Service
Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans Outreach
Returning veterans from Iraq/Afghanistan, who are part of the rural culture, are resistive to reaching out for services established to assist them. The Vet Centers have developed a vast array of services but have found it difficult to entice these young soldiers to utilize these services. The Farm Resource Center (FRC) wants to utilize its model of outreach to connect veterans and their families with needed programs.
FRC, established in 1985, successfully provided outreach to farm families in Illinois who resisted seeking mental health services. This was accomplished using FRC’s APPLE Model of outreach: Accessible, Personal, Professional, Linked, And Empathetic. This model requires culturally competent outreach workers providing family focused outreach at the consumer’s kitchen table. Additionally, FRC has applied this model with laid off coal miners in IL, WVA, PA, and with tobacco farmers in eastern NC. The Department of Health and Human Services in a study of rural mental health programs heralded FRC’s approach as a promising practice of rural mental health service delivery.
FRC is confident that this model applied by using veterans to reach out to soldiers returning from war zone duties can also be effective in connecting these individuals and their families with appropriate and needed services while providing interim crisis intervention and crisis management services. This confidence comes in part from the experience of FRC’s one veteran of Iraq service who had previously provided outreach for five counties in Southern Illinois.
FRC takes great pride in working cooperatively with other providers avoiding duplication. FRC’s existing outreach program will serve as backup for veterans’ outreach since the initial outreach is proposed to be outreach workers covering five county clusters.
| Goals and Objectives | |
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Provide outreach mental health crisis intervention to returning soldiers and their families |
| 1. Open a minimum of fifty cases per year per worker 2. Show improvement in well being as reported by consumers |
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Provide active case management of families to community resources i.e. food banks, community action agencies, etc. |
| 1. Develop specific resource guides for each five county area selected. 2. Develop working agreements with as many veterans’ organizations as possible. |
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Provide true linkage and referral to needed veterans’ services |
| 1. Develop a specific understanding and listing of current veterans services. 2. Develop a specific understanding and listing of current veterans services available to each family member. 3. Assist consumer in connecting with recommended resources. 4. Provide follow-up after referral connection. 5. Develop statements of agreements with providers of veteran’s services. |
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FRC is seeking funding in the amount of $1.2 million each year for a period of three years to employ 23 veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan wars to do outreach. With the unemployment rate among this population at 11.2% these jobs have an additional impact. This level of funding would permit 89 counties to be covered with aggressive outreach.