Healing Families Ministries

Hello to all Veterans!
This has been a long time coming. Me and my wife have established a retreat for veterans: Healing Families Ministries Incorporated LLC.

We were Incorporated on Jan the 17 2007. We are a faith based, non-for profit org. We are recognized by the state and working on Federal 501(c3). We have a grant writer and are hoping to break ground within 60 days.
Our program will be like none other in the country. It is a rural setting (RANCH). There will be a chapel on site with local Va chaplains that will offer consoling. There will also be a workshop IE.wood,metal,and ceramic, and private living quarters shared by 2 veterans,a learning/training center with computers and a library on site, also horses (Animal therapy). Transportation for the veterans will be offered daily to and from the local Va medical center.
Our Program is here to offer veterans and their Families transitional skills to civilian life. Even veterans that have been out of services, sometimes for years, have a hard time with this. Because the DOD still does not have an effective program to help the entire family accomplish this, sometimes it is an impossible task.
To sum it up, we would like to be a one stop facility for Veterans & Families so they don't have to travel all over to get all the tools necessary to begin living life again, healthy, emotionally, spiritually, prepared for the civilian world. Most importantly, living with the military life in the past, and it no longer haunting the whole family in the now present.
I would much like your, the veteran communities, input on this facility. We need your help to make it the best it can be for you & your family in case you may need it.

From Warroir to civilian

The transition from Warrior to civilian is not easy no matter what branch of service we served in or what our jobs may have been. My transition is probably not much different than others, difficult and not pleasant. So I hope with this blog you may find information, direction, or maybe just some comfort.


What is PTSD?? here is an information link. That will help you to understand more about your PTSD. http://www.veteransinfo.org/id28.html

My first experience was with the VA hospitals and it was a challenge to figure it all out, where to go who to see etc, so here are some sites that will help guide you through their system. This site is a site that will help you find the closes VA to you. http://www1.va.gov/directory/guide/home.asp?isFlash=0

This next site is a link to the VA sites map it has ALL sites that the VA has and for programs available to us, and links to your congressman which could help when filing a claim. http://www.va.gov/General/site_map.htm

The most cutting edge equipment to help us with PTSD. http://www.defense-update.com/products/v/VR-PTSD.htm

Now being newly married we had to find support groups for PTSD, here are a few for the veterans also for our family members.
http://groups.msn.com/LivingwithPTSDVietnamWives/
http://www.iraqwarveterans.org/ptsd.html
http://www.giftfromwithin.org/html/groups.html

How Does PTSD Affect Families?
the Post Traumatic Gazette
http://www.patiencepress.com/samples/2ndIssue.html

MILITARY FAMILIES AND VETERANS ADVOCATES TO TESTIFY BEFORE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TASK FORCE ON MENTAL HEALTH DESPITE DOD OBSTACLES.
Despite these efforts to operate below the radar, military families and advocates will attend the hearings and provide testimony regarding the real life mental health impact of deployment and the barriers to care in the military community. WHEN: Press conference Tuesday November 21st, 4:00 pm. DOD Open briefings,1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Public testimony, 4:35 pm. WHERE: Double Tree Hotel San Francisco International Airport, 835 Airport Boulevard, Burlingame. WHY: 450,000, one in three, Iraq veterans return from deployment with post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health needs. Suicide among active troops has skyrocketed. PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury are the signature wounds of theses wars, and yet the military has failed to ensure timely and adequate mental health resources for those enduring the sacrifices of deployment. War causes wounds and suffering that last beyond the battlefield. Our mission is to heal the wounds, to restore dignity, hope, and self-sufficiency to all veterans in need, and to reduce homelessness and poverty among veterans. Learn more about the work of Swords to Plowshares, and ways in which you can help, by visiting our website at http://www.stp-sf.org/.

Here is the VA Best Practice Manual for (PTSD) Compensation & Pension Examination.
http://www.avapl.org/pub/PTSD%20Manual%20final%206.pdf