Grants Support Military Families

Anton Community Newspapers • 132 East 2nd Street • Mineola, NY 11501 • Phone: 516-747-8282 • FAX: 516-742-5867

Grants Support Military Families

Friday, 08 February 2013 00:00

The Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD) is set to receive a $25,000 grant from the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF) to support the creation of a brand new Military Families in Training (M-FIT) Program designed to educate, support, and strengthen military families.

Addiction rates among active duty soldiers, returning veterans and the spouses of service men and women are several times higher than rates seen in the general population. LICADD Executive Director Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds recently told Anton Community Newspapers, “We’ve been seeing more returning service men than women, coming back in significant number with drug and alcohol issues.”

Awareness and support is available for returning military and veterans.

Reynolds said some of the issues, which are causing returning soldiers to turn to drugs and alcohol, are sustained injuries, prescription drug abuse, and the stress of returning from deployment. Many soldiers transitioning from military employment to the civilian sectors are also at risk of being unemployed due to the economy.

Reynolds said that many times a soldier who has separated from the military and who is unable to secure civilian employment may feel enormous pressure by not being employed and “things begin to close in around; drugs and alcohol are a way to get out from under that,” to cope.

Long Island is among the nation’s highest populations of returning soldiers and veterans. Many of the 175,000 returning soldiers who call Long Island “home” bear the scars of war in the form of untreated mental health issues and active addiction. Major depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are prevalent in this population.

Each of those 175,000 returning soldiers has four to six immediate family members who, without family centered services, are at increased risk for a wide variety of mental health disorders and other challenges.

“There is a high degree of resistance in going to the VA; at times there are waiting lists.” Reynolds suggests that many of the issues that returning veterans are willing to go to the VA for treatment for are not related to the issues of readjusting to daily life.

This program is geared toward working with the family as a whole; there are not many programs that treat the whole family. “Unless you engage the entire family, you are only doing half of the job” with addiction therapy, said Reynolds.

“We don’t have a lot of veterans just showing up, saying, ‘I drank too much today and I am coming to get some help.’” It’s highly unlikely. Reynolds said the referrals for this program are usually through family intervention, or a legal interception like a DWI or disorderly conduct, etc.

M-FIT is a dynamic, evidence-based approach to providing military families with the support they need to live healthy lives. The six-week psycho-educational workshop series targets the root causes of stress and substance abuse in order to end the cycle of addiction. Participants will learn how to deal with stress of deployment, combat and the re-transition back home. The series will seek to enhance family empathy and communication, clarify family boundaries, roles and responsibilities, and strengthen family resiliency among returning service members and their loved ones.

The program is open to returning service men and women, their partners, spouses and parents, as well as their children ages 5-15. The six-week series will launch in Southampton, Riverhead, Huntington and Mineola in early 2013, and is expected to serve more than 100 military families on Long Island.

“War takes an incredible toll on the emotional and mental health of our veterans and unfortunately they often find themselves fighting another kind of battle at home,” said David Okorn, executive director of LICF.

“LICADD provides our heroes and their families with the counseling and treatment they need and deserve.” LICADD Executive Director Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds says support for M-FIT comes at the perfect time. “With a documented upswing in addiction rates among military members and their families, it is essential that we address the needs of this community and this grant from the Long Island Community Foundation will help make that possible.”

Are you or someone you love a returning veteran adjusting to life at home? M-FIT can provide you with military family-focused services that can ease the stress and tension you may be feeling during the transition. For more information about M-FIT, or any of LICADD’s prevention education, substance abuse counseling and/or treatment referral services, call (516) 747-2606 or visit www.licadd.org.

Christy Hinko contributed to this article.

News

Rebuilding Together Long Island

Thursday, 16 May 2013 00:00

After Massapequa resident Sol Goldstein and several friends helped finish building a house for a family 20 years ago for Habitat for Humanity, they had a question: “What do we do now?” They were all retired, had enjoyed working together and accomplishing something for a family in need, and wanted to do more.

“I was looking for something [to do] hands-on,” said Joe Botkin, of Williston Park, a retired principal, who had worked with Goldstein in building the home.

Soon, Goldstein, a retired technician and technical manager for ABC television, learned of a national volunteer organization based in Washington, D.C., that offered free home repairs for low-income seniors, persons with physical handicaps, veterans, and families with small children.

After sending $12 for a handbook, Goldstein and his friends began “Rebuilding Together Long Island,” now one of the 189 affiliates of “Rebuilding Together” around the country.

“It exploded,” Botkin said, attracting both people who needed home repairs and volunteers eager to do the work — everything from fixing a faucet to installing wheelchair access ramps to undertaking major repairs on homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

The group, based in Massapequa, is working on opening an office in Farmingdale. They will celebrate their 21st anniversary at their annual dinner, May 22, at Stuart Thomas Manor, Farmingdale. For information, call 516-541-7322.

“There has been a greater demand for our services since Superstorm Sandy,” noted Bob Ellis, director of Rebuilding Together Long Island, their only paid staff member. The organization has made major repairs on seven houses devastated by the hurricane, including three in Massapequa.

“We average about 100 homes a year,” Goldstein, president of Rebuilding Together Long Island, said. “We have about 300 volunteers” working on houses around Long Island, especially in Western Suffolk and Nassau.

“The experience of helping people is fantastic,” said Botkin. “We’ve all had good lives and we’re happy to give back. Besides, it beats sitting inside the house and watching the boob tube.”

“Our volunteers are mostly retired and they get a lot of joy in the good they do and in working with each other,” Ellis said.

Rebuilding Together relies on financial donations as well as donations of materials, supplies, equipment, and time from contractors and craftsmen, and others.

“We wish we could do more,” Botkin said.

Organizations like The Long Island Board of Realtors and the Nassau County Bar Association work with Rebuilding Together, offering donations as well as recruiting volunteers to work alongside them.

Rebuilding Together receives referrals from social services agencies, churches and other houses of worship, and veterans’ organizations.

Their projects vary. The organization does light carpentry, plumbing and some electrical work, but for any new electrical work, they hire an electrician. “We also do sheet rock and spackling. We paint only what we repair.”

Their biggest projects have been hurricane repairs. “That might take us two weeks,” Goldstein said. “On one of those homes, we had to put in 50 sheets of sheet rock.”

Others have noted the organization’s accomplishments.

“We are engaged in a joint endeavor with them to help people who can’t afford home repairs,” said Elaine Leventhal, director of We Care, the charitable arm of the Nassau County Bar Association. “Our members, especially our Young Lawyers Committee, receive a lot of satisfaction working with them.”

Rebuilding Together also receives appreciation from those they have helped.

Cindy Johnson noted that Rebuilding Together built a ramp for her 93-year-old mother’s Massapequa Park home.

“It is a fantastic organization,” said Johnson.

Having the ramp has helped immensely for them to get their mother in and out of the house for medical treatment and even socially and recreationally.

“We took her outside for Mother’s Day and she said: ‘How wonderful it is to be in the sun,’” Johnson said.

“We also receive a lot of letters,” Goldstein said. “Many of them are heartwarming.”

“I’m very grateful for those wonderful people coming into my home and giving me the help that I needed very badly,” one Levittown woman wrote.

“Without your help, sometimes I think I would go under,” an Old Bethpage resident noted.

An 89-year-old Massapequa resident and her 92-year-old husband appreciated the work on their home, including a wheelchair ramp, which has helped her get safely in and out of their home for a doctor’s appointment, and also the installation of pull bars, which have helped him take showers without assistance.

“They did a magnificent job,” she wrote. “I cannot say enough to express my gratitude.”