Strength in Numbers

Ample resources, including peer support groups and visits from a trained and certified peer visitor, exist to help veterans and their loved ones dealing with limb loss.

In the communityBy Tyler Francke, Veterans News Magazine

For thousands of veteran amputees and other wounded warriors, support, understanding and healing often comes from one place: other wounded warriors.

That’s something the nonprofit Amputee Coalition knows well. The organization’s goal is to support veterans and their families with education, advocacy and information about further limb loss prevention — a mission that has become all the more pressing during COVID-19

“To veterans who are living with limb loss: we see you; we hear you,” the coalition said in a Veterans Day message last year. “No one should go through their limb loss journey alone.”

The organization can arrange peer visits with an experienced, trained and certified peer visitor who will offer encouragement and information from a place, and at a pace, that an individual living with limb loss can better relate to.

Arrangements for a visit may be made through the federal VA system of care, or you can request an online visit by using the secure online form, their peer support mobile app, or by calling 888-267-5669, extension 1.

The coalition also partners with the VA to help veterans find rehabilitation and prosthetic services and maintains an online database of support groups and other resources in your area — and throughout the entire United States.

If you have questions about the Amputee Coalition or living with limb loss, please call the National Limb Loss Resource Center at 888-267-5669, and press 1, or visit www.amputee-coalition.org

Support groups and peer support

Location: Salem Hospital, Building D (and Zoom). Time: 6:30-7:30 p.m. every Thursday. Contact: Karisa Bonney karissa_bonney@yahoo.com 1-702-203-3022