Effective Programs Reduce Stress and Hopelessness for Returning Veterans and Their Families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Information:
Denver Options:
Barb Lundy, Communications
Phone:  720-218-5999
Email: blundy@denveroptions.org

Effective Programs Reduce Stress and Hopelessness for Returning Veterans and Their Families

February 2009-Operation TBI Freedom provides active and veteran military members care coordination to ease the transition from active duty into civilian living. This unique community based program provides long-term counseling, connection to resources, and active problem solving for soldiers with traumatic brain injury.

When the  U.S. Army reported the highest level of suicides among its soldiers since it began tracking the rate 28 years ago, OTF Program Manager, Jennifer Anderson,  said their program can serve as a model to help reduce stress related injuries and death. The OTF Program presented a paper on Reverse Culture Shock to the North American Brain Injury Society and the paper was published in  The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. 

Reverse Culture Shock describes the unanticipated adjustment difficulties that many military people experience when returning to civilian life.  People attempting to move beyond their military experiences can find themselves feeling disoriented and confused, neglected or frustrated. They are often unemployed, or under employed, and generally struggle in their career as well as personal relationships.

“While our program focuses on people who have experienced a traumatic brain injury, often accompanied by PTSD, our basic program design can be applied to many different veteran needs to support successful transitions and minimize stress. The transition experience may last years, and we provide consistent support during that period,” Anderson explains.

Operation TBI Freedom focuses on five key strategies:

• Provide a constant presence during  the transition process, a process which  can be confusing to a person with a brain injury
• Educate the community to increase awareness of available care coordination services for those veterans that have cut all ties to the military.
• De-escalate crisis situations
• Help military members and families access military and community benefits by forging partnerships with military and community groups
• Assist military members with short-term and long-term planning support  

Anderson said the transition to civilian life is complicated because military members often don’t realize they’ve changed. The way they communicated with battle buddies does not go over well with family members. Many cope with significant health challenges like traumatic brain injury, PTSD and physical disabilities. Soldiers need to access social and community resources to cope with these changes.

The stress of living in a war zone, seeing their friends die and witnessing atrocities can result in PTSD, depression and suicidal thoughts. Many returning soldiers will “self medicate” with alcohol, compromising their ability to find work and sustain relationships.  The current economic recession adds even more stress.

Returning military members often have an idealized view of the home they left. Family and friends have changed during their deployment and developed new support systems. More than 20% of soldiers will divorce within one year of returning from a combat zone. Soldiers, their spouses, and their children all need support as they move through family transitions.

Last week the U.S. Army announced a $50 million program to investigate why soldier suicides continue to rise. Officials acknowledge that troops are under tremendous and unprecedented stress because of long and repeated tours of duty. Operation TBI Freedom collaborates with existing community based programs that demonstrate a high rate of success in helping military members and their families make a safe and positive transition back to civilian living.

For more information about Operation TBI Freedom visit: www.operationtbifreedom.org

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Operation TBI Freedom is a program of Denver Options
Denver Options is a non-profit organization that provides flexible, personalized services to help people with intellectual disabilities live active and purposeful lives. The Denver Options staff finds the services and resources people need to achieve optimum health and explore lifelong learning opportunities. They focus is on individual talents and interests, helping people turn personal goals into everyday reality. They offer wide ranging services that include helping families manage the demands of care giving, navigating funding resources.