“Offering text messaging services will help VA reach more Veterans and their friends and families,” said Dr. Janet Kemp, the VA’s national mental health director for suicide prevention.  “We are working to meet their needs by communicating through multiple channels—over the phone, through online chat, and now via text, which provides quick, easy access to support.  VA wants all veterans to know that confidential support is only a text message away.”

Since its founding July 2007, VA’s Veterans Crisis Line and the later Chat Service have received 500,000 calls and engaged in 31,000 chats resulting in more than 18,000 rescues of veterans in immediate crisis.

Now, in addition to the Veterans Crisis Line (800-273-8255 and Press 1) and online chat (www.VeteransCrisisLine.net), veterans and service members in crisis—as well as their friends and families—may text free of charge to 83-8255 to receive immediate support.  The text service is available, like the Veterans Crisis Line and online chat, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and connects a user with a specially trained VA professional—many who are veterans themselves.

For the military community in Europe, support from VA’s crisis line in the U.S. is available through the recently launched European Military Crisis Line at 0800-1273-8255 or DSN 118.

For more information about VA’s suicide prevention program, visit: http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/suicide_prevention/

VFS worker carries food to a car.

Each month, scores of veterans and military families can receive food assistance through a mobile pantry that visits the Lake-McHenry Veterans and Family Services’ drop-in center in McHenry, Ill.

The visits are a collaborative effort: The mobile pantry is a Northern Illinois Food Bank program. TLS, a partner agency in the NIFB distribution network, sponsors the visits. McHenry County Veterans Assistance Commission screens for families in need of food assistance. Volunteers from TLS, the VAC and AmeriCorps help with distribution.

The need for visits was based on factors that include:

• Unemployment among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars is higher than the rest of the population, according to U.S. Labor Department data.
• Military assistance groups acknowledge that troops and their families are grappling with hidden wounds in the aftermath of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. These include financial pressures related to multiple deployments.
• Of the 202 homeless people surveyed in McHenry County last January, 51 were veterans.

The mobile pantry offers nutritious foods, including meat and produce. Visits can serve up to 250 households and are planned year-round at the LM-VFS drop-in  center (5330 W, Elm St., McHenry, Illinois).

Veterans and military families can call the VAC at 815-334-4229 to see if you are eligible to participate.

Lake-McHenry Veterans and Family Services is an initiative of the Lake County Health Department and the McHenry County Mental Health Board. Its overarching goal is to better provide for the well being of veterans, military members and their families. It is funded through the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

For details, call 815-322-2620.

AmeriCorps volunteers at a pantry visit in July.

TLS Veterans, a not-for-profit group formed by veterans to help veterans, owns and operates New Horizons. The program’s main focus is to provide food and shelter so residents can find jobs and return to independent living. Most of the veterans who enter the program suffer from addictions and mental health problems.

Bruce admits to having an addictive personality. “I dropped out of school at 15 or 16,” he said. “I woke up at 19, a dropout with a GED.” He joined the Army hoping it would change him.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that about 1.5 million veterans are considered at-risk of homelessness because of poverty and lack of family and social support.

A study of Vietnam-era veterans cited in a 2007 report to Congress found that “variables present in veterans lives prior to military service” have a significant, direct relationship to homelessness. Factors often include childhood poverty, parental mental illness and placement in foster care prior to age 16. For combat veterans, lack of support to overcome battlefield trauma can also lead to homelessness.

Former Sen. Max Cleland returned from Vietnam a triple amputee. The Democrat from Georgia is candid about periods of depression and the counseling that renewed his faith in himself and his country.

He was recently quoted in a CNN report: “You can’t send young Americans to Iraq and Afghanistan . . . and expect them to come home and just fit right in. They bring that trauma with them.”

More than 2 million American service men and women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to date. Nearly a third of those who returned from overseas and received care from the VA between 2001 and 2005 were diagnosed with mental health or psychosocial ills, according to a 2007 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was the most common disorder.

TLS helps homeless veterans get back on their feet as productive members of society. The first step is filling basic needs.

“They’ll help you to get a job if you don’t have one. If you’re hungry, go down to the pantry. They’ll set you up for group sessions. Don’t have a car, they’ll get you there. Want to go to church? ‘Come on, we’ll go.’ ”

What Bruce learned about the veterans at New Horizons is that “those who come to get well make it.”

Bruce recalls hugs and tears when he left New Horizons to once again live life on his own. He currently works in a warehouse but his aspiration is to help others who make similar mistakes to him. His goal is to become an addictions counselor.

• Shortage of affordable housing
• Inability to make a livable income
• Lack of access to health care

In addition, a number of homeless veterans’ hardships are compounded by lack of social and family support. Many have lived on the streets for years and have developed chronic health issues.

Therefore, New Horizons offers a wraparound program, an intervention strategy designed to address each veteran’s individual needs by “wrapping” a comprehensive array of services “around” the veteran. TLS’ rules and regulations reflect a philosophy of self-help, discipline and reward. Finding sustainable employment is stressed. Staying clean and sober and taking medications as prescribed are requirements.

Most services are provided by collaborating with federal, state and local agencies, primarily the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), VA hospitals and clinics and groups within the McHenry County Mental Health Board network.

TLS’ aspirations for its clients:

• Regained hope
• The ability to rely on themselves
• Reconnect with family and friends
• Gain knowledge about the paths to physical and mental wellness
• Be in charge of their well being
• Advocate for themselves
• Find meaning in their lives

TLS believes that much of what is achieved at New Horizons is because of camaraderie among the residents themselves. They encourage each other as they share meals, experiences and friendships. Following are a few successes:

• Being accepted to and enrolling in Loyola University
• Enrolling in and graduating from McHenry County College
• Returning to the nursing profession

Residents who graduate are encouraged to continue work with a case manager through an aftercare program that offers relapse prevention, links to community services and access to New Horizons’ food pantry and laundry facility.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimated in 2011 that 67,000 veterans across the nation were homeless on any given night. About twice that many experienced homelessness over the course of the year. America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America.

TLS, like many groups across the nation, is working to end veteran homelessness.

Our flagship program is New Horizons, a transitional living center in rural Hebron, Ill. that provides food, shelter and case management services. Veterans who have enrolled have gone on to find employment and reconnect with family and friends.

New Horizons opened in 2001 and has 20 beds.

The program’s cornerstone is an intervention strategy designed to address each veteran’s individual needs by providing a comprehensive array of services. TLS’ rules and regulations reflect a philosophy of self-help, discipline and reward. Finding sustainable employment is stressed. Staying clean and sober and taking medications as prescribed are requirements.

Services provided on and off campus include but are not limited to:

• Medical and mental health services
• Alcohol and substance abuse programs
• Guidance regarding state and federal entitlement programs

A veteran can stay at the center for up to 24 months.  The program’s biggest funding agent is the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program.  For information or to enroll, contact the New Horizons staff at 815-648-2203 or info@tlsveterans.org

Illinois Attorney General
100 West Randolph St.
Chicago, IL 60601
800-382-3000 (hotline)
The attorney general’s office directs veterans to the appropriate organization to obtain benefits, including health care, disability compensation, pension, education and insurance. Veterans should begin here to learn about eligibility.

Illinois Department of Employment Security
30 DuPage Ct.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-888-7900
Veterans recently returned from a tour of duty have special employment rights under law. There are also education benefits and grants available.

Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs–The Veterans Care Program Elgin
Elgin National Guard Armory
254 Raymond St.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-608-0138
IDVA’s Veterans Care Program provides access to affordable and comprehensive health care such as medical, dental and vision coverage. They also offer assistance with filling out pension and compensations forms, widow’s benefits, veteran schooling, veteran home placement as well as health, education and burial benefits.

McHenry VA Clinic
620 S. Illinois Hwy. 31, Suite No. 4
McHenry, IL 60050
815-759-2306
800-393-0865 (Emergency)
Outpatient medical clinic for veterans.

Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center
3001 Greenbay Rd.
North Chicago, IL 60064
847-688-1900, ext. 85750
Provides inpatient psychiatric treatment plus alcohol and drug detoxification and treatment. They assist with acute mental health needs with both inpatient and outpatient treatment and can refer clients to residential treatment.

Veterans Assistance Commission of McHenry County
667 Ware Rd., Suite 108
Woodstock, IL 60098
815-334-4229
Provides transportation to local VA hospitals during the daytime hours. Other services include: short term financial assistance (mortgage, rent, utilities and food or gas vouchers) and assistance with filing forms and claims.

Perhaps you belong to a social or civic organization that would be interested in holding a fundraiser to help veterans. Click here for event planning fundamentals, including ideas to get you started.

Contact TLS’ at 815-679-6667 or info@tlsveterans.org for more information.

The help came as an odd mix of coffee and appliances. However, the donations fit the needs of TLS’ newest programs.

Coffee—three cases or the equivalent of 7,500 cups—went to a drop-in center where veterans and members of military families can sip some java and use the power of talk to overcome challenges of military life. A freezer will be used in conjunction with food giveaways held at the center each and every month.

A washer, dryer and stove—used but dependable—went to a farm house leased by TLS in partnership with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in McHenry.  The farm house is for graduates of a TLS program for homeless veterans who have found a job but still struggle financially.

As for HOH: The all-volunteer group was formed by realtors with the notion that they wanted “to do something for those who protect us,” said Kathleen Ricketts Hager, chairman of the board. Hager herself donates 25 hours a week to the cause.

TLS thanks HOH for its donations. For more on the group, go to http://www.helpingourheroes.org/

Erica Borggren, the recently appointed director of Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, is slated to attend. Warriors’ Watch, a motorcycle group with mission to honor our nation’s warriors and to support their families, is expected. Nero, a bomb-detecting dog that served in Iraq and saved many lives, will appear.

The LM-VFS drop-in center serves as a hub for a Lake-McHenry County initiative to transform the way services that address the emotional well being of veterans and their families are delivered.

“There’s a pressing need to respond to the prevalence of post traumatic stress among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans,” Belcher said.  “The aftermath of serving in combat can be devastating. It affects not only the soldier but his family and community at large.”

The initiative is being led by a consumer-driven governance council in conjunction with the Lake County Health Department and the McHenry County Mental Health Board. It is funded through a grant from the federal government’s Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration and involves a network of community-service agencies. The program is entering its second year.

For details on the open house, call 815-322-2620.