Friday, February 14, 2020

Mike Damon outlined his steps toward healing in Transition Guide For Veterans

How to #TakeBackYourLife in 6 steps

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 13, 2020

Dave Matthews of Remember the Fallen interviewed Mike Damon of Vetunite about a training manual he has on how to heal.


Vetunite.org "Mike Damon" aka (GodFather)




Mike Damon outlined his steps toward healing in Transition Guide For Veterans, as well as how first responders can heal!

Self Care
Service members need to learn how to take care of themselves!

Training
Learn how to use what you have and speak up about what you need.

Mentorship
As you learn how to heal....help others learn too!

Peer support
Be around people who understand you and the culture you lived in.

Service to others
You risked your life serving others. You were willing to pay that price for doing that job that served others. You can continue to serve others by helping them heal too! Top that off with the fact it feeds your soul when you do!

Develop a new purpose
He talks about "team mission" and that is something that all responders need to hear. When you are doing your job, you depend on your team members, and they depend on you. It is the same way when you are paying a heavy price for doing your jobs. Your team members are counting on you and you need to count on them too. You never know how many are suffering too.


"Wicked frickin awesome!"

Never Forgotten Memorials and Vetunite endure reciprocity with collaborating resources to assist veterans with the Invisible Wounds of War "PTSD"

Thursday, February 13, 2020

MAG-V founder collected 10-21 years for ripping off homeless veterans!

NY man convicted for stealing from homeless vets


Connecting Vets
JACK MURPHY
FEBRUARY 12, 2020

New York City courts slammed Michael Erber after he defrauded the government and stole from homeless veterans.
The New York Attorney General's office said Erber, of Brooklyn, formed a non-profit organization called MAG-V, then began recruiting homeless veterans by posting fliers at homeless shelters and community centers.

Next, he signed master lease agreements with landlords in Brooklyn and the Bronx. He then sub-leased the apartments to the homeless veterans he had recruited and applied for government aid money intended to help veterans facing the risk of homelessness. Elber, however, never paid that money to the landlords, pocketing more than $67,000.

To add insult to injury, once the federal funding for homeless veterans was tapped out, Elber collected rent directly from the veterans he had moved into the apartments but again failed to pay the landlords. As a result, these veterans were evicted from their homes.

Elber also coned a disabled veteran, convincing him to invest $200,000 of his lottery winnings in MAG-V, which he also stole. According to bank records entered into evidence at the trial, the Attorney General's office showed "Erber spent more than $110,000 on rental cars and more than $41,000 to buy a car."

Judge Donald Leo in Kings County Supreme Court handed down his sentence to Michael Erber of Brooklyn this week, handing him 10-21 years.
read it here

Homeless veteran reunited with family after they see KOCO 5 story

warning:before watching this video...have tissues ready

'I have my family back': Homeless veteran reunited with family after they see KOCO 5 story


KOCO ABC 5 News
February 12, 2020
OKLAHOMA CITY — Earlier this month, KOCO 5 spoke with homeless veteran Paul Rambo for a story about how the Homeless Alliance had helped put on a Super Bowl party.
Rambo had not seen or heard from his family in three years. His family saw KOCO 5’s story, and now Rambo has been reunited with his nephew, his son, his daughter-in-law and his five grandchildren.
watch the video here

It it time to stop thinking about taking your own life and know about #TakeBackYourLife

#TakeBackYourLife and Stay Alive


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 13, 2020

How many times do we have to read about a veteran suffering with PTSD taking his or her own life instead of healing before we actually change the outcome?

Iraq veteran, 35, struggling with PTSD 'took own life' in children's park


Mirror UK
ByLuke Traynor Matthew Dresch
13 FEB 2020

In a moving post on website Go Fund Me, a close family friend said: "As with many serving and veteran soldiers, Wes had struggled with PTSD and on the 26th January 2020, he succumbed to those demons of PTSD, sadly taking his own life, at the young age of 35.

Wesley McDonnell has been described as 'one in a million' (Image: handout)

An Army veteran was found dead in a children's park after battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Wesley McDonnell, from St Helens, served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Kenya, Canada, Germany and the Falkland Islands during his distinguished career.

Friends say the 35-year-old soldier 'succumbed' to his demons and 'took his own life', with one saying 'stand easy, warrior, your duty is done'.

In a cruel twist, Mirror Online revealed how police misidentified Mr McDonnell and ended up wrongly telling another mother that her son had died.

Relatives said Mr McDonnell, stationed with the Duke of Lancaster Battalion, had suffered with mental health worries, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder, the Liverpool Echo reports.
read it here

If you actually think about what "suicide awareness" has achieved, it has delivered the message of other veterans giving up. If you think about what healing awareness does, it delivers a message of hope that they can heal too and their lives can be so much better.

When you hear that the stigma of PTSD is still strong, think about why it is still so powerful when all the evidence has been out there proving there is nothing to be ashamed of as a survivor of something that could have killed you.

Watch this video and you will know what works to support you to #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife.
Marine Veteran Mike Damon owned his PTSD. He is using what he learned in his journey to create a guide for anyone to use to conquer their inner battles. The guide is written like guides in the military are written. The principles are easy to understand and implement. Listening to Mike talk about his vision and intent for what he is trying to do makes me believe that there is truly a way to go to 0 for Veteran Suicide.
He is talking about what he went through to take back his life, how he is not only happier, he is helping veterans like you discover what is possible for you too!

Mike,"The Godfather" Damon of Vet Unite

UPDATE
Suicide rates for younger veterans doubles in NYS
There are alarming new numbers about suicide rates among younger veterans. A new report issued by the New York State Health Foundation says rates for those 18 to 34 has more than “doubled” in the state.

7 Eyewitness News met with a war veteran who leads a counseling program at the Veterans One-stop Center of Western New York.

“You feel like you are living on the other side of a pane of glass, like you’re watching everyone around you,” reflected Alyssa Vasquez, program manger, Veterans One-stop Center of WNY.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Demand facts so that real solutions will be known to those we want to save

Beware of Awareness


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 12, 2020

There was a time when everyone was made aware, the earth was flat. They believed it until they were made aware, the earth was actually round. Until common sense took over, they hated those who were telling them the truth.
The speakers of the truth had to prove what the truth was, until the others became aware they were wrong all along.

That is exactly what has been happening for far too long in this country. The topic this time is suicide awareness being raised while veterans, members of the military, first responders and regular citizens fall off because no one told them the truth...that they could heal.

Speaking the truth about this has created the same conditions for the truth tellers to be hated. If you among those trying to make others beware of awareness, here is proof that you are right, and they are wrong.

We have the press to blame when they do not report the whole truth because they do not know enough to check the facts before they publish news reports. When the Department of Defense began resiliency training, it was a predictable outcome, but reporters continually failed to link it to the increase of servicemembers committing suicide, while in the military, as well as suicides within the Veterans' Community.


The headline from NBC News is "Air Force suicides surged last year to highest in 3 decades" It contained, "According to preliminary figures, the Air Force had 84 suicides among active-duty members last year, up from 60 the year before."

What made this report worse is that the reduction in military personnel went down over those decades when NBC inserted this, "...even as the other military services saw their numbers stabilize or decline, according to officials and unpublished preliminary data."

Suicide Awareness failure was made clearer when Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly pointed to “Suicide is a difficult national problem without easily identifiable solutions that has the full attention of leadership.”

Why? Primarily because civilians did not receive billions of dollars in training to prevent them from happening.

Civilians do suffer from mental illnesses and according the the Sidran Institute "...more than 13 million people—have PTSD at any given time." but do not subject themselves to traumatic events continually. That report is a few years old but more recent ones have a different story.

The Recovery Village states "Statistics on the prevalence of PTSD in the United States vary depending on the specific group or population being studied. Overall, PTSD affects around 3.5% of the U.S. population, approximately 8 million Americans, in a given year." within an article published in January of 2020. So which one is right? Have any reporters contacted the Sidran Institute or any of the others for clarification?

Those who select jobs, putting themselves in danger to save others, should never be linked to all others.

Why? Because they value the lives of others so much so, they were willing to sacrifice their own lives to save someone else. They are not only trained to do their jobs,  billions of dollars have been spent to  supposedly "train them" to recover from their jobs.

Have any reporters asked about all that? No.

They have not linked in the fact that the Suicide Prevention Hotline from the Veterans Administration, has "Since late 2018, VA screened more than 4 million Veterans. Crisis Line is taking more than 1,700 calls each day, and VA takes emergency action on about 100 of those calls." Still this gets worse when you are aware of how long this had been in operation. This was released in 2018, by the American Physiological Association. "Launched in 2007, the service has more than 500 phone responders, who to date have answered over 3.5 million calls and sent emergency services to more than 93,000 people. The Crisis Line expanded to add an anonymous chat service in 2009 and text messaging in 2011."

They have not reported that as the number of groups raising awareness that veterans were committing suicide, all this, and more, was happening masquerading as helpful efforts to make people aware, of things they did not know.

Suicide Awareness does not work but, those speaking the truth, must never give up on making people beware of what others want them to pay attention to. The subject of those willing to risk their lives to save others, demand facts so that real solutions will be known to those we want to save.