Tag Archives: wounded warriors

Wounded Warrior Task Force Testimony

Posted on by Devin

Today I had the opportunity to present to the Wounded Warrior Task Force.  In case you don’t know what the Task Force is all about, you can read more here.

One of the objectives of Wounded Warrior Task Force as stated in their mission statement is to provide advice and recommendations on matters and policies relating to the effectiveness of wounded warrior information resources.  Since I was only given two minutes to present, I had to make my comments brief so I focused on two subjects near and dear to the Warrior Gateway: open information sharing and public-private partnerships.

A recent search on the web for the term wounded warrior resources returned over 300,000 results.  A recent web search for the term post traumatic stress returned over 5 Million results. Wow!  That’s a lot of results to look through.  And yet with all these resources, here at Warrior Gateway, we consistently hear that wounded warriors, veterans and their families aren’t finding what they need.  While we continue work to give you a voice and make it easier for you to find and connect with the local organizations and program in your community, I hope that the Wounded Warrior Task Force looks at what the government can do better to share information and partner with organizations like Warrior Gateway to better serve our military community.

-devin

Here is the full text of the testimony:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Task Force, thank you for the opportunity to present today.  My name is Devin Holmes and I am the Executive Director of Warrior Gateway.

After returning home from active duty, our wounded warriors often face a new battle at home.  And yet, while the treatments for their injuries in some cases are complex, when they come home to their communities, their desires are simple and straightforward.  They want to recover, find their new normal life, and enjoy time with their family and friends.  And yet so many of them still ask that simple question:  “Where do I go for help?”

I would like to share with you an excerpt from an email we received a couple of months ago from a veteran in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl struggling with post traumatic stress:  “My family is in need of help.  I am a disabled OIF veteran married to another veteran with multiple deployments.  We have 3 children.  I wanted some information before my family breaks apart.”

We know from examples like the one I just read that we are failing our wounded warriors. There are simply too many fragmented and silo-ed information resources both inside and outside the government.

I would like to encourage the Task Force to focus their efforts on the following:

  • A full and detailed inventory of the information resources both inside the DoD and VA and outside the government
  • An assessment of which of these resources are openly sharing their information with other resources
  • And for the DoD and VA, an inventory of which of these resources have created public-private partnerships with non-governmental organizations

I would also encourage the Task Force to examine and make public the following:

  • How are both the government and non-governmental information resources evaluating those programs and organizations providing services to our wounded warriors
  • How they measuring effectiveness
  • Are these evaluations and measurements made publically available to our wounded warriors and their families
  • Do our wounded warriors and their families have a voice in providing feedback as to the effectiveness of the programs and organizations listed in these information resources

Our goal should be to share information and work together so that no matter WHERE our wounded warriors look for information, the answers they receive will be immediate, accurate and consistent regardless of where they ask that question “Where do I go for help?”

Thank you.

Still Serving Veterans Expands Scope with Partnership

Posted on by Devin

The nonprofit agency Still Serving Veterans has strengthened their partnership by signing an agreement with the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services (ADRS) to maximize their effort to help as many veterans as possible.

In four short years, Still Serving Veterans has helped more than 4,000 wounded veterans and their families.

The global war on terror alone has accumulated more than 37,500 physically wounded soldiers as well as the more than 500,000 suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

ADRS Commissioner Cary Boswell said, “None of us are going to be able to do this all on our own. None of us have enough resources and people. To me, that’s why it’s so critical we do work together and coordinate these kinds of services for our veterans with disabilities.”

Still Serving Veterans strives to help assist veterans with their rehabilitation, recovery, and reintegration into civilian life. With the ADRS, the joint services are expanding to provide career assistance to veterans and push to increase a higher rate of disabled veterans in the workforce.

If you are currently looking for assistance within any of these categories visit the Warrior Gateway and search for service organizations in your area.  If you know of any helpful organizations share them with others in our directory.

To view the original article, Still Serving Veterans partners with state agency to help Wounded Warriors find careers, click here.

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New Horizons in Brain Injury Treatment

Posted on by Devin

According to MSNBC, military leadership estimates that as high as 20% of the troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq may have some form of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  TBI symptoms can range from those of a mild concussion (such as headaches or blurred vision) to the very severe (seizures, change in personality, repeated nausea or vomiting, weakness in the body, confusion, and others).  While there is treatment available for some of the symptoms of TBI, there is no way to repair the actual damage done to the brain. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is currently working to change that.  DARPA is developing a new technology called REPAIR (Reorganization and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery.  This technology would aid veterans who suffer from TBI by repairing brain damage through the use of electrical implants on the surface of the brain.  The implants will use a science called “optogenics” to send out pulses of light that directly trigger individual neurons, repairing the neural pathways that are broken by TBI.

The project is in the early stages of clinical trials.  However, if researchers are successful, there could someday be new hope for affected veterans and their families.  For more on this research, check out the full article on WIRED.

Looking for resources now?  Find, rate and share TBI-related services and other programs by click here.

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Sea of Goodwill White Paper

Posted on by Devin

Release of the Sea of Goodwill White Paper:  Building the Bridge to Help Veterans & Their Families

Creating and sustaining a long-term solution for better transitional support of veterans and their families as they return to civilian life requires participation and support of organizations and government at both the national and local levels.  Authored by Colonel David W. Sutherland, USA and Major John W. Copeland, USA, the Sea of Goodwill: Matching the Donor to the Need white paper seeks to foster this discussion.

The white paper focuses on three key elements in helping veterans and their families reintegrate into civilian society: education, access to health care for life, and employment. While these needs are simple, delivering the right service at the right time and place across more than 400,000 estimated service organizations is more complex.

Read the white paper.  Share it with your friends.  Tell us what you think.

To read the full Sea of Goodwill: Matching the Donor to the Need, click here to get the PDF.


Veterans Reintegration