The McCormick Foundation in Chicago has awarded $350,000 to the Depression Center and Department of Psychiatry to help address the “invisible brain injuries” among returning Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans and their families.
These include sleep disturbances, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and associated problems. The gift is part of a larger fundraising initiative called Welcome Back Veterans created by New York Mets Chairman and CEO Fred Wilpon to provide returning veterans the quality evaluations, treatment, support systems and long-term employment assistance they deserve to restart their lives and care for their families.
The latest statistics from the Rand Corporation indicate that more than 300,000 veterans who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan currently are suffering from PTSD or major depression. A significant percentage of these veterans do not get help for various reasons including access issues and stigma attached to seeking care. The Depression Center project will focus on developing a program called Shoulder-to-Shoulder that trains veterans to serve as peer support for other veterans.
“Another veteran who has ‘been there’ can be more effective than anyone else as a credible source to normalize the situation, provide support and resources, and urge treatment when appropriate,” says Dr. John Greden, executive director of the Depression Center. “We think that this approach will go a long way toward overcoming the stigma that has long been associated with depression, PTSD and the other associated problems.”
The Depression Center Welcome Back Veterans project also includes services to at-risk spouses, children and parents of veterans-groups that might not have coverage for the care they need. U-M, Weill Cornell Medical College and Stanford University have been designated Core Centers by the Welcome Back Veterans project to work on developing best practices that can then be replicated nationally by others with the intent to provide access to care for all returning veterans. Working together, Welcome Back Veteran Core Centers, the Veterans Administration Health System, the Department of Defense and Veterans Services Organizations can create programs like Shoulder-to-Shoulder and can assist thousands of veterans in restarting their lives, officials say.
For more information on the Welcome Back Veterans initiative, go to www.welcomebackveterans.org and www.McCormickFoundation.org.
