Changing the Game

CHANGING THE GAME The Drops of Hope program offers hope and healing to local veterans.

By: CARRIE SESSIONS

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects millions, but, more specifically, PTSD impacts every single person it touches. Currently, PTSD is soaring at the top of the list for highest suicide rates, according to the National Cent er for PTSD.

PTSD is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident or sexual assault (PTSD.gov). When you have PTSD, the world feels unsafe. It’s common to have upsetting memories, feel on edge or have trouble sleeping. Many try to avoid things that remind them of trauma suffered or even things they used to enjoy.

The Coastal Bend is the home to many military men, woman and families. Our community is proud of our rich culture and vast military history. Take a moment to look around, and you will notice the majestic Lexington on North Beach and our amazing display military plane statues carefully displayed downtown. Corpus Christi is truly the home of the brave, and the city honors our military community.

Now it’s our turn to give back to those who have served and continue to serve our country selflessly and without merit. Many of our local veterans return to the Coastal Bend after serving sometimes multiple combat tours back-to-back – and many of them return after suffering and experiencing traumatic events that have been described as incomprehensible. Local veterans have recently admitted, “even with excellent family/ friends and local veteran support entities, there seems to be a large gap of resources to help treat PTSD beyond symptom management.” Thus, the idea of Drops of Hope was created. The Drops of Hope program, founded by local psychiatrist Dr. John Lusins, is designed to offer local veterans access to the most innovative mental health treatments not currently covered by insurances to those currently suffering from depression and PTSD at no cost. The Drops of Hope program is designed to offer one local veteran every month access to an entire series of Ketamine IV Infusions (six treatments) worth over $2,000

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CORPUS CHRISTI IS TRULY THE HOME OF THE BRAVE, AND THE CITY HONORS OUR MILITARY COMMUNITY.

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free of charge. Ketamine IV treatments have been studied to show positive benefits to those suffering from PTSD/depression. Drops of Hope has been building relationships with local veteran support groups in hopes of assessing the current depression and PTSD acuity within these organizations. What they discovered was alarming: Almost every organization DOH said they had at least one veteran who suffered from crippling depression and/or PTSD. The vision of Drops of Hope is to offer more than one local veteran a month access to this program one day. This will happen by bringing more community awareness surrounding PTSD and educating our community on treatment benefits of Ketamine IV Therapy for PTSD/depression. But most importantly, the program wants to offer our military community suffering with PTSD a beacon of hope.