Mental health treatment and services for veterans, caregivers and family members, including equipment and wraparound services. - project name: aboutface-USA proactive veteran intervention and recovery…

Mental health treatment and services for veterans, caregivers and family members, including equipment and wraparound services. - project name: aboutface-USA proactive veteran intervention and recovery program the population of focus: this effort builds upon known gaps in providing service and education accessibility for U.S. Veterans, their caregivers, and family members in the atlanta VA health care system area (in/around forsyth, dawson, n. Fulton, cobb, cherokee, pickens, lumpkin, gwinnett, and hall counties). Summary statement: veterans in rural areas have 70% lower odds of receiving any mental health treatment. Multisectoral and innovative approaches are needed to increase the availability of services in rural georgia while. Aboutface-USA and our collaborators will serve 570 veterans in the first year to address veteran health and well-being concerns by promoting job skills education, community, clinical services and access, peer support, and leadership training. Project overview: to meet the study objectives, we will utilize a phased approach that maximizes the expertise of the community collaborators assembled for this project. During the first quarter, we will hire and train peer-support personnel, conduct screenings and referrals to community clinicians, recruit veterans for agriculture training, and provide transportation to veterans for their VA appointments. In quarters two through four, we will conduct program evaluations on our community partner's programs, and continue to recruit, screen, and refer veterans (n = 570). Key to sustaining our approach is leveraging the grow (gardening, rehabilitation, outreach, wellness) program. Project grow focuses on teaching gardening to engage veterans and community participants while promoting nutritional and mental wellness. This portion of the program involves weekly education, outreach, and maintenance of equipment while promoting rehabilitation and the use of learned skills based on the practice of mindfulness and evidence-based behavioral therapy/stress-management techniques. As part of our outreach portion, we will conduct presentations to promote community connectivity, learn about community needs, and seek out struggling veterans (i.e., those experiencing homelessness, suicidal ideation, financial, and/or mental health concerns). Finally, we incorporate these pieces into a wellness program where we focus on nutrition, clinical interventions, self-awareness training, relational concerns, holistic healing, and leadership coaching. Addressing barriers through community partnership: biases and concerns for treatment-seeking often create barriers within communities, especially for behavioral health concerns. To address these barriers to care, aboutface-USA will meet with and engage our community and civic leaders to convey the importance of community programming to identify veterans affected by behavioral health concerns. To ensure maximum outreach efforts, aboutface-USA has partnered with investigators with the ames research center at kennesaw state university to provide project management and data collection/evaluation. Pathlight counseling will provide clinical services to veterans. The overton institute will facilitate he implementation of "the relational communication program and "the storying our way home programs." the azimuth leadership organization will provide leadership training for veterans under the T.E.A.m (transition, empowerment, advocacy & mindset) change model program. Carolyn agosta, MSW will provide a mind-body connection for healing and transformation sessions for veterans and their families. LTC (RET.) JIM lindenmayer will provide community linkage between veterans and family members with mental health diagnoses and substance use diagnoses and other parties. He will also provide direct supportive housing services in the catchment area.