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Like me, both encountered suicide during their time in the “Stop Soldier Suicide makes it easy
service. For us, military suicide isn’t just a problem. It’s for service members, veterans, and
personal. military families to get help. Our Well-
ness Center is staffed with wellness
“Through our experiences, we realized that the key to pre- coordinators who work 1-on-1 with ev-
venting suicide is to identify, understand, and address the ery person who reaches out. We assess
underlying issues — things like financial strain, post-trau- each individual’s needs, then search
matic stress and other mental health issues, and difficulties our database to find the right resources
navigating the transition from military to civilian — BE- to meet those needs. If we don’t have
FORE they escalate to a point of crisis. a needed resource, we’ll do our best to
locate one.
“In the early days, the three of us worked out of our living
rooms in North Carolina and New York City while jug- “And we don’t stop there. We follow
gling school and full-time jobs. Soldiers would call our cell up. Stop Soldier Suicide provides
phones, and we’d personally search for the appropriate every client with ongoing wellness
resources to help. Well, if you’ve ever tried to google “help coaching. Our coordinators follow up
for soldiers” or “help for veterans,” you know that the sheer no less than 10 times to track progress,
number of results is overwhelming. offer support, and address any addi-
tional needs that may arise. Our per-
“There are thousands of organizations offering services and sonalized approach ensures our clients
support to our military and veterans, which is great. But receive the help they need and the
most have a niche focus — equine therapy, yoga, help for support they deserve.
homeless veterans, retreats for combat vets with PTSD, etc.
And that’s on top of the programs and services available “We’re also working to bridge the
through the VA and DoD. What do you do? Does your con- gap between the military and civilian
tact, friend, or loved one need yoga? A home? Which orga- worlds through our Facebook page,
nization is the right one? Which one do you call?” where we’ve built a caring community
for service members, veterans, military
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