The nonprofit Vets4Warriors peer support network is available 24/7
Funding boost for veterans’ crisis intervention program
Retired Army Major General Mark Graham, the executive director of the Vets4Warriors program at the Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care National Call Center, has made it his mission to promote mental health and suicide prevention awareness to veterans and their families by email, chat and phone.
He started the outreach to honor the memory of his two sons, one of whom died by suicide in 2003, the other months later in an IED explosion in Iraq.
The nonprofit Vets4Warriors, which has been around almost 13 years, has had over 900,000 contacts since it started. The one-of-a-kind peer support network is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with trained veterans who answer calls live within thirty seconds.
That network is set to expand thanks to a $1 million grant through Face the Fight, a collaboration of organizations committed to reducing veteran suicide. Graham says the additional funds will mean that staff can be increased to expand support for veterans.
Army veteran Ray Torres, a peer support specialist with Vets4Warriors, says the organization will be launching a new mobile app as part of extending outreach to veterans who need help.
Watch the interview on NJ Spotlight News HERE.
