UK offering mental health program benefitting veterans, their families and communities

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Suicide can be a very difficult topic to talk about, and for veterans, help can sometimes feel too far away.

Many veterans can suffer from depression, anxiety and PTSD caused by their experiences in the military. For their families, especially those who did not serve, there can be a disconnect. So for family members who have veteran friends or family members, how can they step in to help when someone needs it most?

“What I would say to, non veteran, a community member who’s caring about this, is don’t try to have all the answers. Don’t try to over understand, but listen and be present and just kind of hold space with this person who has served our country and served in the service. And you want to be there for them in the way that they’ve been there for our country is just listen and be ready to connect them to other services,” said Dr. David Pascale-Hague, director of the Community Mental Health Clinic at the University of Kentucky.

The Community Mental Health Clinic at the University of Kentucky is offering a very important program to try and provide help for veterans facing mental health issues and their family, while also training the next generation of mental health professionals to better help veterans.

“The Community Mental Health Clinic that we run here at UK is also part of a doctoral training program. So our our therapists are doctoral students. They’re working toward independent licensure. They are supervised by licensed psychologist. So the other aspect to this is we are training the mental health force to better serve the needs of veterans,” Pascale-Hague said.

The program will provide help for veterans and their friends and family who need it. Businesses can also get involved as well by asking to be apart of a workshop teaching how they can help veterans and family members in their community.

While these options are helpful not only to future generations and to those who are experiencing mental health problems, right now, the program is focusing on creating a culture that not only defeats the stigma around mental health, but also educates community members on how they can get involved as well.

“Creating the entire system of mental health care is really at the heart of these interventions, right? It’s not just about offering a workshop or an individual therapy session and not serving a small group, or that’s serving one person, right, which is beautiful work. And that all matters. The thing we need to do is creating that culture, that culture that changes the stigma around talking about suicide,” Pascale-Hague said.

If you are interested in this program or have a business, nonprofit or group and would like to be apart of a workshop detailing how you can help veteran mental health, you can send an email to edpclinic.edu and let them know you are interested.