Hope For The Warriors offers help for suicidal veterans

September is National Suicide Prevention Month. According to a report from the Veterans Administration, 6,392 veterans committed suicide in 2021, an increase of 114 from 2020. That breaks down to a daily average of 17.5 people, up from an average of 16.4 in 2001.

Hope For The Warriors is working to change those statistics. Jory Watson, a regional clinical social worker with Hope For The Warriors, spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom to discuss the group’s work to prevent veteran suicides.

“Hope For The Warriors is an amazing organization that was created specifically to address the needs of those returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Watson said. “Since that time, we have expanded to the point where we provide all kinds of services, everything from financial assistance to mental health treatments, peer support programs, education and employment support.”

Hope For The Warriorss is based in Springfield, Va. but works with veterans worldwide. “I’ve even worked with clients as far away as Puerto Rico or in Germany,” she said. “Sometimes our military and veteran families don’t necessarily live inside the continental U.S., so we provide services where they are.”

“This month (September) is Suicide Awareness Month, so we spend a lot of time talking and training to support our veterans who may deal with some suicidal ideation, maybe have a history of suicide attempts, because we know this population is at higher risk for that. All of the studies point to that, due to some of their exposures to trauma, etc., in their service to our country. While this is Suicide Awareness Month, Hope focuses on suicide prevention all the time, every day, 365 in our support of our veterans and military.”

Servicemembers may need help as they transition to civilian life, but sometimes they don’t realize they need help until much later, Watson said. “Trauma and stress are cumulative. Anytime there’s a change, transition is one of those everybody’s aware of, that move from military service to civilian life. That can be somewhat challenging for some individuals, when they’re facing life stressors, even like the birth of a baby, a pregnant spouse who’s dealing with some medical issues related to that, loss of employment and facing financial crisis – all of those things can become stress points or risk factors for increased suicidal ideation. Those are things that we look for when we’re hearing a client’s story and trying to learn from them.”

She says military training can backfire when a service member is struggling. “Our military are very adept at adapting and getting the job done. They are trained to function in that way, and so many of them will stuff down symptoms, continue to produce, do what they need to do, take care of their families, live up to the expectations, until something flips that switch. We get one too many stressors, one too many risk factors lined up, and that can cause a downward spiral when they need some additional support to work through that and maybe realize what they haven’t been addressing for some time.”

Watson points out that the staff at Hope understands the issues their clients face because they’re either veterans or family members. “As a national organization, the majority of our staff are military-affiliated in one way or another. I myself as a military spouse, I’ve moved maybe six times during my employment with Hope and have always stayed an employee with Hope. As I move to new areas, I learn more about what is available in those areas. As I work with clients, I seek to really do my research to find what a client might need in their area. Everything we do is tailored to that individual client and what their needs might be. We don’t have a canned list of resources that we give out to everyone; we find that’s not super helpful.”

Watson says the group does what it does thanks to community support. “We cannot do the work that we do and support our military the way that we do without the help from our community, our corporate partners, or individual givers.” The group offers several ways to contribute, including donations, sponsorships and gifting opportunities. “You can give around, like Memorial Day. In the past, we’ve given in the name of a veteran that’s in your family. Like my father, who served during Vietnam, I gave a gift in his name as a memorial. There’s lots of options for ways to get involved with hope and support, and we’re always looking for volunteers.”

Volunteers are needed in many areas. “There’s a great need for things like writing thank you notes to the people who give to Hope, staying connected with other people who want to support Hope, sending gift packets to different clients.” The group works with veterans to help them start careers post-military service and sends out a package when someone lands a job. “When they find a new job, we send out a ‘congratulations, you got this new job’ package, and there’s like a Hope cup, a to go cup, travel mug, things they might use on their new job. Someone’s got to pack those packages and send those out.”

Talking about suicide in the past was almost unthinkable but Watson says it’s a necessary topic for discussion. “I would say the most important thing to remember is that talking about suicide, about suicide, or suicidal ideation, suicidal thinking, is not going to make it happen. We use a tool called the Columbia Protocol .” The Protocol gives questions concerned family and friends can ask to determine if someone is at risk, how to provide support and connect them with resources.

She says supporters shouldn’t hesitate to talk with someone who’s struggling. “We don’t want to do the wrong thing, because we think somehow, if we do the wrong thing, that’s going to cause this person to make a decision, that we will then be responsible for them making a permanent decision that they can’t take that back. But all the research shows that good support, love, being able to reach out to someone that cares about the outcome of this situation and can help connect you, that is what stops people from moving forward with this decision to end their own life. Anything that we can do to help combat that fear and erase some of our stigma around having those conversations is always a bonus. We’re happy to provide support.”

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