so proud to be here with you today. together as mental health advocates we can make our voices heard. our shared message is simple. like you said, keep it simple. support passage of a comprehensive mental health bill this year. so go out there, and make today count. together we can make a difference as we act for mental health. don't forget to tweet, the posts are up today, we all know that gets the word going. i'm about to right now, once i'm

not sitting on an important panel. i'm so proud, but i want the entire world to know that i'm proud of everyone in here. and i'm also proud of myself for getting the help that i need, and you can have that, too. >> throughout campaign 2014, c-span has brought you more than 100 debates, and this tuesday night, watch c-span's live election coverage to see who

wins and loses and which party will control the house and senate. our coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern with results and analysis. you will also see candidate victory and concession speeches in some of the most closely watched senate races throughout.

call us at 202-626-3400, e-mail at at c-span.org. >> and more on the transition for veterans back to civilian life and the services available to them and their families from various organizations. specialists with the american red cross, and the veteran's affairs department talks about unemployment, homelessness, mental health, and suicide prevention, the national alliance hosted this event in septembe september. >> good evening, everybody, i'm mike guns, the chair of the council who is bringing this presentation to you today to help you and all the nami folks

to help you understand there are resources out there in the community for all the veterans and active duty that are having trouble with this very long war they have had to endure. we know that for some veterans it is a real task and a real struggle to transition back into the civilian community. many veterans do it. many active duty do it, with not even a skip of a beat. but many struggle with these issues. and we know they struggle because we see -- we see evidence in all the legal problems, many of our veterans are having. we also know that there is a great deal of homelessness in our veteran's population. i guess the employment issues that everybody knows about, and ultimately the saddest of the statistics is all of the suicide we are hearing about. sampsa and other organizations

tell us anywhere from 22 upwards to 30 a day, veterans commit suicide. and we know at least one active duty dov -- military member commits suicide. these are tragedies that we really have to muster up and fight. but the good news, even with all the difficulty many of our veterans are facing, is that in each community there are great supports that nami needs to connect up with. and they're called vsos, our veteran service organizations. there are a great many veteran service organizations, so we're not going to go through the whole list today but as you exit our gathering this afternoon nami veteran's council has made a list of the vsos that you need to be familiar with. not only a list of them but contact information so your nami

affiliate can hook up with the vsos who serve and help our veterans. we have a privilege today to hear from four veteran service organizations. that have been out there, in fact, one of them has been with the military from the beginning it seems. and many of the other ones, for example, have come along many years ago also. i am a service officer for the dav, notice my hat up here, disabled american veterans. there are many service organizations out there that you can be familiar with and you can hook up with. last night at one of our veteran's organizations our nami executive officer said that when the nami affiliate across the land hook up with the vso we become a formidable force to help veterans and their family

members. and so with no further ado, i'm not going to make any other announcements. i'm going to let you know who our vsos here are. we have right to left here is christina kaufman -- okay, all the way down there, we'll go that way. christina kaufman, she is the executive director of code of support foundation. now, i've been around the military, i'm retired military, u.s. navy, marine corps, and i'm looking forward to hear about this because i am not as familiar with the code of foundation as i should be. so some of us old timers are even going to learn things today. and then next to her, let me see if i can get -- beryl love comes to us from our veteran's

community. next to beryl -- yeah, i got it now. is diana manuel, who comes to us from the services of the armed forces from the american red cross. so we can hear a lot about many of these beautiful programs. and then next to her is -- kaitlyn thompson, and she is the director of the suicide prevention veteran's health administration or the v.a. and we know that is a difficult topic and something we really need to hear about, what is the v.a. doing to help with the untold numbers of suicide. here is how we're going to do this. we're going do give each of our vso presenters roughly 12 minutes to tell us about their organization. its mission, how it helps veterans and possibly how you

can innerface as nami with these vsos. and then after we hear all of our four presenters we'll open it up for questions and comments and dialogue. and please, hold your questions until we hear from all four of our speakers. okay? so starting directly -- we're going to hear from our red cross service organization -- okay. v.a., right. >> i'm actually going to stand. >> please, please. >> hello, i currently oversee all of the v.a. suicide prevention efforts. i'm hoping that everybody got this folder.

if not, okay, so it is in the back. i wonder -- would one of you be able to -- thank you so much. i'm going to be referencing all of the resources in here throughout. so i -- yes, so i work for v.a. and i'm really thrilled to talk with you all today. at v.a., we really value our collaboration with nami. we have had a strong collaboration over the years just in mental health services in general. but especially also in suicide prevention. so i want to make sure that you're all aware of what is available both nationally from v.a. as well as locally and how you can connect with v.a. in terms of helping with this really terrible problem that we have with veterans and suicide. as well as how v.a. -- how we can collaborate with you on what

you're doing. and you know, as -- as has been said we really need to continue to work together on this issue. so just in general i want to just speak to the suicide prevention program as a whole for v.a. one of our biggest -- one of the biggest things that we have available. we have suicide prevention coordinators at every v.a. throughout the country. and wherever you're located there is a v.a. suicide prevention coordinator who is your local expert in suicide prevention for veterans through v.a. and we really encourage you to get in contact with them, many of you or many of nami's folks have been in touch with our v.a. suicide prevention coordinators. but one of the biggest things that our suicide prevention coordinators do is provide local outreach. v.a. suicide prevention coordinators are required to provide five outreach events per

month to their local community. so that the information regarding suicide prevention and prevention with veterans, information about the veterans crisis line and other resources are given throughout the country. how do you find out who your prevention coordinator is? just in general, in the left-hand side of the folder in the back is the mental health resources for veterans and their families. and i'm going to go through this list because i believe this is some of the most importance resources that we have available. those that you can tap into and those that we can collaborate on. so when it talks about the veteran's crisis line which i'll get to in a second, within that, there is a website that says

veteran's crisis line.net. there is a resource locater where you can find out who your local suicide prevention coordinator is through v.a. so if you are concerned about a veteran. if you're concerned about family members of veterans and you want to make sure that they're being seen at v.a. or that they are enrolled in care. or if they don't even want to work with the v.a., that is fine. because at v.a. we want to work with all veterans, those who seek care and those who don't. we especially want to tap into working with those who don't seek care at the v.a. you can find it through the resources locater, you can find out who exactly your suicide prevention coordinator is. so that is one very important resource that you can tap into in your local area. when i talk about it, i do just want to mention -- when i talk about the fact that we do want

to see as many veterans as we can in v.a., specifically because of suicide prevention efforts the reason is that we're finding that those veterans who seek care after v.a. have lower rates of suicide than veterans who do not seek care at v.a. so what is that saying? that is saying that since our suicide prevention program was established in 2007 it is saying that there is something going on. that we're doing something right. we have a whole enhanced care delivery system for veterans who have high risk of suicide. we have developed a safety plan for any veteran who has a high risk of suicide. we have a list of risks how many times a veteran should be called because we want to make sure there are no veterans falling through the cracks. the people that we can really use your help with and that we perhaps can help you with are those who are in more rural

areas. those who are not seeking care at v.a. one thing that we know about our veterans and the reason that at the have very high suicide rates is that they may become very isolated. the other thing that we know about is that veterans use firearms more than non-veterans in terms of their suicidal behavior. and we know that firearms are the most lethal form of suicide. and so if you're taking pills there is a much longer period of time after you take them where you can realize what you did and try to seek help quickly to get the pills out of your system. or somebody can find you. if you use a gun there is about a 90% chance that you will die by using the gun. and we know that our veterans are comfortable with guns. and so i think that one piece of what i have really started to talk more about, and i think that we can talk about together is ensuring that gun safety is

prominent and when you're working with and talking with veterans. we are not looking to take the guns away from veterans. we're looking to keep them safe. on the veteran's crisis line website, there is a collection of videos that include our psas. these are all public, you can use them as much as you want to. they're all on youtube and our admin administration page and the crisis website, we also just recently developed a very powerful gun safety video that is geared towards veterans and especially veterans who may be in crisis. it talks about safety of family members in the home and safety of others who -- if guns are not kept safe. so the veteran's crisis line has -- has anybody not heard of the veteran's crisis line? okay. so it is a pretty well known resource. we're now getting about 1200

calls a day from around the world. we have a staff of over 300 people, they're all mental health professionals and all v.a. employees. many of them are veterans themselves. many of them are family members and friends of veterans. and so it's 24/7. help that can be -- can be received. we also have -- we developed a chat service, an on-line chat. and if you want to test that out or if you're sitting with a veteran that you're concerned about and want to pick up the phone. you can show them there is a chat service where there is a one to one chat with veterans or family members or friends or service members. i want to make sure you're aware the veteran's crisis line is doubly branded to be the crisis military brand. we want those on the side who are not veterans or don't

consider themselves to be veterans we want them to feel comfortable to reach out and call at any point. so these are the same folks who are answering the phones and they're very knowledgeable about veterans issues as well as military issues. we also have a texting service, we have had a number of extraordinary texts where we have been able to get help to people and supported people just through that little phone that we all have. and so that is another thing, if you're working with veterans who it's too much for them to pick up the phone, no problem. we want to reach veterans where they're at. we want to reach them if it is just over the computer or just over text. in the next section, another resource that i wanted to make sure you're aware of is make the connection, make the connection.net, in the folder on the right side of the folder is the flier that more fully explains what a connection does.

we also have a wallet card there on make the connections and the wallet card for the veterans crisis line. if you want more of these -- two minutes left? oh, my goodness, if you want more of these you can contact your local suicide prevention coordinator which you can find in the resource locater, no problem. if they run out of supplies then you just contact me. the next -- the biggest one that i think can be especially helpful for all of you is the community provider tool kit. this is a bullet point three. we've developed this tool kit at v.a. for those non-v.a. clinicians, so we have a mini clinic on ptsd, a mini clinic on suicide prevention where we give

you all the tools we use at v.a. and we translated them so you are aware of military culture and all of those sorts of things so that you can then engage with veterans in the same way we do. and we really want to make sure this tool kit is disseminated for all of you. so if you want to pass it along that is for you and us and you to work together. i think i'm probably out of time, but boy, i will look forward to questions. my e-mail address, is kaitlin.thomps kaitlin.thompson@va.gov. so if you have the first name, last name, i'll look forward to being in touch. thank you so much for having me

here today. really wonderful collaboration. thank you. >> now that she is breathing again, diana, would you continue our program, please? >> yeah, this is on. i'm going to sit because i'm training for a marathon and my feet are killing me. so i'm not going to go up to the speaker there. but i, too, am honored on behalf of the red cross to be included in this panel. we're excited because we have services and programs we would like to share, you don't generally think of the red cross to be able to provide services to the veterans. but we have been doing this since world war i. it is consistent with our mission and congressional charter to maintain its commitment to the men and women who serve the u.s. armed forces. so dr. turner alluded to a lot of challenges with veterans. veterans today, unlike other wars are older, they're married

and with children. they have experienced multiple deployments. they're better educated with than their counterparts. according to the u.s. bureau labor statistics, since 9/11 vets unemployment rate is 11.5%, compared to 9.4 for non-veterans. many enter the community with large financial debt, straining marital relationships, and more than 12% of the homeless population with the mental illness. many vets are prevented from getting treatment even though many have been diagnosed with mental illness disorders. a large number who served in

iraq and afghanistan have mental health problems. older veterans have difficulty accessing services because many of the services available to them, because of a system of assigning benefits have changed over the years. and finally, 90% of battlefield injuries are survivable. but it has left the v.a. system over-taxed and over-burdened and unable to sustain the case work and services since 2001. only 40% of veterans receive their full benefits entitled to them under the v.a. with unemployment at its highest, financial challenges, veteran homelessness, marital discord, threatening social support and mental illness problems left untreated. they look to social services like the red cross to play a critical role in receiving services. so the red cross services to the armed forces provide services at

every stage of the military member's life. before, during and after. so if we look at the services after military, it consists of providing veterans with veteran's claims for benefits as a vso. as well as claimants who seek to appeal to the appeal board, mostly throughout reach programs and coordination. we have volunteers and referrals and reintegration in the form of workshops. our veterans programs have common characteristics. we use peer to peer support who has been trained add veteran service officers. red cross provides collaboration, preparing, developing and obtaining support in applicant's claim for veterans. red cross reaches out to veterans who are not engaged

with the v.a., who are homeless. they education veterans regarding what entitlements are available for them, like services, pensions, all the benefits that you can possibly think of. they work with veterans in obtaining their records and provide advocacy during the process. they offer assistance and other resources and provide referrals to other communities. if veterans services are denied, they are provided with appeal or may look to other resources like sdi and ssdi. there are two programs in the nation i would like to highlight today. one in southern arizona and that serves the tucson region, and another in west virginia serving the charleston region. so the services, a pilot

project, homeless initiative. it received two grants by the department of veterans affairs, one to prevent veterans at risk for being homeless and another to rehouse veterans that are currently homeless. it is also known as rapid rehousing. i'm not sure if any of you have heard of it before. last year they served 237 in the prevention, and 130 in the rapid rehousing. they use a peer model, that veterans and spouses assist others to veterans providing temporary financial assistance for rent, utilities and deposit. assistance with tenant issues and benefit application and appeals process. they provide education, employment and job search, transportation assistance, financial literacy.

our veteran's benefit program provides outreach to veterans in the community using a peer model. these volunteer vets are certified as veterans officers, developing a trust relationship and education veterans about what benefits they have to assist them. they have tripled their funding base and expanded their services with a projection of serving four times the veterans that they serve now. so the veteran s appeals projec is one area or program that they're providing service to. the other is the veteran's employment project. using multiple technology kits to vsos to be used in the rural areas to assist veterans who don't have transportation, access the internet or resources to get to a tech center. each mobile technology includes

multiple uses for job search, they complete, print, submit applications and communicate with agencies and/or employers. the strategy is to ensure meetings that trends where they are. vso assists veterans by resume writings, interview, technique, helping, completing applications. assistance in obtaining appropriate identification documents, clothing for interviews, job fairs with employers. veterans are identified by the partnerships and homeless shelters, v.a. hospitals, jails and other community groups. our second service is with volunteerism in v.a. hospitals. so we -- we're one of the original v.a. voluntary services created in 1946 at the request of the v.a. and was made up of

five organizations. the v.a. assists with coordination and policies the vavs programs governed by the national advisory committee and comprised of national organizations. the red cross staff members and volunteers at v.a. medical facilities support the recovery and rehabilitation of veterans as they prepare for their transition to civilian life. some of the services that we provide there are animal visitation programs, assistant therapy programs, distribution, administrative support for clinics, pharmacies, transportation. patient rehab, personal services and community living. we also have licensed volunteer professionals, nurses, rehab specialists that support the v.a. steps for rehab services. the american red cross also offers confidential services to veterans and their families by connecting them with local state and national resources through their local chapters, through

partnersh partnerships in our communities we provide referrals to mental and behavioral health care, financial, legal, and educational support. we also offer information about cemetery and burial information and unique needs of local veterans as well as our red cross chapters provides emergency services for cleaning, food, training, reconnection workshops and services. so our re-integration support which is the last service that we provide to veterans is an important tool and strategy to assist them in the challenges with civilian life. it is important for re-integration of veterans and provides in communities free of charge workshops that are 90 minutes to 120 minutes long. they're in small groups focusing on several topics, including communicating with family

members and employers and others in the community. helping with trauma and managing and recognizing signs of stress. we also offer information about ptsd. helping to manage triggers that we think about behavior. and recognizing and helping others who are depressed. the groups are interactive and provide a powerful model for group cohesion and and universality. we have about 350 facilitators, licensed health professionals and they are red cross volunteers, all over the community and all over internationally. some are rhett vans, some are spouses or other kind of family members. so the few tour red cross is about expanding the v.a. benefits program using a peer to peer support model for coordination, advocacy, appeals

process and combined with information referral and other social service communities. we will also be expanding our reconnection workshops and on our stress and trauma module with the existing trauma module that includes blending our mind body skills for medication for veterans diagnosed with ptsd or tdi born out of their combat experiences. additionally we are also launching a couple of new modules for military children and children of veterans next year. one on communication and the other on social skills. so i would like to, in your packet, so i don't know if you have received, if you have a

packet from red cross and in the packet there's a list of websites an contact information aep about our services. thank you so much for having me on this panel. and i wanted to leave you with a quote that i heard from an iraq and afghanistan veteran. he says we don't want pity, we're not broken. we just need help to integrate back to the new normal. thank you. >> now we will hear from beryl. >> thank you, mike. it is a pleasure to be with you and thanks to jb moore and thanks for having something do with the reason i'm here today and i just want to share with you that i really appreciate your your theme for this

convention, advocates from change with, to dialogue to action. i am going on 43 -year career nonprofit executive. and i've set through far too many meetings upon meetings where there was nothing but dialogue and discussion and no action. and so being a part of this reality that you may facilitate sharing of opportunities for action is tremendous. something that showed a poet, author of lebanese orin, a i go by the name of carl gibrand, a little bit of knowledge acted on is worth inif i nintly more than method of idle. it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission. so having said that, what i want do is kind of give you a real

quick overview make sure you understand who american veterans, major vet vans service organization is. and talk about programs there are a whole host of programs from a through z that take plis across the country. and diane just mentioned one of the things that red cross were doing is va voluntary service that is in fact if you take all of our many programs, our volunteers across the country are engaged in, the second largest program where folks are spending their hours ahead of 18 programs that we track, is military funeral honors. assisting rough lit 17 to 1800 of our veterans daily.

back in 2000 was a congressional unfunded mandate to give every veteran a military funeral. and they aren't able do that with two uniformed active service personnel and so they've been augmented all over the country bay program referred to as the ap-3 program. vets born out of world war ii, about ind pend ept veteran service organizations coming back from world war ii and in 1944 about nine of them went to kansas city more and when they left kansas city missouri it was american vets of world war ii. in 1942 the decision to congress to actually get a charter in there signed by harry truman in july 1947. and we have not looked back since then in terms of advocacy in terms of veterans. our largest program that we

deliver in terms of services to veteran says service officer corps roughly 55 across the country. last year they settled over 55,000 claims. by fiscal year 2013 that is 1.4 billion. all service tlaes we provide. the difference of other major vsos is one eligibility for membership, put the uniform on, raise the hand, take the oath. from the original clarter amended over the years several times. so again, eligibility is to have served your country, any branchfully time, including guard and reserve. with that, however, you do not have to be a a member of amvets to receive the services that are free to families and veterans. in the material that's on the

table, i think hopefully every one of you have got a brochure as they were passing out things that before i focus on a couple of highlights national programs the information that is available in the back is our 2014 legislativive priorities. second to our national service officers, we have legislative office that is monitoring any laws and introducing working with represent tifs to introduce laws that affect the active military as well as our veterans. the committee on veterans affairs and gives testimony as an opportunity provides. so on that card there's two or three of the ten issues that are in the mental health issues. veterans as well as veteran's treatment courts and i talked to several people that indicated

that one of the many things local chapters were doing is supporting that. another card is on the legislative thaks we attempted to introduce and did introduce, it was sponsored by representative kilmer out of washington and veterans and service members employment rights and housing acts of 2013. and the short story kind of summary of what we are recommending in this bill is now kicked down the road and it is in the committees, but it is to acknowledge the tremendous sacrifice of our veterans and allow them to enjoy the same legally mandated nop discriminatory access, housing and emt ploimt and training opportunities as other individuals. we simply don't want to introduce another nop distrim nation law. we have the list of those minorities. believe it or not, 7% of u.s. populous served in the military.

and it qualifies as minority. and it is on warrior transition workshop which is round out some comments highlighting that. and in supporting that, there is an evaluation of those workshops that is available there. and the last piece back there is our service officers directory. and in every state and a few of the more dense we have several but amvets is organized in officially 40 states where we have presence. and all states, 54 state and territories, but we ins essence through the virtual world reach out and provide programs even in the states where you're not officially organized. the list of nsos please also

take that. in the brochure that was passed around, that kind of highlights the three national programs that i want to just spend my remaining minutes talking about. and it's basically three programs that are coordinated at a national level to speak to our post the/11 veterans as well as veteranes from previous wars struggling with reintegration and stretchers. first program, and as i open this up, i'm prompted to see the orange block, which i should have mentioned up front, since 2008, the previous president mike fitzpatrick and national commander in 2008 signed a memorandum of understanding that said where we have local post presence and there's local chapters that we aught to be looking for opportunities to support each other in serving our veteran's community. so hopefully, i know i have been in a few of your calls that you

shared so we can perhaps try to make that a more dynamic mou and bring it to life. but the three pro grooms, healing heros, warrior transition workshop and career center, kind of a three-legged stool. and healing heros is a program where we have given out over a million dollars. a program that helps keep families together and in those 50,000 plus warriors that have been wounded. many of them is you severely and trauma sites, locations, dod facilities and they are separated from families. sadly, not enough fisher houses yet. there's an issue of bower roure when a spouse sees a returning spouse coming back and they are double or triple amputees. and the spouse can't handle it. they want to start separation papers. mom and dad want to go. dod doesn't pay for that in that

bureaucracy. healing heroes provides travel, lodging and allowing the family to get together and be together at the bedside. the workshop in struggling and pushing the wet noodle up hill for four or five years, but we are really pleased and what it is, a weekend deboot camp. for those that are suffering from stress issues. those that are reluctant to see a psychiatrist, it will hurt their rank or identity, it is a self identified laid back weekend. we realize we have pleasured outcomes. it is a beta program making a difference helping our veterans in reintegration coping how to deal with things that are a part of in multiple deployments that we have to have pleasured outcomes. so we work hard on that.

and just published a report in june, commissioned or choorjed by the dod and department of veteran is affairs to say, what have we been doing with $3.5 billion in recent years, what worked and what hasn't in ptsd. and sadly, there aren't any major blocks on them. we are fortunate we have that report shows some very small study. we were fortunate to have national institute of health provide a survey known as the, the ak pro nim is promise. it was eval yited by the national institute of research. and veterans going into the weekend testing, going out 30 days and 90 days, there has been statistically more improvement in anger and anxiety and we are really quite pleased with that. and the ph.d recommended a

larger study to substantiate larger groups and for that we need 400 and we will pursue that aggressively and hopefully knocking on the door of the v.a. and dod with those results. and i would just like to leave you with the -- i've talked about three national programs career centers. last piece. they've got stress issues under control. family reorganized. we're successful to be an ill distinction resip yept to the call of duty endowment which is a foundation established by the act vision people that play the war games and they have raised so much money with those games that they want to give back to the community and military. and so we're one of the grantees and we have stood up 16 career centers. and we have that data base and a place of about 250 in the last 18 months. and we do that with many of the

same things that diane mentioned. it is everything from resume assessment to clothing from men's warehouse and education if they need it if they used all post the 9/11 gi bill. and the last, and i'm probably over my time, is that you have heard me go on with kind of an extensive overview in 10 or 12 minutes. the reality is, back to the mou, if you have a local chapter and it so happens it is close to one of our 1100 and some local posts, in particular if it is close to the 350 or 400 that have post facility, those two can come together, network and provide a service that is a gap in that community. and we really don't even know that. but collectively on the back of this brochure, we try to track that and not counting what we

have spent, with the national programs, and in 2013, the figure stands at $28 million, local post by the independent sector form there and cash provided those kind of services. so if you take away from here, you' you're fortunate enough and will help you with up with of the units, collaboration locally is happening in spite of people up here. and that's a good thing. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> now about the code of support foundation. >> please. >> hi, everybody. i have a couple questions for the autd yens, actually. before we start. first one, can someone pass these. and that's the second question. how many people in here have served? how many people in here are family members.

>> and how many people feel both really encouraged by all those resources and a little overwhelmed at the same time. yeah. it is not you. definitely not you. one of the great things that we've seen and my background is, i married a soldier in 2001 right before the war started. that makes me one of an entire generation of military families that know nothing but war and i think you guys are dealing with the people on a daily basis. so from a military spouse point of view, thank you for the work you are doing. so now you have a whole entire population. and the suicide statistics have been mentioned for the service members and veterans. we're not even counting the families. and you all know both the service members veterans and families that one goes down and so does the other. there is no separation between a family and veteran for good or for bad. right?

and so, looking at all these programs, and trying to approach them holistically from a family point of view is something i really admire about the work that you guys do. because i think it is really important. you heard a couple of words here over and over again. and peer support, and again, something that you guys really focus on. is key. it is absolutely key. and without that, without that kind of feeling that you have a friendship or relationship with somebody, all the official resources in the world aren't going to do much. i was telling kaitly fl last night, we had a case come in over the weekend. i'll tell you about support but you can read about it. we do case coordination where we have members and family of service members from all over

with discharge status or disability contact us or refer to us by our partner organizations, both public and private, when they are in some kind of crisis. 90 percent of the time, the first ask is financial. i'm sure you all have heard that too. we add call come in this weekend have a mother, whose son was going through withdraw and was suicidal. he had been home for about three yoers. he was being seen at the v.a. i'm not sure it was for mental health for not. but the long story short is we were able to use three or four different organizations, i'm you will tanusually, including the v.a. line, to get this guy the help he needed. the reason we were able to do it is because we had the v.a. crisis line going through the v.a. channels for us. which would have taken me forever do. i needed to know if there was a bed in annarbor, michigan to send this guy to.

we don't want to send him somewhere if there is not a bed to take him. so yes, there was a bed available. i had his mom on the cell phone with me and jeremy on the office phone and we made that happen. what made the difference is the veterans navigator, andy, on our staff. the first time this guy talked to somebody that he felt really got it. because andy had been through something similar. and the fact that he had his family. we were able to access the bed but we would not have been able to get him there unless andy talked him into going and his family was able to drive him there and get him there. then he stood outside the emergency room for two hours. and what we did on our social media platform was we just posted with no identifying information, we have a veteran in crisis that made it to the emergency room. he is trying to go in. he needs words of encouragement. i had a post within an hour. and we cut and pasted that and sent it to his fiance. she showed him and he went in.

when we talk about how we all work together as a community here, everybody has a place in this. there is no one public or private that's more important. we cannot do it separately. it is just -- we need to figure out a way for you guys, the front line providers, to be able to navigate the resources that are out there. i listened to some of the things that you guys said. some of them i weeasn't. if you look on paper with 45,000 plus nonprofits and nongovernment agencies, you wouldn't think we add pred a problem, right? but clerly that's not the case. can you call us if you have a veteran or family member. when i say family member, care giver, friend, whatever, struggling, call us and we will help you navigate the resources. that in a nutshell is what we are doing right now.

direct case coordination. i know the majority of you guys are -- well, maybe i shouldn't say this, how many are volunteers? okay. so i know nami is a volunteer kind of model, right? right? so i know one of the struggles is, say you're able to have one one of your peer groups or education groups and it is going really well. but people bring to you things that you really don't have the resources to deal with. right? maybe it is financial. maybe education. maybe benefit. and beryl and the red cross and v.a. have all kinds of resources. well, how do you really find them? you can take all this paper we are shoving at you and then go back to your office and just try to, you know, roll through it. has anybody heard of the national resource directory? okay. has anybody heard of military one source? okay. and has anybody heard of warrior gateway? >> yes. >> okay. so those are really, can be very

valuable tools. but they can also be incredibly frustrating. right? because basically, it is a ton of resources and you put in your zip code and put in your keyword and then 50 things might come up. and maybe your veteran or yourself or your client qualifies for one. right? because there's no eligibility criteria attached to it. no scope. no capacity. what we are doing, and you can see from the hand out i gave out, is we are partnering with technology company to try to build a more strategically populated, not data base, but collaboration platform. that hopefully will be able to have a data form in the spring. and our goal is to provide that to every service provider, to every volunteer, at no cost. in order for you guys to be able to actually find the help you need for your clients. we know how frustrating it is. most people dot same things,

which they get on google, right? that's not the most sufficient way to do it. but that's how we are all doing it. there is so much out there. and it is so difficult to navigate. that's if you're in the best of mental health, right? so what we are developing will of course be for veterans and family members. but really focused on thoe service providers on the ground to make it easier for you guys to connect. right? we have our office space provided for us by catholic charity. which i had no idea until they gave us office space, the incredible work they do for military and veterans families. i certainly didn't know that as military spouse. it used to drive me absolutely nuts. we were at ft. bragg. my husband had a command of a battalion that we were sending batteries over every six months. in one battery, for two years, i was able to see the impact, not just on the soldiers but the families, before they went,

while they were there and when they came back, all at once. it was nuts. really nuts. pr '06 to '08. i had six volunteers and no money. the way the regulations are, it is not prohibited, highly discouraged from reaching out into the community, right? so i tell the story of how every time we add deployment we would have these kids and it really helped them to have teddy bears it hang on to. you know, not a life-changing thing. but in terms of well-being and mental health, if you are waving good-bye to your dad for six months, it is nice to have a teddy bear. so we would go out even spend hundreds of dollars every six months on these teddy bears. if i had just been able to call out to the amvets or american legion or red cross, i probably would have had like a thousand teddy bears the next day, right? but we were discouraged from

doing that. here zbt news, people at leadership levels now really do understand the importance of public-private partnership. there are barriers still to that. but both, because of fiscal reality and because clearly at this point, we can't take care of it as we say, used to say in the military, on our own, right? it used to drive me nuts when people say, we can take care of our own. are we not american now? just because we are the military doesn't mean we should be cut off from the rest of the community. from the family member point of view, once you leave active duty service, and even when you're in active doughty, there are limitations for plent al health because there is not enough mental health nationwide. but if you are military spouse or kid who is negatively impacted by your service members deployment, and or living with someone with mental illness, pts, physical, tbi, you have

very little access to the v.a./ someone with mental illness, pts, physical, tbi, you have very little access to the v.a.o someone with mental illness, pts, physical, tbi, you have very little access to the v.a. there is a program with about 16,000 people in it right now, there are 1.9 million post the/11 care givers and 16,000 in this program.9the/11 care giver in this program.he/11 care given this program.9e/11 care givers and 16,000 in this program./11 care givers and 16,000 in this program. that's where programs like nami provide incredible service. and beryl mentioned the fact that there's no precedence for these repeated deployments. we have never dealt with this before. they are doing some research now but there's a lot of research steps around the mental health impact on children, on spouses, and on service members and veterans from repeated deployment. i'm going to stop pretty early. because i would rather have a discussion. but i think that it is really

important for all of us to understand that no one organization can do this alone. the v.a. has a charge and i know people like kaitlyn are working in there every single day to do a good job but the fact is that there's no one organization public or private that can handle this. alone. so we have to all figure outweighs to truly partner, not just talk about stove pipes and silos, but really figure out, how do we actually do it. i'm here to tell you today, if you get stuck and you are looking for help for a veteran, and we're small. i want to act like we have huge capacity. but if any of you guys in it room get stuck and you need help, call us. and we'll help. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> okay. now we can talk to one another and ask he questions of our panel. we have heard really neat things

about the vsos and again these are for vsos and there are probably 20 or 30 other vsos out there doing similar work and have similar missions and unique missions. so nami needs to find out who all these great supports are. like we said, we have do it together. when you have a question. this gentleman will come up with a mic for you. you have a question? okay. >> i'm kenny allred, chair of veterans and military council. thank you all so much for being here. and for giving us that information. i do have a specific question. and kaitlyn, from the v.a., if you will, you spoke about guns and education and those things. we all know that one of the issues that veterans have when they come in to receive care is the stigma and the issue of perhaps to having their gun

rights taken away, my understanding is that right now, administratively, over 185,000 veterans have been disapproved of having a firearm. is that right or wrong? and in fact, should they instead have due process? >> sure. so the question is, and thank you so much. and thank you for having us as well. the question is related to the situation with guns and the concerns that come up for veterans where they don't necessarily reach out for help because of the fear that they will lose their weapon. i'm not sure that -- i don't know the statistic, 185,000 person statistic so i can't corroborate that. but you would know better than i would. but at the same -- in terms of what v.a. does, gun possession

is -- can get tricky. v.a., we are not interested in removing weapons. however, state to state, if you have -- if you have a mental illness and you have had your rights revoked to own a weapon, then that's the state issue. and so of course v.a. needs to lawfully recognize that, which we do. at the same time, the fear that if i show up somewhere and i don't have any of these restrictions, if i show up in a v.a. and i am really not -- i'm not feeling well and feeling suicidal, the fear that since i say i am feeling suicidal and people will then follow up and ask about means, means restrictions, safety, and so whether it's going to be talking about the plan, well, you know, the clinician will say i'm really concerned to hear this.

let's talk about, have you had any thoughts of how you would do it. and if somebody says, well yeah, i think i would use a firearm, there is certainly follow-up questions related to, do you own a weapon. how do you keep it safe and that sort of thing. but we don't siay, okay, we wil sending cops to your place to remove the weapon. we have heard stories where that happens. and with that story, there is typically another part of the story we haven't heard, which maybe that of someone who has been restricted of using a weapon. but one thing that i also want to make clear is that part of our gun safety initiative is that we have free gun locks at every v.a. around the country. no questions asked. they can be passed out to family members, friends and service members. so if you're interested in working together in terms of providing gun locks, then i know one v.a. has just a huge bin of gun locks at their entrance to

the v.a. but the suicide prevention coordinators help to manage that. because what we really want to talk about is gun safety, not removal of guns. >> question up here. come all the way up. there you go. >> fred frazier, retired marine corps captain, refired schizophrenia. i understand that mr. obama signed an executive order modifying rehabilitation act of 1973 requiring all federal contractors and subconsciotract to have 7% of their work force be people with disabilities and 77% of the work forces being veterans. that was signed a year ago. therefore it took effect six months ago. i'm constantly asking, how can i, as an unemployed veteran, take advantage of this, what

amounts to a quota system, coming from the president's office. how can that be accessed? i particularly like mr. love's comment that the laws and it is far better to have one of them actually implemented and benefit people. so does anything i've said make any sense to anybody up there and if so, could you please respond in a polite manner? >> i think i understand the question. i'm not sure i have any answer. what the legislation we have is to have the veterans added as a minority, if you will, to be

protected. it comes down to, in that case, and i don't believe it is helping address your question per se, but the reality is that if two of us present as veterans for job opportunity, and the only difference is that i serve down range, and the employer thinks i may have edginess and hyper vigilance that i may cause disturbance et cetera, he hires the other individual. and right now, there's no legal recourse that veteran has. now having the law passed doesn't necessarily mean that simply it's going to be eradicated overnight or employers will readily hire veterans. but it reinforces and educates and education is the best way to solve a lot of problems. if our employers understand it, there is potential issues they

have to deal with tp is it only because he was a veteran, they all think twice but the reality of unfunded mandates and laws, and passing one more law doesn't solve the world's problems. i don't think that i certainly have addressed your question. >> i guess frustrated with that all the time. in d.a. you see these laws passed and you get excited and then when you are living down in the trenches, not a lot has seemed to change. i will say that department of labor, these america career one stops and they have people there that are specifically mandated to work with disabled veterans,

and so we frequently partner with them. we have a case come in and employment is an issue, and depending on where you are, sometimes they are really good. and though know a lot of the laws and know a lot of employers and their local communities that are hiring veterans. >> and one thing about that too, fred. i don't know if you've had the opportunity to attend the v.a. mental health summits. they started last year and have been doing consistently, i attended four or five through missouri, arkansas and illinois. i tell you what, always there is a big issue on employment. and they break up -- and in fact, the last one i was at was in springdale, arkansas. we had about 300 folks show up for the mental health summit and at least 150 were veterans.

and we were teaching them how go about using what laws are available. and how to influence their employability. so it is being worked, it is just a hard battle. another question? >> this is for dr. thompson. you keep statistics of, you know, suicides and that. and calls to the crisis center. do you find it more higher, the certain group of people like from iraq and afghanistan veterans, i guess -- would basically because, you know, they've been in going on these tours of duty and employment, with maybe six-month break and constantly, deployed. do you think it's that they are

just worn out and and -- >> it is such a great question. i'm so glad that you asked. and we're still learning about it. thus far, what we have found is that in fact the numbers of deployments have not been a factor in terms of whether or not someone has died by suicide. and in fact, those, when we look at statistics of those currently serving, less than half of those were even deployed. that's an interesting thing for us to step back. because one would assume the amount of stress that it takes to constantly have go back would potentially increase someone's rate of suicide or increase someone's risk of suicide. we're not finding that now. but we are certainly looking so hard at it because it is a very, very important issue.

thank you for asking. >> the data that we have for service members -- the data we have for service members shows that less than half of them deployed. do we have data for veteran suicide and that specific question? do we actually have that yet? >> can i take one of these off? >> sorry. okay. my bad. >> yeah. so that -- i actually don't know. we can certainly look at it. but it brings up the really important point that looking at rates of veterans who died by suicide, it is very much more difficult than looking at service members who died by suicide and being able to answer these questions. but i can tell you that dod and v.a. have collaborated to have a huge suicide data repository. and were able to call a lot of that information from there.

but what we're looking at then is state data. national deaths index data and those datas from the coroner's offices. and there are some states where people, where it is not known whether or not someone that is a veteran one day died. to know that they are a veteran, they died by suicide, and whether or not they've been deployed makes it complicated. but we continue to work and work and work on better understanding that data. >> and ask a question, but i'll just remind our audience that tomorrow night, the military veterans and -- the nami veterans military council will have a candle light vigil where we remember roughly 22 a day that are dying and possibly one active duty person a day dying.

so join us 9:15 in front of the hotel here tomorrow night to remember that is what is happening still. >> daniel williams. i'm the new v.a. chair or new nami chair. two things. i work at the v.a. as a peer support specialist and also i'm an iraq veteran myself. to answer one of your questions about veterans having accessibility for the v.a., if you are 30% or more disabled from the v.a., they actually give you preference over anyone else inside the v.a. and actually you are eligible for internal jobs before anyone else sees them just like any v.a. employee would be. and that goes as well for government jobs. so that's a way that you are accessed to a job sooner than

someone else would be. but my question is, that with all these resource tlas that we have, i still see a humongous gap and what benefits veterans are entitled to from the v.a., we have to really put our nose to the grind stone and find out what we are entitled to. do any one of y'all out there see the v.a. or groups getting together and making it be pass need a law or whatever that the v.a., once a veteran gets to a certain percentage, whatever, that it is mandated that they tell them what services they are entitled to. >>. >> you know, i think that's a -- that's a really great initiative.

and it is unfortunate that so many veterans are out there that don't know what they are entitled to and i think that's what outreach services are about. we have vietnam veterans who don't realize that they have all of these benefits available to them and then suddenly somebody tells them or has that trusted relationship like a peer support and is able to sort of bring them in and hook them in to whatever benefits they are entitled. and if they're not then to be able to provide other resources that they can't access. so i think that might be the key. there are a lot of veterans out there. i'm a daut irof veterans. i'm also a spouse and we, you know, it is just so vast. the kind of benefits that are there. so yeah, i think kethe key real is is outreach and peer support. >> thanks, dana. it is a very good question.

and of course we all have our biases. but i'll speak on behalf of our comrades in all our major veteran service organizations. not just amvets. and i'm not by any means broad brushing the poor performance on v.a. employees, but veterans who are trying to seek and get a claim approved through the bureaucracy, working with the v.a., much less you said once they are at a certain percentage that they are required, a law or to give them -- make them aware of every possible benefit that they are deserving of and have earned. you are making a case for and the answer is, veterans should be first going to a veterans service organization because they are advocates of the veteran. and amvets was working with fully developed claims before it became a buzz word. so the purpose for sitting with a trained veteran service

officer, that's what the process has worked through. so what potentially might make a 10% claim wheb in reality, when it is sent through the first time, might be a 50% rating. so the pount point i want to make to get that done within the v.a. is truly major challenge. but a veteran has that at their disposal today by seeking out a trained veterans service national officer. >> part of the problem with that, i know that we don't advertise ourselves. i don't think amvets go on television and say, come veterans with us. i think we may have to do more of that. because when they do come to us, we can offer them a great deal of support and advocacy. but again, i don't see us

advertising people coming to us. but we are basically out of time. the reason we're cutting this a little short is because we want you to be aware of the program following this. ae let me say first that nami in some lists and in some areas are actually considered a vso. but we know in most affiliates we don't have the kind of knowledge that we need to have when it comes to the military culture. and that's where we should reach out to the foundation, to the red cross, to amvets, to american legion, vfw, on and on and on. some of them are very, very good. and some of them are very good in their location. they are well trained service officers. so it behooves us in nami world to reach out and merge with the

vsos in our community so we can help our veterans. nami is coming a little further in becoming an actual vso in the sense that we have a brand new program that's been rolled out in a few states this year. it's called nami front line. it is -- what did i say? oh, okay. home front. front line. well, it is in the front line. okay. home front, nami home front, in the sense that it is an evidence-based program. because it has been taken from family to family. taken down to six sessions. and it is wrapped in the military culture. and the military language. so for -- now while we get -- once we get this thing out and really ready go, we need let our vsos know we have it available so they can help us promote us

and we can reach all those military families down there. so that's the program that will follow on this session at 3:30. that's why we are taking a break now. go out and walk around a little bit. get a glass of water. please come back here at 3:30 for nami home front. what? please. >> i know it can be overwhelming and it can get discouraging. but look at it this way. you know, when the vietnam veterans came back 40 some odd years ago, this country really fell down on the job. we really failed that generation of veterans and families. and we have an opportunity to do it so much better this time because we have so much more out there than they ever did. it is just a matter of conne connecting the dots. and the people sitting in this audience are the ones that do

it. so our job at the national level is to power and facilitate your success. we are working for on you your behalf. thank you for all of the work you are doing. it is making the difference. >> let's thank our panel. >> thank you all. you did great. >> couple things just to think about with nami home front. i think it has certainly been in the news. some issues out there for family members and veterans. as we know, pretty high suicide rates among returning veterans but also among those who have not been deployed. with veterans dealing with this, so are their families. so we were really thinking what can we do as nami to help this group of people. we have been doing some things but we want to try new things. so again, family stress and sacrifices are part of this process as well. those are who are deployed, their families feel like they are deployed with them. that's a real issue.

and we want to make sure we reach out to this population. one of the things that -- one of the studies we have cited and one of the co-authors is in this room. terry, on our expert advisory group. she works at the rand corporation. they did an incredibly helpful study for us. as can you see on this slide, this report came out i believe in march of 2014. but there are an estimated 5.5 million care givers out there and about 20% are 1.1 million of this group are people who are caring for folks who serve after 9/11. that's a large group of people. large group of people who need services who need support. when i say that, i mean care givers. i mean family members. that's an important group. that's what who that's who we a reaching out to. it is very much needed. but a little more about this particular group. these post 9/11 military care givers, often on the younger

side. 40% are between ages of 18 and 30. a lot of them are carrying for an individual with mental health or substance use condition. a lot of them are nonwhite. many are veterans themselves. they are employed so their time to be home and available can be challenging for them. and also they are not connected to their own support network. and that's again where nami is stepping in here and wanting to retch out and reach these people with the good things that nami has. we want to make sure that this group of people is getting that opportunity as well. >> why nami? i think we all know. we are here at this conference and we know why nami. we know the amazing thing that we have with our people. we have amazing people who are willing to volunteer their time and their expertise to reach out to other people on this very similar journey. this particular picture is of our very first in-person -- a

group of people trained for the nami home front program in person in arlington, virginia. the nami headquarters, in july. 17 people came from all over the country to be trained. so this is a picture of that particular group. and just thinking, when i talk about the expertise of family members, when we start to add up the years that we've given or lived this, whether we ourselves have a diagnosis or maybe we've got a family member, when you add up those numbers, i bet we have a couple thousand years of experience in here. i know for me, i'm giving away secrets. i'm 47. but my mother has the illness. since i was born, that's 47 years of living with someone with an illness. my brother has an illness. diagnosed at 7. that's about 37 years for him. so that's just me.

when we talk about you, whether you're a family member, that's time. whether you're a person living with illness, that's time. that's time and certainly expertise. we talk about going through the school of hard knocks sometimes. how do you navigate systems. how o are you helpful. a lost things. a lot of life experience. that's what is important about nami and what we bring to the table. >> there's a lot of good reasons why nami. we've got a real history of success also with what we've done. initially we did a lot with the v.a. using our family to family program. i know that suzanne mccutchen is here. she worked with us. i don't know if you want to come up and say a a few word, or if you don't, it's okay about some of our long history of working with the v.a. nami, i know in ohio and maryland i know, but in 19 the 7, the work began to start to offer this class in v.a.

facilities. that is very much a local partnership. i think you were on the board of nami cleveland. a class was taught in the cleveland area. in 19 t99 we started doing travelets around the state. at that point working with nami ohio. we had talks and things. this is good stuff. we ought to make this program available to more people. we did in ohio to say, what do you think about this? et wh clinicians.cians. showed them the manual. talked about the program. brought people with us who graduated from the program so they could share what it was like to go through it. and what it is like between nami and agreement at federal level. so there was an agreement at the federal level to say this is good stuff. these two organizations will partner to make it successful. so and in that time we had two different memorandums of

understanding. taught the class over 200 times and 114 different v.a. facilities. so a lots and lots of people have graduated from family to family. in 2013, most of you probably know, because we talk about it all time, family to family program was deemed an evidence-based practice. that is really quite an accomplishment. what that means is there is independent research done op the effectiveness of the program long-term. and what is found when you compare groups of people who have taken that class, graduated from it and those who have not and compared the long-term impact of what that meant, there is a tremendous impact of family to family. i argue that could happen with a lot of other programs as well. this is exciting. this is something that happened with family to family. as i say, long history of family to family in v.a. facilities. but sometimes we found people said, gosh this class is wonderful but really long. or this class is great but gorn i wish there was more

information specifically about my people, who are getting their services perhaps from the v.a. or maybe getting services from department of defense. i need to understand more about what this is like. because of that, that's why we decided to adapt family to family program into a six-session program that would meet this particular population needs. when we talk about measuring our past success, a couple of quotes from past families that were in the v.a. we're still friend with someone who was in the class. there is always an open ear, open heart and shoulder to cry on if you need it. universal reaction to the family to family class pu the same thing happened for that course as well. that's another measure of our success. the anecdota experience. and friends people make. we wanted to create a community really for these military families as well. so they could find each other and work through this together.

it can be incredibly challenging and isolated. we touched on how we got to this point and how we got to the expert advisory group. bringing people together to talk about what should this program look like. it was amazing to have that incredible brain trust in the room and hear what they today say and probably the first or second thing they said was do not forget to keep this a nami program. make sure it stays at the heart of the program. peer taught model. this is a military family reaching out to other military families. grabbing on to the phone saying, i understand where you've been. i want to help your journey be a lot less bumpy than mine was. as colleen mentioned, endless thank yous to give for so many people giving input and insight and sharing resources. that's an exciting part of this as well. as i mentioned, and it is clear, target audience for this program is military family. so unlike those family to family

classes taught in the v.a., often times those have been mixed classes. a mix of civilians, attendees and military families. nami home front will be exclusively for military families baud the language we use in the program is geared toward that population. and a lot of resources as well. sefrp certainly we will talk about military resources but the focus population is military families. and i mentioned, did i skip a slide in i might have. and if i didn't, you will see it soon. but nam i home front six sessions long, each session 2 1/2 hours much like family to family follows the typical nami education format and an adaptation to the family to family program. course content, what is in this thing? it is very similar to nam i family to family. first thing we talk about is what is family education. gets this group of people to better understand what is nami.

what am i getting myself into somewhat is going on herwhat is. somewhat is going on herwhat i . we talk about class 3. understanding trauma and overview of diagnosidiagnosis. we talk about combat express and treatment servicees a and crisis management. and again the content of folks who may be getting services from the department of defense or from the v.a. or again civilian services. we talk about crisis preparation and communication skills. and finally we do in class six we talk about family roles, recovery and self care. when i mean family roles we talk about how is it different for me if i'm a spouse, military spouse, or if i am here because my son or daughter is in it or maybe my grandson is living with me now. because he is not getting along with his parents.

what are the different family roles. how do we find a common ground. that's the course content. in class five we talk a lot about crisis preparation and communication skills. we use a different set of tools when we talk about communication. we use something called collaborative problem solving. for anyone in here who is a nami basics instructor, this is not you unfamiliar to you. i know you're thinking, why on earth would you use a process that comes from the book the explosive child. i tell you something. when there are a lot of excellent techniques in this process and even though initially it was developed for use with young people it has a lot of very adaptable strategies to use with an adult as well. a different way of doing things. and it is a lot about sitting down with a person when they're in, after you've add crisis experience, you're talking to them when things are pretty

stable and working out a plan for how are we going to communicate with things we maybe disagree on in the future. how can we come up with a plan to work on together that we're both feeling comfortable with. it is taking things down to a really basic level and planning ahead. obviously you're not, just like you wouldn't use the problem solving process necessarily in the family to family course, in the midst of the worst of the crisis. you might wait until after to think about it a little bit. but it is a different technique and this class is half as long as family to family course. there certainly is a chance that people might also take family to family in addition to the home front course. but again, we want to make sure we have this option as well as very specific to this population. one of the either things we've done is in class six we are using a snippet of film from the program this emotional life put on by pbs. we got special permission by public broadcasting system and vulcn productions to use the

material. there is excellent film that has military families and some veteran service members who talk about what it is like to deal with this when you come home. when you are dealing with the combat stress and adjust to civilian life. how you calm down the skills, respond to everyday life. when you are are really well trained to be prepared for any disaster. how do you slow that down? how do you intd act with your family when you feel like you have very little in common when you first return. so there is excellent film and we created discussion points around that. that is different in the class as well. i know in family to family we bring in speakers. in this class we will bring this film. i know this is only eight minutes long but it is excellent conversation. that's an interesting piece as well. something else that makes it different, we've got a very large general resources section in this manual. and it has resources that are

specific to the department of defense branches of the military, all of them including cost guard. information about services that come from the reserve and national guard and military relief organization. veterans resources including department of veterans affairs and others p. other government resources whether it is sasa, health and human services. others. nongovernmental resources. such as nami and other options. and helpful publications. one thing i want to make clear is this is particular right out of manual. but if you go on nami.org and go to the nami home front website, you find the full general resources section available to the public. we feel the folks have been waiting long enough to fund resource answers sometimes it is hard to find out what do we do next. it is not that there aren't great resources there but it feels hidden. it is hard to know where to start. we have some of this material,

put it in one spot. this information is available on the public website, nami. if dwou to the front page you will find this available. as you will additional resources as it does each class. we want to make sure for those of you who are maybe your state doesn't have home front right away but you still get calls from various folks in the public, from the community, who have a veteran in their family, this their life they would like to get services for, can you look up this material, grab it, use it on-line. if you look at it on-line, there are web sites attached to each of the resources what are listed. a live document. go straight to the website source. or print it out, hand it out. use it if you have help line in your office, that kind of thing. a lot of excellent resources there, but we don't want to hide any information. we want to make sure that folks can get their hand on what they need as soon as possible. unlike other nami manuals, other

nmi manuals, the glossary contained a lot of terms that you won't find in the manual itself. certainly there are terms related to health, to medication, to how the brain works, brain chemistry, all of that. same sourt of thing that you find in the glowsry of the family to family manual or basic manual p one of the things we did is this manual. there is a lot of information this here about terms that fly around in conversation between veterans and service members. they can say an entire sentence and you and i, if we're civilians, we will not understand a word they have just said. but we want families to have access to those terms so they better understand what is said around them. what are typical terms that people use? and i think that's really helpful also for the instructor for this class. because sometimes families may not understand what their loved one is talking about but we may. understand some of the terms flying around. i know for me, i'm the daughter of an army veteran but my father

was done serving in 1961. i was not born until 1966. so his experience is cold war related. spanish speaker. russian speaker. can you imagine he was probably doing all sorts of interesting thing at that time. but again his service from a long time ago. and people in more recent conflicts, iraq, afghanistan, bosnia, it is a very different experience for them than happens the older veterans. we will have mixed classes made up for people that have serve fled cree why or vietnam. but also these more recent wars. but also these more recent wars. sometimes the language is very different. service is very different. people serving more recently are surviving wounds and different things in the field that folks in past wars never would have survived. it is a very different group of people. we want to make sure that people have access to the terms floiing around among this group of people. and that said, i want to do a

little activity with you. i know hopefully you all have little index cards. okay. because i will read a sentence that i made up, all right. know this, i made it up. for those of you that served in the service i probably mixed branches here. but i'm going to say something in military speak. i want you to jot down on the card, what do you think i'm saying. okay. you don't have to get this perfect. there are fabulous gifts and prizes for doing this activity. do hold on to your card. i have special things for special people in this room and there is more than one government, so there you go. i want to you say a sentence and think about, what in the world is she say pg. with you but i will translate it for pu. that co never leaves qsville but seems we get sent out every other week. outside the wires bad man yesterday an ied almost took out frank entine. make a mess of things. always saying you got to be squared away but they know nothing.

stick with me, i've got your 6. you have any idea what i just said? some of you do. and i realize that this is ports f parts of different brafrmgs. i mixed some things here. but can i say it one more time. that co never leaves qville but seems we get sent down range every other week. outside the wires, bad, man. yesterday an ied almost took out frank enstein. make mess of things. always saying you got to be squared away but they know nothing. stick with me, i got your 6. you want know what i said in probably do. all right. civilian translation coming up. that commanding officers never leaves base housing. otherwise known as containerized housing un pits. slang for that is qville. as in whoville. as in dr. seuss. but our unit is sent to the combat zone every other week. outside the security perimeter is bad.

yesterday an improvised explosive device almost took out a marine corps monster truck with spot seams and add-on army. that's the frankenstein. other who never leave the base, like fab, like hobbit, staying on base, make make as in of things. they know nothing. stick with me, i got your back. so a lot of people don't know what, i got your 6, means. i got your back. outrange. outside the wire. a lot of terms flyinging around. when i talk to service members, one of the things that is frustrating when they try to get services, maybe decide i'm getting my services in services world. tservices world. thservices world.e services world. cservices world. . . . . . . .