January marks 32 years since the start of the first Gulf War—Operation Desert Storm. For those who have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, anniversaries of traumatic events can be one of many triggers, even years later.
These "anniversary reactions" may cause PTSD symptoms, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs. “Those dates always just kind of come back,” said U.S. Army Iraq War veteran Guillermo Sanchez on the VA’s AboutFace program. “Even if you don't ever make an effort to remember that date … it'll just hit me out of nowhere.”
As a veteran of Desert Storm, or of Afghanistan or Iraq, you may or may not have sought out behavioral health resources for treating PTSD, mild traumatic brain injury, or other mental health impacts of traumatic events.
But if you need help, the Defense Health Agency’s global inTransition program is here to assist you with your behavioral health information needs worldwide, 24/7/365 via phone, chat or email, helping to link service members and veterans to care.
Don’t Fall through the Cracks
inTransition is a voluntary, free, confidential program that offers specialized coaching and assistance for active-duty service members, U.S. National Guard members, reservists, veterans, and retirees who need access to behavioral health care while in a state of transitioning or any time after discharge.
Nicholas Polizzi, inTransition’s program manager who holds a doctorate in educational psychology, explained that the program “can help clients discern what services they're qualified or eligible for. And then help get them connected to providers, wherever and however they're moving.”
Polizzi said, “We have that really narrow, but so important, scope of making sure people don’t fall through the cracks after transitioning because health care, especially behavioral health care, are what's the first thing often to go by the wayside when somebody is transitioning, or even just moving from one location to another.”
One veteran who used the program, retired U.S. Army Capt. Joel Serrano, said when he transitioned after 26 years in the U.S. Army, he felt a sadness and struggled understanding why. “The inTransition Program ... it gave me the stability, a type of mentorship guiding you to stay on the path.”
Continuity of care is important because “situations like these are precisely when behavioral health care is needed the most, due to the stressors of transitioning and being potentially more at risk as a result,” said psychiatrist Dr. Charles Hoge, the senior scientist at the behavioral health division of the Office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General, in Falls Church, Virginia. “inTransition is one of the safety nets.”
inTransition services are available to all military members regardless of length of service or discharge status, and there is no expiration date to enroll.
Leaving the Military
Most notably, inTransition supports service members and veterans who are transitioning between behavioral health care providers, mostly because they are leaving the Department of Defense or separating from service or they're retiring.
“They're leaving the DOD and that culture, becoming a civilian, and pursuing behavioral health care in the civilian sector,” Polizzi explained. “We help them find resources in their geographic area, and then support them until they are connected to the resources providers who are working for them. And then we follow up to make sure they’re happy with the care,” he said.
“We won't rest until we help you get connected to care that works for you,” he stressed.
You can also just “kick the tires” at inTransition if you don’t want help now, Polizzi said, “It's good for you to know that inTransition remains as a service should you wish to use it in the future.”
If your situation or mental health changes, “just reach out to us anytime day or night to get that ball rolling again,” he said.
Game Planning
inTransition coaches, who are licensed behavioral health care professionals steeped in military culture, work with clients to create specific goals for getting them connected to care. Those goals depend on where the service member or veteran is in terms of his or her desire to get connected or how motivated they are, Polizzi explained.
“The service member or veteran identifies what's important to them, what their goals are, in terms of getting connected to care. And then the service member or veteran and the coach come up with a mutually agreed upon action plan, a game plan, that the veteran or service member is going to engage in between now and the next coaching call,” Polizzi explained.
That could involve as few as one to three goals, such as “contact the VA.”
The power is in the client’s hands: “We're not telling the service member or veteran what to do; we are mutually coming to an agreed-upon number of goals to address between now and the next coaching session. And they are all designed to help move the ball down the field,” Polizzi stressed.