New Jersey Vets4Warriors gets 300 calls a week

Fighting military suicides with peer counseling
CBS News
By Elaine Quijano
August 22, 2012

(CBS News) The Pentagon granted a six-month extension Wednesday to a pilot call-in program for American military personnel considering suicide.

The suicide rate among both active-duty troops and reservists is alarming, and it's increased dramatically this year.

One effort to save troubled lives is led by veterans who understand the problem all too well.

Marine reservist Tim Arora served in 2006 near Fallujah, Iraq. He saw some of the most intense fighting of the war.

Arora returned with deep psychological wounds so severe he requested a service dog for companionship and comfort.

"I was thinking of suicide pretty much on a daily basis," Tim said. "Now it's just how I help others with it."

Arora works at a call center at New Jersey's University of Medicine with 25 other veterans. It's called "Vets 4 Warriors." It's a place veterans can call to talk confidentially with other vets. They get 300 calls a week here.

"When they come home they come home to their communities. They are not coming home to army bases or military mental health centers. They're coming home to their parents," said Linda Bean, whose son Coleman committed suicide in 2008 after two tours in Iraq.

He killed himself on the 8th anniversary of his enlistment in the Army.
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