Shocker WWP supporting Vietnam Veterans and TAPS

Wounded Warrior Project Announces Support for TAPS and Vietnam Veterans of America

Wounded Warrior Project
Mar 14, 2019

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) announces a grant and collaborative partnership with Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) to raise awareness and collect data on the impact of toxic exposure on the long-term health of veterans. This $200,000 grant supports VVA and TAPS' joint advocacy and tracking of toxic exposure illness among post-9/11 veterans. Many veterans of this generation have reported experiencing various illnesses resulting from exposure to contaminants on the battlefield such as burn pit smoke, depleted uranium, and industrial chemicals.

Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) announces a grant and collaborative partnership with Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) to raise awareness and collect data on the impact of toxic exposure on the long-term health of veterans.

"Toxic exposure is one of our top policy priorities for 2019," said WWP CEO Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Mike Linnington. "Working together with Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and Vietnam Veterans of America will enable our collective legislative advocacy and provide resources to veterans and family members who have incurred an illness due to toxic exposure during military service. We're proud to partner with Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and Vietnam Veterans of America to learn more about this issue and ensure veterans' health care needs are addressed."

"We are profoundly grateful for the critical grant funding WWP has provided to TAPS," said Bonnie Carroll, TAPS President and Founder. "Over the past decade, TAPS has seen a dramatic increase in the number of deaths due to illness and cancers related to toxic exposures. These service members and veterans leave behind grieving families who deserve the same care and support all service members and veterans receive. Together with WWP and VVA, we will honor those who are ill and have died by caring for all those who they loved and left behind."

"Though our war ended more than 40 years ago, we continue to battle for justice and answers for veterans exposed to Agent Orange and other toxic substances, which have been passed on to their families," said John Rowan, VVA National President. "And now, tragically, post-9/11 veterans have been exposed to a range of biological and chemical toxic substances. Whether from burn pits emitting dioxin and other toxicants; from depleted uranium; or from toxicants yet to be identified, they are dying young from uncommon illnesses, and their children are sick as well. We cannot stand idly by as this newest generation of veterans is faced with the same culture of denial as they struggle to access health care and compensation from the VA. We are glad for the opportunity to work in partnership with Wounded Warrior Project and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors to share our lessons learned and to advocate for our younger veterans and their families."

Fort Hood Soldiers Mentor at Good Grief Camp

Soldiers supporting child survivors

Fort Hood Sentinel
By Ariana-Jasmine Castrellon, Sentinel Staff
March 21, 2019

“I just found so much joy in being able to be present for somebody who’s grieving,” Wright said.

During the Good Grief Camp, March 15-17, 131 service members and veterans from around the Fort Hood area volunteered to mentor 123 child survivors at Duncan Elementary School. Each child was given his or her own mentor during the camp.

Training for volunteers was held on Friday, prior to the Good Grief Camp kick off Saturday morning, where child survivors were greeted by their mentors and broken up into seven different groups depending on their age.

The camp, hosted by Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors with support from the Fort Hood Survivor Outreach Services, offered classes and activities for adult and child survivors.

Sgt. Sarah Vanterpool, attached to Golf Forward Support Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, shared that although she is married and does not have kids, she volunteered as a mentor as a way to give back to children in the community.

“At the end of the day, they just get to have their voices heard,” Vanterpool said.

Vanterpool said that although she was “voluntold” her first year to be a Good Grief Camp mentor, she came back for the second time this year on her own.

“It was the best experience ever,” Vanterpool said. “It makes me feel great – like amazing.”

TAPS has been a private non-profit organization since 1994. TAPS’ mission is to provide assistance, programs and resources to Family members, children, spouses, friends and fiancés after the loss of a loved one who died as a result of his, or her service. TAPS provides support 24/7.
For more information on visit TAPS
read more here

Better off with you feeling better about being here

Tragic Loss Of Brothers To Veteran Suicide Inspires VA Employee To Raise Awareness

SM Corridor News 
Date: March 21, 2019 

Carolyn Colley, an associate counsel at VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals, recently produced the short film With or Without Me to raise awareness of Veteran suicide and to illustrate its devastating impact on their loved ones.

Veteran suicide is an issue close to Colley’s heart as she lost both of her brothers, who were combat Veterans, to suicide.

In February, she took part in a film workshop for post-9/11 Veterans called the Patton Veterans Project whose mission is to help Veterans cope with post traumatic stress, reduce social isolation and strengthen family, community and professional bonds.

The program incorporates screening events that validate Veterans’ experiences, advance community dialogue and educate the public about the mental health challenges facing Veterans and military families.

Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors (TAPS) partnered with the Patton Veterans Project (PVP) by participating in its game-changing “I Was There” filmmaking workshop. Colley, an Air Force Veteran, joined Ben Patton and other Veterans touched by suicide loss to make the film.

According to TAPS, With or Without Me is a powerful example of the ways in which storytelling through film can at once bring awareness to a difficult issue to light while at the same time being immensely healing for the creators of the content. Watch the film and see for yourself.

To learn more about TAPS and the Patton Veterans Project, please visit their websites at taps.org and pattonveteransproject.org.

TAPS and PVP will present a session on the healing power of film for suicide loss survivors on April 26 at the 52nd Annual Conference of the American Association of Suicidology in Denver.
read more here

In Tampa Veterans Were More Than A Number, They Were Family

Veterans lost to suicide memorialized during Military Suicide Survivor Seminar
FOX 13 News
Jennifer Holton
October 6, 2018

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Air Force Veteran Drew Winkler is just one face of many memorialized on a wall of servicemen and women lost to suicide.

Drew took his own life on Memorial Day 2016.

“He was a natural leader, he really had his stuff together,” Rick Winkler said of his son. “After Drew had come back from his deployment, he had changed,” Rick said.

For the family members Drew left behind, the Annual Military Suicide Survivor Seminar helps them move forward in healing. The event is in its tenth year.

“It taught me how to grieve, how to heal through grieving, and how to move through it,” Rick said.

The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, hosted its annual event in Tampa Saturday, drawing hundreds of family members who have lost a loved one to suicide.

“It’s really critical for those who have lost a loved one to suicide to be around other people who understand that journey,” said Kim Ruocco, the TAPS Vice President of Suicide Prevention. “We try to move people from that brokenness and trauma that often results from suicide, towards post-traumatic growth.”
read more here

Super Hero Tiny Marine Takes Tears Away

Face of Defense: Marine Helps Families of Fallen Service Members
Department of Defense
By Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Cody Lemons
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
March 3, 2017

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C., March 3, 2017 — Superheroes come in all sizes and all kinds of disguises -- Marine Corps Sgt. Alicia Hojara is living proof of that.

Sgt. Alicia Hojara Superhero Unmasked Marine Corps Sgt. Alicia Hojara, center, an instructor at the Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., holds the flag she received as the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce’s Service Person of the Quarter, Feb. 10, 2017. Master Sgt. Christopher McGuire, left, and Lt. Col. Garrett Randel, right, nominated Hojara for her dedication to giving back to the local community. Randel is the school’s commander and McGuire is the aviation ordnance chief. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Cody Lemons

In mid-December, the diminutive Marine was surrounded by a theater full of children and their families, their expressions changing from anticipation to hope to laughter in the flickering glow of the big screen. The movie, a new animated feature with comical animal characters and lots of hopeful vocals, seemed to be just what some of these families need at the moment: an escape from real-world worries to a place where they could just relax.

Hojara had left her uniform home, replaced by a different kind of camouflage -- casual clothes, hair at ease, and a gentle expression that put her young charges at ease when they need it the most.

Most other days, you can find Hojara at the front of a classroom of young Marines as they navigate their way through the intricate details of aviation ordnance handling at the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit here. There's no kid's play here; this is serious work that will prepare the next batch of aviation ordnance Marines to load teeth onto the modern-day dragons that squat across Marine Corps flight lines around the world.

But, from time to time, Hojara slips away like Clark Kent to take on another heroic mission, volunteering her time to help families who have lost an active-duty loved one. Hojara routinely makes time to volunteer for different organizations, such as local humane societies for the protection of animals; Snowball Express, which provides support to families of deceased service members; and her favorite, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, otherwise known as TAPS.

As Hojara sat in the shadowy theater on a mission with Snowball Express, draped in her invisible cape of good will, she feels the kind of satisfaction that superheroes must experience every time they swoop down and pull a victim a little further from despair. Chalk up one more for the good guys.
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Presidential Medal of Freedom for Big Miracle TAPS Founder

Alaska military advocate to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Alaska Dispatch News
Erica Martinson
November 16, 2015

The military quickly adopted the program, and it has since been replicated across the globe, in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Israel and Germany, among others, Carroll said.

In this Jan. 17, 2012 photo, Bonnie Carroll, president and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, known as TAPS, poses in her office in Washington. Carroll is being honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, as part of her advocacy on behalf of grieving military families. Jacquelyn Martin

WASHINGTON -- The White House announced plans Monday to grant a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Bonnie Carroll, founder of an organization that provides support to grieving military families -- and the star of a true Alaska love story.

Carroll was working in the White House in 1988 when three California gray whales trapped in Arctic ice garnered international attention. President Ronald Reagan’s interest in the plight led the West Wing staffer to meet her future husband, Alaska Army National Guard Col.Tom Carroll. Their love story was later featured in the 2012 film “Big Miracle.”

In 1992, after he and Bonnie were married, then-commander of the Alaska Army National Guard and lifelong Alaskan Tom Carroll died in an Army C-12 plane crash in the Chilkat Mountains -- along with seven other top Guard leaders -- en route to Juneau. Tom Carroll's father, Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Carroll, had died 28 years earlier in a plane crash at Valdez while providing relief work after the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, Bonnie Carroll said.

Carroll channeled her grief into action, and following her husband's burial at Fort Richardson National Cemetery in Anchorage, she founded the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), which provides support for those impacted by the death of a member of the U.S. military.

Bonnie Carroll will be honored with the nation's highest civilian honor next week for her work after her husband's death.
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National Military Suicide Survivors Seminar Offered Support

Military suicide survivors help each other heal at seminar
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: October 28, 2014

Two women hug at a remembrance ceremony at the National Military Suicide Survivor Seminar earlier this month in St. Petersburg, Fla. The program brings together survivors of service member loved ones who committed suicide.
Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Sitting and sobbing outside the hotel room where her Marine husband had just hanged himself, Kim Ruocco said she was horrified to find that nearly everyone who responded to the scene somehow managed to make her feel worse.

First she asked the hotel manager where her husband was staying, and he wordlessly backed into another room, shutting the door to avoid her. A trauma specialist told her to lie to her children about what had happened.

And then there was the priest.

Addressing the newly widowed woman, just steps away from her Catholic husband’s body, he said, “You know what Catholics believe about suicide? It’s a sin.”

“I said, ‘Are you telling me that I should tell my kids that their dad is not only dead, but that he’s also in hell?’” she recalled. “And he just looked at me.”

That experience in 2005 started Ruocco on what has become a full-time mission to help fellow survivors cope, heal and thrive. That often starts with an annual seminar for and by those who have lost troops and veterans to suicide.

As a testament to the seriousness of the epidemic and the growing willingness of survivors to talk about their experience, the TAPS database for suicide survivors has swelled to more than 5,000.
read more here

Military suicides: Through a Child’s Eyes

Through a Child’s Eyes
By LESLIE MCCADDON
October 6, 2012

Shannon, Tim and John.

These names, prior to our trip to the TAPS National Military Survivors Seminar in Washington, D.C., in May were not names I heard spoken in our home. Now, they receive nearly daily mentions and are always accompanied by big grins on my three children’s faces.

TAPS provides Good Grief Camps for children who have experienced the loss of a military family member (usually a parent or a sibling). These camps are offered on the same days and at the same times as the children’s parents are receiving support through educational and sharing seminars throughout the day.

The organization offers open arms to those affected by military suicide: “You are warmly invited to join TAPS for a special program of comfort and support for all those grieving the suicide loss of a loved one who served in the Armed Forces,” it says on its website.

I decided to ask my daughter, Madeleine, 8, about her experience at the Good Grief Camp last May as we traveled on an airplane to the National Suicide Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp in San Diego.
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Help for Families Worried About Their Service Member

Military Suicide: Help for Families Worried About Their Service Member
By ALEXANDRA SIFFERLIN
July 12, 2012

In this week’s TIME cover story, “One a Day” (available to subscribers here), journalists Mark Thompson and Nancy Gibbs explore why suicides among the U.S. military have reached crisis levels. Every day, one active-duty service member dies by his own hand, the authors note: “The U.S. military seldom meets an enemy it cannot target, cannot crush, cannot put a fence around or drive a tank across. But it has not been ale to defeat or contain the epidemic of suicides among its troops.”

The specific triggers for suicide are unique to each soldier. Each person deals differently with the stresses of war, frequent deployments, separation from family, death of comrades. Many contend with depression and post-traumatic stress upon returning home. There are several programs and support lines for these soldiers, but it also helps for their immediate families to remain vigilant and to monitor their behavior. Even still, many service members fall through the cracks.

Below is what we hope is helpful advice for military spouses, who want to know what warning signs to look for in their service member and how best to handle severe situations. One immediate sign, say experts, is a pervasive sense of uselessness, a feeling that they no longer belong. “What we learn from our families [who lost service family members to suicide] and what they saw in their loved ones, is behavior [in which they] pulled back and felt they were not able to be a useful part of unit that relied on them,” says Bonnie Carroll, founder and chairman of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, a non-profit that supports those who have lost a loved one in the military. “These men and women need to know they are still a part of a unit at home and overseas.”
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Linked from Stars and Stripes

Timothy couldn't believe the brave soldier he worshipped shot himself on purpose

Soldier's son on a mission to help others after father's suicide
He has a message for other grieving military children
By Lindsay Wise
Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Timothy couldn't believe that the brave soldier he worshipped had shot himself on purpose.

When his father returned from Iraq in 2004, Timothy, dressed in a mini version of a miliatry uniform, welcomed him home. Photo: Karen Warren / © 2012 Houston Chronicle

Timothy Swenson was 6 years old when his father, a soldier, died by suicide at Fort Hood. Thinking to spare the little boy, his mother told him that Daddy had died of a heart attack.

But Timothy's grandparents, who had been taking care of him at their home in Humble, wanted to be as open as possible. They told him the truth.

"He didn't believe us," said his grandmother, Judi Swenson. "He said, 'Nobody was in the apartment when he died. Nobody knows. I know he didn't commit suicide.' "

It took Timothy years to come to terms with how his father died. Now 13 and a student at Timberwood Middle School, he wants to help other grieving military kids heal.

"Let your feelings out. And just, like, don't hide it," Timothy advises. "Don't keep it to yourself."

For adults, he has this message: "Suicide is not the answer."

Timothy's father, Spc. David Paul Swenson Jr., served in the U.S. Army and Texas Army National Guard. He is among a record number of Guard members, reservists and active-duty service members who have killed themselves in the decade since the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Their children, like Timothy, grow up grappling with a complicated legacy of patriotism and pain.

"Timmy was extremely close to his daddy," Judi said. "His daddy was his hero."
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Military widows bond at Alaska retreat

Military widows bond at Alaska retreat
By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press
GIRDWOOD, Alaska (AP) — Jennifer Tullis still keeps her husband's camouflage uniform in the closet, all starched, ironed and folded, even though he died 12 years ago.

"He took so much pride in that," she said, smiling at the memory of her husband, Michael Peterson, a powerlifting Marine from Tooele, Utah, whose nickname was Ogre.

"I lost my husband when I was 19 to suicide, which is one of the harder ways because there's so many stigmas attached to it," said Tullis, of Valley Center, Calif.

Tullis and about 75 other military widows — ranging in age from 21 to 62 — shared memories of their loved ones while hiking rugged wooded trails, canyoneering in the backcountry and rafting the rapids of Alaska's Crow Creek last weekend. They were participants in the second Alaska Adventure excursion organized by TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

Tullis turned to the group for support when Peterson died, and now gives back as a peer mentor to the growing ranks of military widows and widowers whose spouses or significant others died in combat, from illness, suicide, "every type of loss imaginable," said TAPS founder and president Bonnie Carroll.

"What brings us together and really binds us as a community is their life, and their service and their sacrifice to this nation. This is about honoring the life, and remembering the love far more than it is about mourning the death," Carroll said.

Tullis simply calls TAPS family.
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Military TAP plagued by inconsistencies, indifference

Military TAP plagued by inconsistencies, indifference
February 6, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie
The DOD releases reports of what they’re doing as if it is all good but the truth is, it is not all good. There have been a lot of advances in the care of wounded servicemen and women. While that is true, the stories the veterans tell show that all is not well on the home front.
TAP has problems, Wounded Warriors Program (not to be confused with Wounded Warriors Project) has problems. Until these problems are fixed, we’ll keep losing more and more to suicide.

Program for departing service members plagued by inconsistencies, indifference
By Carl Prine
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 6, 2011
WASHINGTON — Launched during a time of peace to aid departing service members, the Transition Assistance Program is failing war veterans and their families, according to Pentagon reports obtained by the Tribune-Review.
Called “TAP,” it began in 1989 as a federal pilot program run by the Department of Defense, Labor Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. For most of the 140,000 troops who annually must take the course, it’s three days of classes on topics ranging from the new GI Bill for college to special initiatives that help wounded personnel and their families.
Crisscrossing the U.S. and Europe, investigators from the Pentagon’s Office of Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy in Alexandria, Va., determined that TAP was plagued with “significant gaps in consistency of services” and “low” spousal participation, according to the files. The reports added that there was “little evidence” financial aid, relocation assistance or post-military education applications “are emphasized or provided” by TAP coordinators.
Reports state that TAP staffers often failed to help military spouses find off-base jobs and were “not well versed” in recovery care programs; TAP support for injured personnel and their families was “not readily apparent.”
The reports allege:

• Instructors at Italy’s Naval Air Station Signorella in late 2009 lacked the training and “established level of competency” to conduct counseling for personnel leaving the service.
• Sailors at Florida’s Naval Station Mayport slept through classes in late 2009 because they were forced to stand overnight watch, a problem of “mission win; Sailors lose.” At naval bases in southern Europe, sailors were forced to pay their own way to attend briefings.
• Military discharge counseling so bad at Naval Hospital Jacksonville in Florida that the “risks of violations of federal statute high.”
• A program at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina that exceeded classroom capacity for Marines, offered limited child care to spouses attending workshops and discharged reservists who weren’t receiving the courses that they needed.
• Questions about the program’s ability to “maintain enduring connection with National Guard or Reserve Community questionable; extent of proactive engagement could not be determined.”
for more go here
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/02/06/military-tap-plagued-by-inconsistencies-indifference/

Suicide Survivors Find Comfort With TAPS

Suicide Survivors Find Comfort With TAPS

By Elaine Wilson
American Forces Press Service
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 12, 2010 – Miranda Kruse sits in a hotel lobby here, sharing her story as dozens of her friends pass by. She waves at some and jumps up to warmly hug others, carefully guarding a plate of sandwiches for her three children, who are off playing with friends.


It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, Kruse could barely leave her house, gripped by a loneliness and depression triggered by her husband’s suicide that nearly swallowed her in darkness.

“Loneliness is so horrible after a suicide,” she said, her eyes welling up with tears. “There’s such a stigma and everyone wants to point a finger.”

It wasn’t until she attended her first Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors seminar that she truly emerged from the darkness, she said. TAPS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the survivors of fallen military loved ones.

“TAPS got me back on my feet,” she said. “They understand what you’re going through. We may cry and get emotional, but they understand.”

Kruse is among the more than 200 family members who traveled here from across the nation last weekend to attend the 2nd Annual TAPS Suicide Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp. Participants range from parent to spouse, sibling to battle buddy, but all lost a military loved one to suicide, some as recently as a week ago.

It has been nearly five years since Kruse’s loss, but the emotion still seems raw for her as she recalled her husband’s decline. It was only about a year into their relationship that Kruse first recognized something was very wrong with her future husband, Navy Chief Petty Officer Jerald Kruse.

It began with his severe insomnia, then progressed into nervous rocking and incessant nail biting. One night she heard him yelling and cursing at someone in the bathroom. But when she opened the door, he was alone.

Kruse urged him to get counseling, but he hesitated, afraid of the stigma of seeking military mental health care. He eventually agreed, although reluctantly, and was told to cut back on caffeine. They switched to another counselor, who said it might be attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a diagnosis they dismissed after some research.

They went to one last counseling visit on Aug. 5, 2005, and Kruse begged him to reveal the true depth of his troubles as he went in to talk to the counselor alone. After the appointment, he broke down in tears.

“What happened?” she asked him. “They don’t have answers,” he replied. “I’m done with this.”
Five months later, on New Year’s Day in 2006, Kruse went out in the evening for a while. When she returned, she found her husband in the backyard. He had shot himself.
read more here
Suicide Survivors Find Comfort With TAPS

TAPS volunteers help grieving children

Wrangler Bde volunteers help grieving children
By Pfc. Amy M. Lane, 4th Sust. Bde. Public Affairs
July 29, 2010 News

One of the Army values is selfless service, and volunteers from the 4th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), along with other III Corps Soldiers, were a living example of this value during last weekend’s two-day Good Grief Camp at Fort Hood.

The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, known as TAPS, organized the annual event, which pairs children who have lost a loved one in the military with a Soldier-mentor for two days of activities aimed at dealing with grief. Mentors received training before the event.

The Wrangler Brigade sent 15 volunteers to the event. Each had various reasons for offering their time. Some said they were doing it to honor a loved one they had lost, to honor those lost in the Nov. 5 shooting or simply to help children.
go here for more
Wrangler Bde volunteers help grieving children

SEMINAR FOR SURVIVING FAMILIES OF MILITARY SUICIDE

TAPS: SEMINAR FOR SURVIVING FAMILIES OF MILITARY SUICIDE
OCT. 8-11 IN SAN DIEGO
TAPS SEMINAR FOR SURVIVING FAMILIES OF MILITARY SUICIDE OCT. 8-11 IN SAN DIEGO OFFERS COMFORT

Largest gathering ever held for military suicide survivors will draw more than 200 family members Department of Defense Suicide Prevention Task Force meets Thursday, Oct. 8 to hear from families.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 2, 2009

San Diego, Calif. – Families who have experienced death by suicide of a loved one who served in the military will find help and comfort in a suicide survivor seminar and Good Grief Camp offered October 8-11 by TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

“Experiencing the death of a loved one is difficult for any family, and suicide carries unique challenges because of the stigma associated with this type of loss,” said Kim Ruocco, director of suicide survivor education and support with TAPS. Ruocco’s husband, Marine Major John Ruocco, took his own life in 2005 three months after returning from a deployment in Iraq. “The family is left to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and we’re here to help,” said Ruocco.

TAPS will hold peer mentoring training on Thursday, October 8. Peer mentoring training teaches survivors how to support each other through grief. As part of the training, survivors will also learn how to tell their story in an educational way, which empowers survivors to help others.

At the beginning of the seminar, the Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces, chaired by Major General Philip Volpe and co-chaired by TAPS founder and chairman Bonnie Carroll, will hold a meeting on Thursday, October 8. The task force will hear from surviving families that have experienced the death by suicide of a loved one who served in the military. The task force is preparing a report with recommendations and findings that will be presented to the Secretary of Defense and Congress. More information about the task force is available at http://www.health.mil/dhb/default.cfm

The surviving families left behind following a suicide ask many questions and seek to understand their loved one’s death. The TAPS Suicide Survivor Seminar being held October 9-11 includes advice from experts to help families cope and support group time. The opening session will address common questions asked by suicide survivors with an address by Dr. Frank Campbell called, “The Canyon of Why: Metaphors for Healing from Sudden and Traumatic Loss.”
read more here
SEMINAR FOR SURVIVING FAMILIES OF MILITARY SUICIDE

Gathering gives military families support through grief

Gathering gives military families support through grief
May 2, 2009 - 4:39 PM
R. SCOTT RAPPOLD
THE GAZETTE
Robert Pirelli's pain was like a cancer, eating away at him, sapping his will to live.

Through a national nonprofit, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, he has found the answers he needed about the death of his son, Staff Sgt. Robert R. Pirelli, 29, a Fort Carson Green Beret killed in Iraq in August 2007.

He's also found the comfort of knowing he is not the only one hurting.

"When you come to TAPS, people say, ‘I know what you're going through,' and they really do know what you're going through," Pirelli said.

He came to Fort Carson from Boston this weekend for a TAPS grief seminar, one of 150 widows and mothers, fathers and brothers, fellow soldiers and friends, who gathered to remember loved ones lost to war and to find support in each others' stories.

"It lets the families know their loved ones' sacrifice is remembered and their life made a difference," said Bonnie Carroll, who founded TAPS two years after the death of her husband, Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll, in a 1992 plane crash.

At the time, there was no support system in place for survivors to keep in touch with other military families and people who served with their lost loved ones. She and the families of other people lost in the crash got together on their own.

Ronnie Barrett came from Johnson City, Tenn, for the seminar. His son, Sgt. Chad Barrett, with Fort Carson's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, committed suicide in Iraq in February 2008.

For the father, coming here has been cathartic.

"I didn't realize until I got here there would be so many people with the same story I've got," he said.

go here for more

http://www.gazette.com/articles/pirelli-52877-through-robert.html

TAPS:Group helps families of suicide victims

Group helps families of suicide victims

Advocates offer free peer-to-peer support, crisis line, case assistance
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Feb 21, 2009 10:10:11 EST

After Pvt. Paul Bridges saw his buddies die in Iraq in a Humvee in February 2006, his mental state began going downhill, said his father, Terry Bridges.

Three months later, a mental health counselor told his chain of command that Bridges needed to leave the theater immediately. His weapon was taken away.

But nearly six months later, on Nov. 2, 2006, still in Iraq and working 12-hour days, Bridges shot himself with his roommate’s weapon.

“His command let him down,” said Terry Bridges, who has received no answers about why his son remained in Iraq. “It was something that could have been prevented.”

He said the military needs to train noncommissioned officers not to treat troops as malingerers when they exhibit mental health problems, and also train troops in how to react and protect their comrades who might be contemplating suicide.

“We can’t do anything for Paul. But if we can help change the culture to understand that just because a soldier doesn’t have an arm blown off, or a hole in the stomach, it doesn’t mean soldiers aren’t wounded ... maybe it will prevent this from happening to others,” he said.

Bridges and his wife, Sherryl Marsh, are joining forces with other families of suicide victims in the military through the nonprofit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors to help prevent suicide in the ranks and assist families of suicide victims.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/02/army_suicide_022109w/

TAPS announces training for working with bereaved

TAPS ANNOUNCES TRAINING FOR SOCIAL WORKERS, NURSES, CHAPLAINS, CASUALTY OFFICERS, FAMILY PROGRAM STAFF, COUNSELORS, MFLCs, and MILITARY LEADERSHIP www.taps.org/professionaleducation

TAPS provides peer based emotional support for military surviving families. Part of our mission is to improve the training and continuing education for health and mental healthcare professionals dealing with children and families who suffer from traumatic grief. We are proud to announce quarterly educational training WEBINARS with a special focus on working with military surviving families and veterans.

On December 4, 2008, TAPS will conduct training on "Working with the Bereaved: Suicide Risk Assessment." This Webinar features expert speaker Dr. David Jobes (see attached flyer for more info). The training is accredited for 1.0 CEUs for Nurses and Social Workers and has been approved by NASW.

Please share this information with staff, colleagues and chapter members. We are making our best effort to reach out to those partnering organizations who are interested in helping the families of the Fallen and returning veterans and asking their help in disseminating this information. Thank you for spreading the word!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Jill Harrington LaMorie, jill@taps.org.

For more information and to register, please visit our website: www.taps.org/professionaleducation.

Thank you for your help!

Bonnie

Bonnie Carroll
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors
910 17th Street, NW Suite 800
Washington, DC 20006
www.taps.org
Office: 202.588.TAPS (8277)
Toll-Free: 800.959.TAPS (8277)
FAX: 202-457-8278
bonnie@taps.org