Dryhootch: Using Coffee and Conversation to Prevent Veteran Suicides

Dryhootch: Using Coffee and Conversation to Prevent Veteran Suicides
Non-profit Helps Veterans and Families "Survive the Peace"
Studies show 18 vets commit suicide in America each day, and more Wisconsin National Guard members are dying from suicide than in battle. A Milwaukee non-profit is working to prevent those deaths, through coffee and conversation.
Reporter: John Stofflet

Posted May 5, 2011--10:00 p.m.

Heather Morales' story is all too common. Mental combat wounds sustained in the Iraq War led her ex-husband to kill himself.

During an interview in her La Crosse home, Morales said, "I never in a million years thought he'd take his own life. The toughest part is him not being here for our daughter Katherine".

Heather's is a story Bob Curry has heard far too often. Curry, a Vietnam veteran, who has post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) says, "They don't train you to come back to civilian life. We need to take care of them when they get home."

Curry is co-founder of Dryhootch--a Milwaukee non-profit coffeehouse that serves much more than coffee. "The mission is, we say, to help the veteran and their family who survived the war to survive the peace. When you're in the military, your brother is the person next to you, or your sister, and so we want to create that bond here and help the veteran, who gets back and their family members, by being their
battle buddy here."

Veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan facing addiction or mental health issues can talk to other vets in counseling sessions, or they can just talk informally over coffee.

Iraq War veteran Manuel "Manny" Mora also has PTSD, and has found it therapeutic to talk to fellow vets at Dryhootch and, "have people to connect to, and let me know that I'm not the only one out there. There are other people in the same situation as I was."

Mora says he saw comrades severely wounded next to him in Iraq, and was under constant pressure there. "Just that constant paranoia of not knowing if you're going to get killed one day....kind of that worst feeling to go out of the gate and not know if you're going to come back or not. I imploded from the inside, and once that happened, I pretty much exploded on everything else outside, which left me homeless, pretty much sleeping in my car."

Curry says, "When I first met Manny a year and a half ago, Manny didn't talk." Thanks to Dryhootch, Manny's not only talking now...he's leading veterans counseling sessions there. Mora says, "My way of paying back is just helping other veterans in any way I can."
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Using Coffee and Conversation to Prevent Veteran Suicides