Veterans/Military
NAMI Westchester Presents
Owning Your Struggle: Accepting PTSD & Living Your Life
On April 21, at 7 pm, NAMI Westchester is holding a Mental Health Awareness Speakers Forum on Owning Your Struggle: Accepting PTSD & Living Your Life featuring Dr. Seth Kastle, Director of Military Program Innovation, Assistant Professor at Fort Hays State University, and author.
Dr. Kastle is a retired U.S. Army First Sergeant who during his 16 year career served two combat tours in the Middle East in both Afghanistan and Iraq. His many military honors include the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq, in addition to having his uniform permanently displayed in the 95th Infantry Division Museum in Fort Sill, OK.
The goal of this forum is to raise awareness on mental health symptoms, conditions, and treatment and encourage Service Persons, Veterans & their Families to get the care and support they have earned through their service. Mental health challenges can cause changes in thinking, feelings, behavior, and physical activity, but it can also be difficult to tell if you or your loved ones have a mental illness. The important thing to remember is that you’re not alone.
Register here
- Veterans Crisis Line Website:
The Veterans Crisis Line connects Veterans in crisis and their families and friends with qualified, caring Department of Veterans Affairs responders through a confidential toll-free hotline, online chat, or text. Veterans and their loved ones can call 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1, chat online, or send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Support for deaf and hard of hearing individuals is available.
Veterans' Mental Health Bill
NAMI Homefront
NAMI Homefront is offered periodically online through NAMI and soon to also be offered through Zoom with NAMI Orange! Details will follow.
Online classes meet weekly in a virtual classroom, so participants experience the same level of interaction and learning as traditional in-person classes.
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NAMI Homefront is a free, 6-session program for family, friends and significant others of military Service Members and Veterans. The class helps families understand what the Service Member/ Veteran is experiencing related to trauma, combat stress,civilian life transition, PTSD and other mental health conditions.
The program is designed to help family members understand and support their Service Member/Veteran while maintaining their own well-being. NAMI Homefront leaders have personal experience with mental health conditions impacting their Service Member/Veteran. The class is free but you are expected to attend all six sessions. You must have access to a laptop, PC or tablet with a stable internet connection to participate. To hear audio, you will need to call in via telephone. It is recommend you use a headset or headphones.
An application process is required to ensure this program is a good fit. Space is limited.
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NAMI Homefront Content of 6 Classes and Resources:
Class 1: Intro to Family Education
Class 2: Biology of Mental Illness & Getting a Diagnosis
Class 3: Understanding Trauma, Overview of the Diagnoses and Treatment
Class 4: Treatment Services and Crisis Management
Class 5: Crisis Preparation and Communication Skills
Class 6: Family Roles, Recovery and Self-Care
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vet2vet program is a Peer Networking group led by veterans, for veterans and members of the Armed Services offered through Orange County's Mental Health Association.
Vet2Vet participation is free, anonymous and confidential. The networking meetings provide an opportunity to discuss challenges facing today's Veterans including post- traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, addiction, employment or academic issues.
Vet2Vet - While the way of doing business has changed, MHA is still open and
assisting veterans. Vet2Vet provides members with the opportunity to network with
one another to discuss challenges and solutions with subjects such as: Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Military Sexual
Trauma (MST), addiction, Life, Employment and Academic challenges among other
topics.
Virtual (Zoom) online meetings and activities:
• Warrior Writers Workshops
• Music Workshops
• Support group meetings
For questions or to connect with these services call 845-342-2400 ext. 1237
or email Larry Neumann at lneumann@mhaorangeny.com
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Vet Centers are community-based counseling centers that provide a wide range of social and psychological services, including professional readjustment counseling to eligible Veterans, active duty service members, including National Guard and Reserve components, and their families. Readjustment counseling is offered to make a successful transition from military to civilian life or after a traumatic event experienced in the military. Individual, group, marriage and family counseling is offered in addition to referral and connection to other VA or community benefits and services. Vet Center counselors and outreach staff, many of whom are Veterans themselves, are experienced and prepared to discuss the tragedies of war, loss, grief and transition after trauma.
All Veterans are encouraged to seek Vet Center services. See local listiongs below. Any Veterans and active duty Service members, to include members of the National Guard and Reserve components, are eligible if any of the following applies:
- Have served on active military duty in any combat theater or area of hostility∗ (see footnote)
- Experienced a military sexual trauma
- Provided direct emergent medical care or mortuary services, while serving on active military duty, to the casualties of war, or
- Served as a member of an unmanned aerial vehicle crew that provided direct support to operations in a combat zone or area of hostility.
- Vietnam Era Veterans who have accessed care at a Vet Center prior to January 1, 2004.
- Vet Center services are also provided to family members of Veterans and Service members for military-related issues when they aid in the readjustment of those who have served. This includes bereavement counseling for families who experience an active duty death.
∗ Service in combat theater or area of hostility to include but not limited to:
World War II (including American Merchant Marines)
Korean War
Vietnam War
Lebanon
Grenada
Desert Storm/ Desert Shield
Bosnia
Kosovo
Operations in the former Yugoslavia area
Global War on Terrorism
Operation Enduring Freedom
Operation Freedom's Sentinel
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Operation New Dawn
MIDDLETOWN VET CENTER
Click links for 2 page brochure:
(page1 page 2, then Right Click to Rotate Clockwise)
726 East Main Street, Suite 203
Suite 203
Middletown, NY 10940
845-342-9917
Goshen VA Clinic
Facility type: VA Health
30 Hatfield Lane
Suite 204
Goshen, NY 10924-6768
Main: 845-294-6927
Mental Health: 914-737-4400 x2330
Port Jervis VA CliniC
150 Pike Street
Port Jervis, NY 12771-1867
Main: 845-856-5396
Mental Health: 914-737-4400 x2330
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Orange County Veterans Service AgencyInforms and assists veterans and their families, and members of the military, in matters pertaining to the numerous VA benefits, rights, and privileges available to them. 111 Craigville, Road, Goshen, NY 10924
(845) 291-2470
- Legal Services of the Hudson Valley:
Veterans and Military Families Advocacy Project
Providing free civil legal services to those who have served:
Home page is lshv.org; LSHV Veterans and Military Brochure
- VA Benefits
- Housing
- Consumer Affairs
- Social Security and SSI Disability Claims
- Elder Law
- Domestic Violence
- Public Benefits
- VA Hudson Valley Health Care
- Make the Connection:
Watch Veterans and their family members share real stories of strength and recovery, find useful information and local mental health resources, and explore ways to show your support.
- Help for Homeless Veterans
National Call Number: 877-424-3838
- Support Services for Veteran Families in Orange, Duchess, Ulster and Sullivan) 845-565-2892
- NAMI Find Support for Veterans and Active Duty
On this page we focus on questions that military personnel often ask, concerning treatment resources, disclosure and staying healthy during the transition to civilian life. - See more at: http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/Veterans-and-Active-Duty#sthash.s1Ch5Wym.dpuf
On this website, NAMI focuses on questions that military personnel often ask, concerning treatment resources, disclosure and staying healthy during the transition to civilian life.
On this page we focus on questions that military personnel often ask, concerning treatment resources, disclosure and staying healthy during the transition to civilian life. - See more at: http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/Veterans-and-Active-Duty#sthash.s1Ch5Wym.dpuf
On this page we focus on questions that military personnel often ask, concerning treatment resources, disclosure and staying healthy during the transition to civilian life. - See more at: http://www.nami.org/Find-Support/Veterans-and-Active-Duty#sthash.s1Ch5Wym.dpuf
- NYS Office of Mental Health: Military Personnel and their Families
In recognition of the contribitions made by the Armed Forces of the United States: The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard, and Reserves – the New York State Office of Mental Health thanks military personnel and their families for their dedicated service.
We are proud to offer outreach, information and referral services, and counseling to support service members, their families, and veterans during deployment, reintegration, and post–deployment periods.
“Our military can play a big role in changing the conversation around mental health for the entire country. Because we know these men and women are heroes…And if they can be brave enough to step up and get the help they need, perhaps that will help some kid in some community who's depressed...”
-Michelle Obama |
VA Mission Act passes the U.S. Senate: On May 23 the VA Mission Act passed the U.S. Senate following recent passage by the U.S. House of Representatives. The VA Mission Act will help Veterans with mental health conditions by:
* Making it easier to access private sector health care
* Connecting caregivers of Veterans with service-connected conditions from all
service-eras to the VA Family Caregiver Program
* Creating safe opioid prescribing practices for non-VA health providers
* Allowing VA health providers to treat Veterans via telemedicine across state
lines
The bill was signed into law by President Trump on June 6, 2018
