TAPS Partners with the Cohen Veterans Network to Provide Specialized Mental Health Support to Save Lives
TAPS Red Team Will Join CVN in Reducing Record Number of U.S. Veteran Suicides By Sharing Expertise in Suicide Prevention
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Feb. 1, 2018
ARLINGTON, Va. – TheTragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) announced today a new partnership with the Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) to reduce U.S. veteran suicides and mitigate the impact of suicide on families.
“There are reportedly 20 veterans a day dying by suicide, most of whom were never seen by the VA.” said Dr. Anthony Hassan, President and CEO of the Cohen Veterans Network, a clinically integrated mental health system. “We are joining forces with TAPS to help end this unacceptable level of suicide.”
TAPS will provide specialized training for CVN leadership, clinicians, and staff. Topics include suicide postvention, family systems after suicide, talking to children about suicide loss and military and veteran culture as it relates to suicide.
“Over the past several years, TAPS has had more and more families coming to us after the loss of a military loved one to suicide,” said Bonnie Carroll, TAPS president and founder and a 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. “In 2016, suicide loss became the most common manner of death for new family members seeking support from TAPS, surpassing hostile action, illness and accidents. Out of necessity, we have developed exemplary resources to help families cope with a suicide loss, both immediately and over time. This includes highly specialized postvention resources, which are meant to reduce the risk of additional suicides in families that experience a suicide loss.”
The TAPS-led trainings will also produce a webinar to support CVN’s Suicide Prevention Awareness Month offerings in September as well as multimedia awareness efforts aimed at mental health professionals and the general public throughout the year. In addition, a TAPS Red Team/CVN retreat in Texas will focus on grief, loss, and helping partners become “battle buddies” for veterans and their significant others.
TAPS Red Team is a team of dedicated professionals within TAPS that draws from a unique combination of professional expertise and survivors’ “lived experience” to shine new light on the critical questions that have challenged military leaders and veteran organizations for decades. TAPS formed its Red Team in 2017 to share with other professional organizations the expertise it has developed in suicide prevention and postvention over many years. TAPS Red Team helps organizations bridge the gap between the population being served and those who serve them through training and information initiatives, targeted consultation with professional organizations, retreats and seminars, and data collection.
ABOUT TAPS
The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) is the national organization providing compassionate care for the families of America’s fallen military heroes and has offered support to more than 75,000 surviving family members of our fallen military and their caregivers since 1994. TAPS provides peer-based emotional support, grief and trauma resources, grief seminars and retreats for adults, Good Grief Camps for children, case work assistance, connections to community-based care, online and in-person support groups and a 24/7 resource and information helpline for all who have been affected by a death in the Armed Forces. Services are provided free of charge. For more information go to www.taps.org or call the toll-free TAPS resource and information helpline at 1.800.959.TAPS (8277).
ABOUT COHEN VETERANS NETWORK
The Cohen Veterans Network is a 501(c)(3) national non-profit, clinically integrated mental health system for post-9/11 veterans and their families. CVN focuses on improving mental health outcomes, with a goal to build a network of customized, outpatient mental health clinics for veterans and their families in high-need communities, in which trained clinicians deliver holistic evidence-based care. CVN currently has clinics open in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Fayetteville N.C., Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso, TX. Learn more about the Cohen Veterans Network.