In recent weeks, you’ve probably put many aspects of your daily life on hold. But have you taken time for yourself? This Mental Health Month, pause to focus on your well-being. It’s always the right time to make your mental health a priority, especially during these times of uncertainty and stress. Whether you’re looking to take the next step — or the first step — on your path to a healthier life, start here. Start now.
This May, VA recognizes Mental Health Month by emphasizing: “Now Is the Time.” For Veterans facing a mental health challenge, now is the time to explore the resources available to you. Now is the time to check in with a fellow Veteran to see how they’re doing. For Veterans’ family members, now is the time to let a loved one know that you’re here to listen and offer support.
“You can only get better when you acknowledge when you need that help,” says Catrina, an Army Veteran.
“Take the time to do it,” says John, a U.S. Army Veteran who’s been sober for 31 years since returning from Vietnam. “Try it at least. You might find what you’re looking for.”
“If anyone knows how to see something through from beginning to end, [it’s] a Veteran,” says Vernal, a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran. “You learn that process from the day you’re in boot camp. There are people out there who want to help you. … Get the help that you need.”
For Brenda, it was about discovering effective ways to communicate with her husband, Scott, after he returned from deployment. “The best thing you can do is be open,” she says. “Be there for them to sit and chat and help them if they need to get that help — direct them in the right direction.”
Today, there are more online resources available to Veterans and their families than ever before. This May, we encourage you to visit MakeTheConnection.net/MHM to learn more about mental health support and hear stories of recovery from other Veterans. There, you can make a plan for the first step — or the next step — in your own mental health journey.
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After Dealing with the a**hole that run the VA in Canton, Ohio. They instigated my attempted suicide in their lobby through self-immolation. Thrown out because of sexual orientation. I enlisted was not drafted. I chose to serve a country I thought was free. V (vindictive) A (aholes). I hope one day the VA is shut down permanently. I know people who get benefits they dont deserve and people who dont get benefits that do deserve. The entire system is a FRAUD.
What kind of psych service is available to a vet who is living overseas? I had a great contact at the VA in Boise. Now it seems like I’m just a stranger in a strange in a strange land,
I was drafted in 1966 and served in the US Army from 1966 to 1968 state side. It was an easy service tour compared to my fellow US Army buddies that served in Vietnam. My Heart goes out to them, especially the ones that got wounded, or worse yet, died over there. May they rest in peace.
True that! You can get psyc meds but there is no time for true therapy. Just write a script.
100% VA Disabled
Ok. At my clinic VA St Mary’s Georgia we had a psychologist until 2 years ago it was great. Since that time there has been wheras you come to the clinic and the digital shrink you Skype with.
Myself and others from my area just quit this method of communication.
They could care less about us. They just want to count you as a number like adding body bags in the Nam.
Well so much for choice program. We just hang on to our lives and meds alone.
This new digital shrink method may fit youth.
I am 68. I was drafted and early on in my service I encountered powdered white agent orange many times.
I am about the youngest vietnam war veteran as I was #49 in the last draft in the usa 17 Aug 1971.
The choice and shrink service are a joke. My mind has been wrecked 48 years now. No water in my AO. White powder all over me. Well let’s just say the VA is too busy for us old nam war vets. That’s ok nobody cared about the draft but me and a few million others.
So be it. Choice is a joke. Save money with us off the digital shrink list
Cya
My name is James W. Minnis and I am a Vietnam veteran. I came in in Aug 18,1971. I went to nam on March 14,1972. If last I will be 68 years old on Aug 1,2020. I am fighting my Va claim right now and I am getting close.in about one or two months. I tell a lot of the Vietnams Veterans I talk to. I tell them to never stop fighting for their benefits. We served our country proudly and we deserved all the respects coming to us.