Navigating the Challenges: PsychArmor's Comprehensive Training for Caregivers

This week, our episode highlights the vital work of PsychArmor, an organization dedicated to transforming how society engages with veterans and service members. Led by Dr. Tina Atherall, PsychArmor's mission is to provide education, training, and resources to both the military community and the individuals and organizations that support them.

We talk about the growing need for caregiver support, with recent studies showing a significant increase in active-duty, veteran, and civilian caregivers. Tina emphasizes PsychArmor's unique approach of serving two key audiences - the military and veteran families and the broader community interacting with them. Through online courses, webinars, and certifications, PsychArmor equips individuals and organizations to effectively support the military community, focusing on cultural humility and understanding the specific needs of this population.

A particularly poignant aspect of the conversation is the exploration of social isolation and its connection to suicide prevention within the military caregiver community. Tina shares her personal experiences and passion for this work, stemming from her own family's military connections. The episode underscores the importance of creating community, providing resources, and empowering caregivers to ensure they can be the best support system for their loved ones who have served.

About:

Dr. Tina Atherall is a social innovation strategist with a focus on nonprofit and education leadership. As CEO of PsychArmor, she leads a national nonprofit dedicated to educating and advocating for critical support for Veterans, service members, and their families.

With a Doctor of Social Work (DSW) from the University of Southern California, Dr. Atherall has devoted her career to social work leadership. Her recent work emphasizes addressing social isolation, one of the 13 Grand Challenges for Social Work. She is a George W. Bush Institute Stand-To Veteran Leadership Scholar and is active on the SAMHSA National Advisory Council and the Council on Social Work Education’s Military Social Work Specialized Practice review committee.

In addition to her leadership roles, Dr. Atherall holds advanced certifications in nonprofit leadership and military social work and is a Certified Daring WayTM Facilitator. She is an Associate Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and teaches in the Doctor of Social Work programs at Simmons University and the University of Kentucky. Her board service includes leadership positions at Mission Edge and Project Healing Waters.

Transcript

Natalie: 0:00

Hey guys, it's your favorite, sisters with the Confessions of a reluctant caregiver. Show. On the show, you'll hear caregivers confessing the good, the bad and the completely unexpected. You're guaranteed to relate, be inspired, leave with helpful tips and resources, and, of course, laugh. Today's episode is part of our special series, heroes caring for heroes. We're featuring organizations who offer services and support to our hero caregivers. Now let's listen in as we learn more about these amazing organizations. Hey, Jay, well, hello, Natalie.

JJ: 0:35

It's so good to see you.

Natalie: 0:36

I noticed I came in very strong. It was good. It was I am. I am really excited about this, this episode. This is a part of our heroes, caring for heroes. It is. And this is an educational episode, it

JJ: 0:50

is. And all of our the series, the podcast, the episode, the educational episodes, those are all sponsored,

Natalie: 0:58

yeah, but, and they're sponsored by CVS Health, yes, tena, number one leading incontinence brand. We also have our friends at Fisher House who helped out. We've had our friends at Summit behavioral health care who've helped out and care forward. And so we have and then we have a ton of partners, I know, and one of our partners is psych armor, I know. And I am excited because, you know, Psych armor, Quinn Galloway Salazar mentioned it in her recording. So if you haven't listened to Quinn, Quinn actually does some work with psych armor. And she shared with me, she was like, Natalie, you gotta, you gotta know about this group. And I'm gonna tell you, the more that I learned, the more that I'm like, wow, yeah, we got to know these people. One

JJ: 1:41

of the great things about this series is that we learn about about places, organizations I've never heard of, never heard of, Fisher House last year, and so I'm hoping everybody else is is as I am. So I'm ready. Let's keep going

Natalie: 1:57

well. And so, Jay, why don't you talk about, let's share with the audience what psych armor is? Okay? And then we're gonna jump in and we're gonna talk

JJ: 2:05

to Tina. Oh, fantastic. So we've got Dr Tina atherol with us today. She is the CEO of psych armor, and she has an extensive background on social work, in social work and nonprofit leadership, and psych armor is at the forefront, yes, they are of military and veteran communities, and they are transforming those communities through education and advocacy. So I'm going to tell you about psych armor. Okay, I'm running their mission is to transform how society engages with veterans and service members through education and training. They are offering online courses or webinars and certifications. I like this. They equip individuals and organizations to effectively support the military community well,

Natalie: 2:47

and you know what they're really doing? You know, there's a new study just came out for updating the 2014 numbers. Yeah, and 2014 It was reported there were 5.5 million active duty and veteran related caregivers, yeah. And that number has significantly jumped up, which is significant coincides with the jump in civilian caregivers. That number jumped up from 5.5 million to 14 point 3 million. Yeah, and and now we've gone from 53 million caregivers civilian to 91 and so here's the reality, I still think those numbers are too low, yeah, because most people don't self identify as caregivers. And so this is the thing is, when you do become a caregiver, especially if you're in the military, you're supporting a loved one who served in the military is serving psych armor is definitely, is definitely a place to go, and they might even we're gonna learn about everything they do. So Denny and I, thank you for the patience of letting us banter a little bit. Yeah, fourth talk of right around you. It's time to bring you in. Girl, she's in,

Unknown: 3:55

in the conversation. Actually, it was so fun to hear you like talk about psych armor and the work, because it helps me know that we're hitting it like, good, got it. You understand where we're trying to go with the work that we're doing. So thank you for that. Oh, welcome.

Natalie: 4:10

Well, we've got a line of questions for you, like, this is different than our normal ones. Normally, we just our podcast, we just kind of float right along, but we have got questions for you. And I know that our listeners are like, Tell me more. I

JJ: 4:21

know we're on a mission for education, so get ready. It's

Natalie: 4:23

like a quiz, you know it is. And the best part is, you know all the answers. You know all as the executive director, you're the eight you know, she knows the answers. So okay, so let's talk about, you know, let's talk about psych armors main mission, and how do you envision the impact of your work on veterans and their families? So let's just dive in,

Unknown: 4:42

starting there. Well, I think in your introduction, one of the things that you hit upon and that it's really at times, very complicated for Psych armor to help individuals understand where our specialty lies and why it's actually critical to the community that we serve, and that is because we have two audiences we know. Not only have military veterans, their families, caregivers, but we have the individuals that serve them. So oftentimes, even when we're talking about supporting caregivers, we're really talking about the entire ecosystem that then, in turn, is supporting that family system. So we do that through just starting a conversation around the greatest thing ever, education to say, Hey, do you know anything about this military and veteran family system over here? Let us help you start to engage. And that's where we start, usually, around that culture. So you as a social worker, you know cultural humility is the first place that we want to start in any conversation. So that's where we start. And I'd say support is on both sides, making sure that we're looking at the specific needs related to our military and veteran families, family and system, and then also those that support them. Wow. And so I

Natalie: 5:52

think that's where it's so important, because I'm thinking about, you know, Angelina, we just, we just had a conversation with her. She's one of our guests, and, you know, she was 28 when her dad had a stroke. He was Vietnam. He served in Vietnam and that era, and she had no training. She had no kind of awareness. And my question would be, and then this is a little off, because this is what happens, is that, you know, if I'm a, if I'm a, per example, I'm a daughter of a veteran, and I have some awareness of the military, but he was well out after she was born. Okay, how does psych armor support civilians and individuals who may not have a full awareness of having lived in it, like a lot of families who are like, my spouse is serving. I live in the middle of it. I go to the I understand going and using those services. How does psych armor help with that?

Unknown: 6:51

Wow. And I'd say this is such a great place to start. It also relates to the number that you just discussed in terms of the RAND study, yeah, for the hidden heroes, and I'd say in the civilian community, why we see the numbers different? Because of the fact that there are generations of veterans pre 911 that never were identified, even as family members of a veteran. So I think what's so important is we have a we have multiple generations of veterans who one may have not even identified as veterans, so maybe their family members don't even see they're attached. So I think one of the fun things is asking an audience of people, we might say, Are there any veterans in the audience? But then you say, Are there any family members? And no one raises their hands. But when you start once you start to ask the question, but are you connected to anyone who has served? That's when you start to hear like, Well, my father served, right? Or my uncle served, and in the number that you're seeing that dramatic jump from 5.5 hidden heroes that were identified by Senator Dole, who commissioned to the report 10 years ago, to where we are now. We're also looking that the caregiver isn't actually the spouse, right? It is children. So I think it's so important in the way that we frame the question, it's not just, have you served? Are you a veteran? But then it's also asking, Are you connected at all to anyone who has ever served in the military? We also make this huge assumption that everyone is post 911 some of the most powerful stories that we are hearing now when we support our VA caregiver support program, individuals, typically social workers or programs that are aligned for that caregiver. Is it generations that had never sat at the table to say, I am a caregiver for my loved one, or I am now a caregiver for this individual? And this is all new to me. So it is like this whole new world, which is super exciting, right? It's sometimes you feel like you have the same conversation over and over again. We never feel like that, especially with this population. Wow, wow.

JJ: 8:53

So psych armor has become a leader in supporting military connected communities. You talk about going out and saying, Hey, are you a family member? Can you share how the organization's mission intersects with the needs of caregivers?

Unknown: 9:08

Absolutely. So first and foremost, when we look at military caregivers and veteran caregivers, I think it's really important that we talk about, again, what you said in the introduction, we might not see ourselves as caregivers. So it's important to start to delve into the introduction of what is extended care for a loved one based on even occupational, occupational hazards. Let's say so one of the things that we did over the last two years was we changed our portfolio name to military families and caregivers, because we want to start having conversations with our military family members, with their parents, with their loved ones, with their family and community and care providers, well before those individuals ever transition to become veterans, and before any of their service connected needs. Might arise. So we're having conversations like, what does it look like redeployment? What does it look like during deployment? What does it look like after deployment? You could then intersect deployment with, what does it look like during service? What is it going to look like when you transition from service? So one of the key points is really to be working with individuals on both sides of their service line, when they're in active duty, when they're veteran status, working with the entire care system, system or family system, around what are just some of those specific needs that come up when you're with a loved one that might be enduring different kinds of stresses based on the occupation that they chose. That's when we can really dive into some of the bigger topics around caregiving when it's really critical, and they need to know the resources that are out there that is

Natalie: 10:45

so important. Yeah, so I want to go into training programs. Yeah. I think this was going to be really interesting. You know, can you provide an overview of the training programs that you offer and kind of, what kind of topics do you all offer?

Unknown: 10:59

Sure, so first and foremost, I'd say to go back to even, where do we intersect? We start conversations around, what are 15 things that x wants you to know? So 15 things veterans want you to know is one of the first places we started to say, as a veteran, as a military member, and as we transition, what's one thing that you want your community. Know about you? We asked that question to say, your healthcare provider, your educator, your family member. We came up with 15 things. One of those 15 things is that our family serves too. So we expanded upon that, and one of our stable courses are 15 things caregivers want you to know, right and even identifying about being a caregiver. So our core program as it relates to military families and caregivers, we do this in partnership with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and with Senator Dole this is really important, especially when you think about the RAND study now coming out, we utilize that really important data that has been brought to us by Rand and by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation to help identify, how do we engage better? How do we have connection and community with those that we're trying to target? So our first thing is introducing the concept, are you a caregiver? What does it what does it mean to be a caregiver? How do you identify that you are now in this unique space. Now, what do you do next? So we take them through a series of five different education five to seven different educational courses to help them identify, what do I need to know next? And where do I go next? We give a certificate. Everyone likes that, right? Like there is this importance about saying I have done a few things. Hey, okay, here's a certificate. I've done this now I'm going to go over to these other resources. Another one, one of our great partners is Melissa Cuomo and her team at military veteran caregiver network through the American Red Cross. It's at that point that as they finish something, we then connect them to the next resource, or they can always come back again. This is also important for our community providers. Think about our social workers who may not understand what it means to be working with a military caregiver now, they have an incredible set of resources that they can utilize, versus the community resources, which are great, but also knowing there's another layer of resources there to help with their the community that they're serving is so important, so that's where we start. Start by just raising awareness to what does it mean, and what resources are there for you? Yeah.

JJ: 13:26

So this is about empowering caregivers. I love this topic. What educational resources to psych armor provide those caregivers within the military community? Tell me about those.

Unknown: 13:40

Yeah. Well, thanks for mentioning the word Empower, because one of the biggest things that will just just set me on fire, we'll just say it, and I hope it's okay late to go right there absolutely. If there's ever the conversation that says, Well, we're here to support the caregivers so that they're the very best for their veteran, I agree on that, yes, but we are here for the caregiver. We are here for the family member. We are here for the caregiver because that individual needs to be the very best that they can. And some of the greatest ways that we've seen this conversation extend is in the area of suicide prevention, and even just knowledge of suicide. Suicide risk is that we say, well, you might be looking at the veteran, but by the way, their caregiver is at an exponentially greater risk for suicide as well, and that individual is as important as the veteran who were who we're talking about. So the number one thing is to give them a place and a space to know that we see you, we see you, and we see that the unique challenges that you're going through, and there are groups that are out there for you, right? Instead of just saying, go to the VA, which we love our VA partners, they have to go hand in hand with their veteran to that program. The veteran has the voice through that program, which is phenomenal. However, we also need to be able to say to the caregiver, you are our. Primary concern at this point, and we're here for you to make sure that you connect in all the places that are there for you, so that you have support.

Natalie: 15:08

Yeah, and I appreciate you bringing up suicide prevention. So I work clearly in the mental health field, and I know that in one of in your bio, you talked about it talks about your recent work emphasizing and addressing social isolation and so isolate, isolation and, you know, suicide. I mean, honestly, honestly, suicide, they can go hand in hand. I mean, we know caregiving can be so isolating regardless whether you're military or civilian, it doesn't matter, because that's where it doesn't discriminate. You can feel the some of the loneliest times I ever had caring for my husband and I know that there are times Jay and that we felt very isolated in trying to care for mom, and isolated in the sense of there's I don't feel like there's anyone who can relate to us. We're lucky because there's three of us with our sisters, but when it was with my husband, if I didn't have the relationship that I had, and safe and secure relationships, to be able to say, this is hard, I'm failing. This is awful. It would be even worse. And so I know that this is, you mentioned one of the 13 Grand Challenges for social work, because I'm a social worker, so I'm like, I must bring that up. But I think, you know, isolation, I think that it's so fantastic that you're, you're bringing that up to say, Hey, these are normal thoughts, feelings, emotions that you're going to have when caregiving. We want to say, that's normal, and this is how you manage it. That's what I hear you telling me,

Unknown: 16:30

yes, and I going to the 13 grand challenges of social work. I mean, professionally, we took this on well before 2016 because that's when my doctoral program started, and we wrapped around the trend, the grand challenges. And I specifically selected the grand challenge to eradicate social isolation as one of our intractable, wicked problems, because of the fact that everything that we start with in terms of our problem sets, if we don't have one another, we're going to get to the next system of care, we're not we, to your point, if we feel alone and that, especially when we feel like in the military and veteran caregiver community, you have a layer too, of the of, sometimes the most honorable individuals, that of that you're serving right, and so when you have to disclose that You're struggling, sometimes you also don't have a great place to be heard, because you should be there for your veteran. That's there's another layer, right? So social isolation, loneliness is an extension to that I want to layer on to something that I'm sure that both of you can also understand is that you're also not just caregiving for this loved one, or, you know, family member you're raising children. So I love our Surgeon General's work. He's actually the majority of my research wrapped around a lot of his beginning work. He ironically, did work with active duty military at one point, looking at isolation. But, you know, he talks about this epic, this epidemic that we have around isolation and loneliness. He recently came out with an advisory for parents that are at such great risk and for all the different challenges that we have. And one of the things that caught me the most was he went back to one of his core principles, and it was around isolation and loneliness. I screw up percentages, so someone double checked me, but it was in the 70% of parents that felt completely alone. And so when you think about a caregiver who's also a parent, you are now like, just put yourself in this own deserted island. You're not, probably not good enough as a parent. Now you're not good enough as caregiver, or you are the best, and you know you're the best, but you're still alone. So one of his recommendations was that we have community and then we have community spaces where we can come together. And so I think if that's the one thing that we can all do together through the work that you're doing, the work that we're doing at psych armor, you know, I often say we're not sexy. We have online education, and then we have, you know, conversations that we enter through Dr Quinn and others. But if we are just giving someone a place to actually hear, then, let's say statistically significant information, and they go, Oh, it's research. I'm not alone. Yay, right? And then a community to dial from there, it is probably one of my biggest concerns, is that isolation and loneliness. I just think it's the root of all things that we that, that we can go up against, if we can just create community around these conversations. Yeah,

Natalie: 19:35

that is so true. So I hear a lot of passion in your voice. I love Don't you like she's inspired. She's like us. I gotta know

JJ: 19:44

what inspired you to focus your efforts on supporting caregivers, yeah?

Unknown: 19:50

So you know, like any good social worker, you have a story, and then you end up starting something. So I am the grand. Daughter of a world war two veteran, and so way back at the beginning of our conversation here, I never would have thought that my status as a granddaughter had any significance. Right then my father served in the Navy, and he did serve during time of Vietnam, but he never talked about it. And then I married a Marine, and I had the great pleasure of being part of the Marine Corps family system for 21 years. It is still my family. It is it even those that have come and gone, and even though I'm no longer married to that individual, we I knew early on as being a family member, that if I didn't understand the language, if I didn't understand the system, and if I didn't become a part of that community, I wasn't going to make it early back in the 90s, we had deployments, but it's our military deploy all the time, whether it's training deployment or whatnot. So we were always on the go and through that story. And then, of course, post 911 I was with a group of phenomenal spouses aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, and we all came together and were able to start a nonprofit. That's really what put me on the trajectory of seeing the power of being in a nonprofit, serving a particular community, and being able to raise awareness, understanding the importance of that public and private partnership, and developing things as a care, as that caregiver conversation, I'm passionate and you know, just like when we got on this call beforehand, there's also a time where you have burnout. I've walked my own walk, and sometimes have felt heard, have not felt heard, and felt the advantages and the disadvantages. The most beautiful thing has been able to see the individuals that have built our current system, those that are still sitting in leadership. That is such a gift of my life is to have seen us wrap around Senator Dole was one of our first donors, so now, as I see her organization grown to what it is their their CEO is our Board Chairman, I feel as though my life has had absolute purpose, even through the messy times, the sad times, sometimes the ugly truths that I don't get to speak. What a gift, like most people don't get to see this in their life, and I've, I've been able to bear witness to it. So it's a beautiful thing. So thanks for giving me that opportunity to share that part. Sometimes they keep the personal in the background. There's

Natalie: 22:23

no reason. There's always a reason you got another why. Yeah, the why, I'm gonna tell you. So let me ask you this. I'm gonna talk about who you're serving, who that you who's your target audience, and so who is the primary audience for your training programs? So are they and so in other words, are they designed solely for veterans, or do they also cater to civilians, organizations and service providers? Because that's a broad stakeholder group, yeah,

Unknown: 22:50

and that's why it's complicated to understand. And so the best thing for us in the very beginning, our founder had a mission that said bridging the divide. And what that really, if we look at what is the problem statement, we now have a population of less than 1% that are currently serving in our United States. Military statistics, less than 7% now have served. And of course, as we start to unfortunately lose our World War Two veterans, Korean War veterans, Vietnam veterans, that number of veteran status is going to get continue to diminish. And so the problem is, how do you support those? As long as our country values a United States military, which I know they always will, we have great support from this. There's mean, as we look right now in North Carolina, who is serving our community garden, right? I remind my social work students that all the time I'll ask a question about military connection, and I've had some really powerful things and where people have been served through, through our guard, through natural disasters, but I dry grass. So you know, as we look at that, that statement, we serve a community that is camouflaged in the civilian community. So if you are a provider, and you are trying to do the very best you can for every single person that that walks through your door, then we're asking that you understand that there is potentially a military or veteran client, and there's a unique culture to them. If you are a military veteran, if you're a family member, we understand that it can be difficult to integrate back to the civilian community. My research when I was at USC was around isolation, and one of the things that I hypothesized was that it's difficult for military family members to integrate into their civilian community. We looked at New York, because I was in New York City at the time, and then Sandy then San Diego. And one of the things we actually found was our military community has wonderful networks and very tight, connected relationships. Even a sense of belonging. The civilian community doesn't as much, right? It's very different. And. So when I look at who do we support, we are there to speak to the larger community that may not know that other 99% potentially, that doesn't know anything about the military. I don't think that's true. I have great times when we're asking that question, where people at least have some insight. We are there to train them, and then we are also there to help our military veterans and family members through different areas of their needs. And of course, family members and caregivers are the community that show up, some of our highest concentration of learners, because that's what we call them. It comes from that community they show up. So we love that, and so we do. We have resiliency courses. We, of course, have everything from what is PTSD, what is a brain injury, coaching, into care, some of the models that are over at VA, we supplement and support so that if you aren't in the VA system, you can come to psych armor and become educated. It's really important that we are speaking in lateral lines with the VA, because we don't want to create further confusion, and then, of course, suicide prevention, intervention and postvention being a really important part of our work. We have a specific audience that says, Are you a caregiver? Are you a family member, etc. So we designed it based on who might be walking through our door, which is our online platform.

JJ: 26:18

So I hear you talk about a lot of other organizations. I want to talk about collaboration. I want to know psych armor, how do you guys collaborate with health care providers and other organizations to enhance the support system available to caregivers? Yes.

Unknown: 26:33

So the caregiver conversation is an interesting one, because we have to push that right. Typically, they're walking, walking in the door and talking to us about the individual that they have from healthcare, it's who do they have a payer source for. And there's strong commitment in the community, thanks to the work that's been done throughout the years to ensure that if veterans didn't receive care in the VA or active duty military that needed to receive care in the community, you know, that's the primary patient. So what we do first and foremost is we help identify the importance of this community. We go right where they want to go, which is to talk about the veteran, and then we say, and there's other important individuals that sit at this table with this veteran that are also a part of the veterans care system and has a care system wrapped around them on their own. So caregivers typically, and this is where Dr Quinn's work comes in. We are supporting caregivers as they are going through a healthcare journey with their loved one. So our caring for veterans through their end of life was this amazing call from Dr Quinn couple years ago. Why don't we talk about death? And I'm like, game on. I don't know that's exactly

Natalie: 27:41

what she mentioned in her in her podcast. She said I was talking to Tito's before Jose, her husband got sick, and you're like, let's then what are you gonna do? I love that. You said, what are you gonna do about it? Quinn, yeah, what do you guys do? And then you guys did something. And I love that, yeah, yeah,

Unknown: 27:58

yeah. I think just being that's the reason why I love nonprofit, because we can be a vehicle to individuals work and the community tells us what we need. Yeah. And I don't think I've probably ever said that before, and I'm I'm really starting to appreciate more and more when people say, what's your strategy and where are you going to go? I'm like, we go where our community tells us to go. Yeah. So I am sure, with the new caregiver data, they split it between under 60 and above 60, and so if the many of our population of caregivers are sitting with someone 60, year and years and older, we it matches what we've been asked to to come to the table about one through Quinn's work and caring for veterans through end of life, but also through Our palliative care and our home care organizations that are saying, Hey, wait, I think this is a veteran. What do I need to know? Where do I need to connect? What does this mean? That's where we're going to show up, and we're going to start to support that system and the caregiver as they go through that journey, and help support as best as we can so that they have all the resources at their fingertips.

Natalie: 29:00

You know, you mentioned palliative care, not remotely, one of my questions. And because I was literally, I was just at the National Academy for State Health Policy in Nashville last month, and there is a huge discussion going on around the US, around palliative care, because I think people don't understand it well enough. And I've and Jason and I have been a recipient of palliative care, because people get confused with hospice so the fact that you are including, you're thinking about palliative care, and how do you help educate caregivers, family members, of what that means, and kind of dispelling myths around that, because there's a lot of health plans that are looking to cover that beyond probably, I don't know if the VA covers palliative care. I'm sure, actually, they probably do. Actually, they're a little bit more advanced on some of the things they cover at times, being proactive, in that sense, for certain certain populations. But I think about that, I think it's so important, because there's a lot of people that I worry about, and. I would say mismatched insurance, if that makes sense. So for example, Jason is because of his illness and some disability. He's a Medicare Advantage plan, versus me as a commercial plan. And so if I am somebody who is caring for with my commercial plan, I am caring for a veteran. I don't understand those plans and the plan benefit. And so I guess one of my questions is, is, you know, a psych armor as a training, is that reimbursed? Is that something that an individual, like, if I'm a civilian caregiver for a veteran who has that benefit, cannot access that

Unknown: 30:36

so this is a, this is your first off, your your conversation around continuum of care is one of the areas that I wish that we had content built for, for family members, for individuals, and also for the healthcare provider that now has either active duty or VA patients sitting in front of them, because, no, it's so confusing, yeah, so that could be a project of ours, right? Like and because we have summit some behavioral health care at the table. But I mentioned this because this is important on where you look at how do you do your work? They were the ones who raised the attention to us too, that we're afraid that our military client doesn't even understand the continuum of care so related to palliative care and caregiving. I can't answer your question, but what I can tell you is, through my own journey with my grandmother, my mother learned how to access caregiver benefits for my grandmother through the last good seven to eight years of her life, she had support through VA through VA benefit because she was a family member of a veteran. So there is so much to understand. One of our friends at the VA is now moving over to their survivor office, and I'm so sorry, military Survivor Assistance Office. I can't remember the exact name at the VA. So sorry. VA friends, but, but what's what I love about that work that's happening is also to say, after the loss of a loved one, now what's next for you, and what are the benefits that are there? So that's why I'm going to introduce that there's more that we need to learn. The greatest thing to say is we know that there are new there are leaders and a department that's expanding to answer that we want to partner with that office so that we can make sure that we get that information out to our community, and that's how we work. I still say there's a lot of work to be done, and that is where people need to come to the table to say this type of education and work is important, just like your podcast, if that's not out there, and these easier ways for people to access before they become a part of an identified system, we're going to keep losing people. Yeah, so I love that we fill in on those comfy spots where people haven't yet figured out where they belong, but it's a good question. We have a lot we need to learn. We have friends over at duos. They're a community partner now I highlight them because we're learning a lot from them about what does this Medicare thing look like, and that's our responsibility to learn more. So you can help us too. And I think we had that earlier conversation. Would love to learn what we need to learn as we, as we expand these, these lines of education for for our population, absolutely.

JJ: 33:13

So expanding the way. Sure, I want to talk about the future, let's say magic, but I know so are there any possibly, you know, Tina, are there any upcoming initiatives or programs that you are particularly excited about?

Unknown: 33:29

Yes, all of them. I

Natalie: 33:32

do love it. I love them all. I know we're all free. I

Unknown: 33:35

love them all. Yeah, again, I'm gonna drive back to where's the community asking us to serve that's first and foremost, important in terms of the conversation with our caregiver community. It is important that we look at the RAND research that has now come out to talk about the things that we need to know. Right? There's four main areas that our partners over at Elizabeth Dole Foundation, I think, is four, four or five areas where they're going to be focusing some of their attention, which 100% is all in line with everything that we've all been talking about. One of the interesting things is looking at our our youth, our our caregivers that are youth under what I say, and expanding on that is where I sometimes feel like a voice gets and the squeaky one at the at the table is that they're already there. They're just older. They're not considered youth. My kids will have a very important part in their father's life, life throughout, throughout his time, right? And they could technically be considered hidden helpers, or these caregivers, they won't identify to that because they're adults, young adults now, so making sure that they sit in the system and know what's out there is going to be important, but we will lean towards that. What I am most excited about, though, is I am most excited about having partners like you. I believe that we need to be a little bit more camouflaged in our community and really not sit so distinctly as military and veteran caregivers and just speak to our own audience. I want to be in with you, because I think. But if we're talking about hidden I know that we are talking about a lot of individuals who don't identify. And so how do we become a part of the bigger work with the specialty that we know, and that is our military population, and add to the conversation, instead of triangulate the conversation? That's what I'm excited about, one thing, and just an example, I have the blessing to have a daughter who's also social work worker, who works hospice, and so some of the inside and the insight that I get is she's in San Diego County, high concentration of veterans, and many of them are not receiving their veteran benefits. They just didn't identify to go back there when she does identify that they have more resources and more care, right? In an area where there's not a lot of resources and care. So yet another reason why we want to be in the community with you, because when we can help identify that veteran and their caregiver, we know that there's going to be more that we can help the entire system, and I think that's going to be a benefit for everyone. And so that's what I'm looking forward to. We will continue to follow the lead of Dr Quinn Galloway, Salazar and some of that, because she's going to lead the work for Psych armor. So I'm, I'm, I'm happy about her joining our team. I think that she's going to be a great insight in the future.

Natalie: 36:12

Well, she is a good egg. I'm going to tell you, right? I'm going to tell you right now, I want to, I want to ask a question, because I know we're getting towards in how can community members get involved with psych armor or support your mission?

Unknown: 36:26

Yes, oh my gosh, supporting the mission one is knowing that we're there right, understanding the importance one, if you're a part of the community, we love to hear how people are using the education and so the way that we see ourselves as powered by psych armor. So if there is anything that you're doing in the community and you are focusing, one on our population, or our population is hidden, we would love to join your conversation, because we know that we can help amplify, really, its implementation strategies. If you bring in training and development at the beginning ends of your programming, we can help achieve the outcomes that you're looking for, because we will have targeted the population in an effective way. We want to be a part of those efforts. So the biggest thing is curiosity. Are you developing something that includes, potentially, the military and veteran population? If so, please, we want to be a part of the work that you're doing, we believe that we can be a part of helping you develop and scale your programming through education and training. Other ways, we have had a lot of great efforts where people will bring us in for conversations when they want to just raise awareness. We are doing some work in different counties that is really helping amplify their work, but really it's just, it's bringing us to the table. Have that curiosity be a part of the work, or let us be a part of your work, more or less well. And I

Natalie: 37:50

think they do. Let me ask you this, because there was, there's another piece, though, can listeners in the podcast get involved as volunteers, advocates or head owners? I mean, I want to. That's where I kind of want to think. I want to, yeah, because I think you guys are nonprofit and, I mean, right? We want to, we want to remind folks that, how could we help? How can we help? We're big into volunteers. And, you know, care for it's all about volunteerism. And so how can we, how can folks who are listening say, we want to support you. We want this education for everybody,

Unknown: 38:21

yes, so I absolutely in the nonprofit world anytime that we can have individuals that donate, that believe in the fact that having this education available anytime for anyone is important. All of our courses will remain free on our website, but it does require donation so that we love. We can always say, like one course. You know, on our one donation helps one course type deal, yeah, other way they can be a part, though, especially if you have areas of expertise to add. We love our trusted advisors. That's all volunteer time. So everything from Natalie, that's why I was like so strategy and health care, because we have time we rely on our trusted advisors in their particular areas of expertise to provide that guidance. When did it in the beginning of her work with caring for veterans the end of life and helping us through that, helping inform and so when we'd say specialized pro bono time, I mean it. That's how we get work done. Other other answers would be, if you are in the world of community foundations and giving, we do ask that people see the importance and relevance around the non sexy organizations like us we are, we we have an ability to work with VA in a way no one else can because we are nonprofit, we come without strings attached. And so if you believe in a collective impact model, then psych armor is really one of those organizations that should be seen in community, foundations, grants and given, giving. Sometimes we're not, because we serve a smaller population. Our work serves an entire community, so we appreciate that influence. And anywhere we can get it, because you both know, any type of foundation work relies an introduction. So they're right, exactly right. They're

JJ: 40:07

right. Well, we have all of your information. So in our show notes, this is so line. We've got websites, we've got how to get to the online courses that are free, I know. And

Natalie: 40:18

notice that you said free at the end. Everybody's been like, Oh, I was gonna have to, hey, hey. So I get this, I feel like that, like five easy payments of 1999 No, it's free. There is just a donation that's

JJ: 40:28

so much great information. You're on all the platforms. I mean, you guys are out there. You are doing some great, amazing stuff. So I am so glad that I got to know so much more about psych armor today. Well,

Natalie: 40:38

and we definitely get, you know, the sisters are going to be partnering with sidecar. Yeah, so this is definitely a long term relationship. So you'll probably be hearing from Quinn and Tina in the future to support our listeners. Because the thing is, is, yes, you're in, you're a niche kind of area with military. But the reality is, is, if you don't know somebody who's served or who has been in the military art who is active duty. I'm not sure what rock you're living under. Go make some friends, because you need to be a part of that community. And that's I love the idea of, you know, let's just, let's blend in. Let's really help so that we're a part of and not we're, we're a piece over here at the side. And I just love that. So guys, thank you so much. We are so happy. Thank you, Tina, for being with us to talk about psych armor and the important work that you guys are doing. I think you're pretty sexy. Yeah, I love psych armor. I think psych armor is sexy. And so And guys, thank you for being part of our educational series with heroes, caring for heroes, sponsored by

JJ: 41:38

as well as Tina said, we've got some sexy sponsors. Yeah, they're the ones who are helping. We've got CVS Health. We have antenna brand. They're the adult incontinence brand number one in the country. We have summit behavioral health care. Yes, say that for some other you always

Natalie: 41:54

leave off the care. And we love you guys here. But it's health care, health care, and they're actually partners with psych I know some of behavioral healthcare is partners with psych

JJ: 42:02

library. We have care forward, we have Fisher House, an amazing organization, and we have so many partners, yep, and they're all, yeah, they're all, they're all excited, all of our best, all of our besties,

Natalie: 42:13

all right, well, and guys, oh, and caregiver Action Network. And I sing one I know we got, like everybody, we should post the list. Here's our list. Well And guys, thanks so much for listening in to again this educational series, and until we confess again, we will see you next time. Bye, bye. Well, friends, that's a wrap for today's educational episode. Thank you for listening to our special series, heroes, caring for heroes, and don't forget to visit our website to sign up for our monthly newsletter. Sign up for the free sisterhood advantage discount club, and, of course, connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, Twitter and Pinterest. You'll also find a video recording of all our episodes on the confessions website and our YouTube channel, we'll see you next time when we confess again. Till then, take care of you. Okay, let's talk disclaimers. We are not medical professionals and are not providing any medical advice. If you have medical questions, we recommend that you talk with a medical professional of your choice. As always, my sisters and I at confessions of our reluctant caregiver have taken care in selecting the speakers, but the opinions of our speakers are theirs alone. The views and opinions stated in this show are solely those of the contributors and not necessarily those of our distributors or hosting company. This podcast is copyrighted and no part can be reproduced without the express written consent of the sisterhood of care LLC. Thank you for listening to The Confessions of a reluctant caregiver podcast. You.