FISHER HOUSE SALUTES Military service members, veterans, and their families are supported by countless organizations that acknowledge their sacrifices. We feature a top-tier organization each issue.
WE SALUTE:
Story by Michelle Baldanza
COMING TOGETHER TO HELP SURVIVORS "We all have a role to play in supporting the mental health for both veterans and their families. Fisher House is proud to be a part of a community of nonprofits and public and private organizations who all bring different, unique strengths to this fight.” — Ken Fisher At Fisher House Foundation, our mission is to be here for veterans, service members, and their families. We know that bringing our strengths together with those of other military nonprofits benefits those we serve as we help families heal through the recovery process. Sometimes, that recovery process includes coping with loss.
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“The 12 of us bonded forever. We are so tight. We are so protective over each other. In fact, we text each other all the time. A couple of the sisters are still struggling right now,” she shared. “It's like you're not alone. You have 11 sisters that are right there with you, and that could not have happened without Fisher House Foundation, without Home Base, without TAPS.” Home Base has hosted a two-week moderate and intensive clinical program for veterans for the past six years, but about four years ago, they felt that there was a part of the veteran and military population that wasn’t being fully served. They began working closely with TAPS to put together a very similar model to the veteran program for partners who had lost military loved ones to suicide.
Earlier this year, three nonprofits came together to help a very special segment of military spouses who had lost their service member to suicide. Home Base, an organization that provides free clinical care to support veterans, service members, and their families; the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), that provides support to families of America’s fallen heroes; and Fisher House Foundation, through our Hero Miles and Hotel for Heroes programs; supported 12 spouses during a two-week clinical program designed specifically to help them through their grieving process.
“Many of the partners have either witnessed or had found their loved one, so many of them also met criteria for PTSD themselves, and of course, had very significant grief mixed with PTSD,” said Laura Harward, co-director of the Intensive Clinical Program at Home Base. “We made some adjustments for our program in terms of focusing more on grief, but we kept many of the core components of the group work.”
“They understand the vulnerability that we have, they respect and they honor, and they appreciate us,” said Petra Jackson-Oxford, whose husband took his own life in 2020.
Throughout the two weeks, attendees did a combination of individual and group therapy that included mindfulness and resiliency, ways to manage stress, exposure therapy,
THE PATRIOT • VOLUME 12 • ISSUE 2 • 2021
