Rush University Medical Center will receive up to $45 million — its largest single donation ever — from the Wounded Warrior Project to provide mental health services to thousands of additional veterans.
Rush will put the cash toward its Road Home Program, which treats veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, depression, anxiety and related conditions at no cost to patients. The program, which also helps the families of veterans, has treated more than 1,000 people since launching in 2014. The new donation is expected to help Rush treat another 5,000 veterans and their family members over the next five years.
*****
"This isn’t the Wounded Warrior Project’s first donation to Rush. In 2016, the organization gave Rush a $15 million grant to help it develop its intensive program, among other things. The group also is giving money to help support veterans at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, California’s UCLA Health and Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare."
Firefighters escort body of comrade killed in boat crash News4Jax By Vic Micolucci - Reporter, anchor June 05, 2018
Salber was a lieutenant paramedic for the Sanford Fire Department. Salber's girlfriend said he had four children: three sons and a daughter, ages 17, 18, 20 and 22.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The body of a veteran Central Florida firefighter who died Saturday afternoon in the collision of two racing boats on the St. Johns River was escorted home Tuesday by fellow firefighters from Sanford.
It was a somber and silent procession as fellow first responders moved of body of Lt. Mike Salber from the medical examiner's office in Jacksonville to Central Florida.
The caravan of colleagues and friends from Sanford did so with dignity and respect.
Firefighters and police officers from Sanford, along with Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department's honor guard and a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office motorcycle team, were at the Medical Examiner's Office as Salber's flag-draped coffin was loaded into a hearse for his final trip home.
A sheriff's deputy accompanied Salber's girlfriend, Melanie Jeanine, to and from Jacksonville. She said she had dated Salber for the past year and a half. read more here
Bradenton Beach cop cleared in shooting suicidal veteran. But now the veteran is facing charges Bradenton News Jessica DeLeon June 4, 2018
The veteran served 26 years as a U.S. Marine and completed five tours, McIntosh explained.
"It's sinful that we aren't doing a better way as a country to take care of these people who come back and are dealing with this," McIntosh said. "To add injury to insult to this Marine, he gets released after he finally gets stabilized physically and mentally, and they come arrest him. I don't get that."
A Bradenton Beach police officer was cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting of a man who was suicidal and charged at the officer with a knife and a hatchet in December — a tactic commonly called suicide by cop.
The Palmetto man is now charged with aggravated assault against that officer.
On the night of Dec. 30, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office received a call from Douglas Schofield's sister reporting that he appeared to be suicidal. The sheriff's office was able to trace the location of his cellphone to Anna Maria Island. Deputies and police officers from Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach saturated the island until they found Schofield's gray Honda Civic.
The Honda Civic, with Schofield sitting inside, was found at the intersection of Gulf Drive and Pine Avenue by Bradenton Beach police officer Eric Hill, Holmes Beach Chief of Police William Tokajer, officer Christine LeBranche and sheriff's deputy Amy Leach.
"But for the life of me, I cannot understand why we haven't come up with better techniques for handling a situation where someone tells us that they are trying to commit suicide," McIntosh said.
Schofield nearly died and spent weeks recovering at a hospital, according to his attorney. He was then transferred to the VA Hospital, where he was able to seek mental heath assistance he needed. read more here
"What a beautiful word that is — choice — and freedom to our amazing veterans," Trump said at the signing ceremony. "All during the campaign I'd go out and say, 'why can't they just go see a doctor instead of standing in line for weeks and weeks and weeks?' Now they can go see a doctor."
REMINDER: THEY SHOULD NOT BE TREATED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, AND OH, BY THE WAY...THEY ARE WAITING IN LINE BECAUSE OF CONGRESS!!!! If the person you elected had voted against Affordable Care Act Vote list then turned around to support sending veterans into the same situation, they need to be publicly humiliated! Why? Because apparently they thought this healthcare coverage was so bad for us THEY DECIDED TO PUT VETERANS INTO THE SAME MESS and this is the result!
The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ auditing arm, found veterans often had to wait between 51 and 64 days for appointments with private doctors under the Veterans Choice program. It cited a lengthy scheduling process that took as long as 70 days.
When they decided to treat disabled veterans just like everyone else, they hoped we'd be too stupid to notice what billions paid to private companies could have do to fix the VA for all veterans. Then again, we were too stupid to notice that Congress has had jurisdiction over how we show veterans what we think of them GOING BACK TO 1946~ If this is not enough for you to actually hold them accountable, watch this video from a couple of years ago. Veterans should never have to take this betrayal! They did their jobs! Make members of Congress do their jobs!
And yes, they are helping each other out of the dumpster!
Gold Star children help others through the grief of losing a loved one CBS News June 4, 2018
There are more than 5,000 Gold Star kids around the country, grieving the death of a parent, sibling or close relative. They come together each year at the Good Grief Camp, run by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS.
ARLINGTON, Va. -- Brynnly and Aynsley Thomson come to their father's grave often. Army Col. Todd Thomson served two tours in Iraq, before he died in 2012.
CBS News' Jeff Glor recently met the Thomson girls at Arlington National Cemetery's section 60, the final resting place for the men and women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Tell me what it's like visiting here," Glor asked.
"Well, when you come here, you think back to the funeral, and when the last time you said goodbye [was]," Aynsley said. read more here
