Great Services for Veterans in Need: My List of Favorites for Helping Veterans Who Sacrificed Their Lives for Us.

Due to all the factors beyond our control, not all of our Veterans receive the best services when they come home. Without delving into the reasons, this group of consumers deserves and needs support to access better mental health services, especially given the chaos and the things they may witness while serving. They are “supposed to” stay strong, but as we know, the human body can only handle so much.

Here is a list of great resources. They fight for us, and here is how we help them.

·       Centerstone offers outpatient, inpatient, and telehealth services to veterans, service members, and their families.

·       The Home Base program at Massachusetts General Hospital provides a two-week intensive outpatient therapy program for veterans. It covers all costs associated with transportation, lodging, meals, and treatment. Additionally, the program offers support for Special Operations veterans and military family members who have lost loved ones to suicide.

·       InnerWorld is a virtual tool available on mobile and virtual reality devices that helps users learn mental health coping strategies, and it is free for veterans.

·       The Emory Healthcare Veterans Program offers a free, two-week intensive mental health care program for all veterans who served in the military for at least one day after September 11, 2001.

·       Roger is a telehealth service provided by the nonprofit Stop Soldier Suicide that offers free mental health counseling to veterans and active-duty service members, focusing primarily on crisis intervention and suicide prevention.

·       WWP Talk, a service of the Wounded Warrior Project, provides free, weekly 20-minute phone calls with a nonjudgmental listener.

·       Give an Hour connects veterans and military service members with personalized counseling and peer support.

·       The Headstrong Project offers 30 free therapy sessions for veterans seeking PTSD treatment, with additional sessions available for a copay to the therapist.

·       Cohen Veterans Network offers mental health treatment for PTSD, depression, anxiety, and relationship issues. All post-9/11 veterans and their families can access care at 22 clinics across 20 states.

·       The Road Home Program at Rush offers a two-week outpatient therapy for veterans, covering transportation, lodging, meals, and treatment costs. Telehealth services are also available for veterans in Illinois and Indiana.

If you know or like additional resources for Veterans, don’t be shy. The more services that can be made available to our Veterans as a resource, the better - we’ll grow this list over time.