Our Military Community

00:00:38:43 - 00:00:51:51
Unknown
Hello, everyone. Gerry Talbot with you here with another edition of our military community. We've got a great show today. A lot of information we're going to try and get in. We're going to talk to a gentleman from the vet center. A lot of people are saying the vet center.

00:00:51:51 - 00:01:09:58
Unknown
I've heard of that. But what are they? What do they do? Does it cost me anything? But first of all, we've got to find out the guy that works over there. My guest today is Matt Standish, who is a retired chief master sergeant, works over at the vet center. Matt, I am so happy you came in here today because our veterans need help.

00:01:10:03 - 00:01:26:49
Unknown
And there is a place there at the vet center where they can get the help that they need. First of all, tell me about your background. I know you're an old retired chief master sergeant Air Force and a first sergeant. Well, of course, I do appreciate the promotion. I was never chief. I thought you were chief. Never met Chief where you are now as a first sergeant.

00:01:26:54 - 00:01:59:08
Unknown
Originally from Washington State. Joined the Air Force in 1980. did 21 years as a weapons loader on fighter jets. Wow. interesting. I worked on Air Force affairs of sixteens at fifteens. And my, my big pride about my F for time was I got to work on Wild weasel Air Force, which, if you dig into history and find out they were very special about Vietnam and, but I got to work on a lot of wild, legal, wild weasel Air Force that after 21 years, I gave all that up.

00:01:59:08 - 00:02:16:07
Unknown
I crossed over to the dark side of the Air Force, and I became a first sergeant here. I remember guys like you, First Sergeant is one of those special teams where we deal with all the dumb things well, and I'll tell you that your vast experience has really helped you. Now you're at a place called the Vet Center.

00:02:16:12 - 00:02:36:21
Unknown
First of all, what is the vet center? The vet center is a very special office of the vet. We are federal VA fully funded, no cost for our service, but we are intentionally independent and separate from all the rest of the VA. Technically, we fall under the health administration, but we don't have anything to do with the clinics or hospitals right.

00:02:36:25 - 00:02:59:23
Unknown
our service that we provide is basically a counseling service. It's primarily for PTSD, whether that came from combat, sexual trauma, dealing with casualties, just about anything, even Coast Guard who've been out doing drug addictions. But the beauty of it, because we're so independent from all the rest of the VA, is our veterans don't have to be in the VA system at all.

00:02:59:28 - 00:03:20:19
Unknown
Great. But that's super to me, Which also means they can have other than honorable discharges, they can still come see us, but we also are allowed to see National Guard troops, reservists and even active duty members. And we are the only office in the VA that regularly sees family members. And we're talking to and we're going to talk a little bit about, yeah, we love that.

00:03:20:23 - 00:03:42:40
Unknown
But what we do is we give these veterans and troops out there who won't talk to anybody. We give them a safe place where they can see a professional counselor. And most importantly is nobody will ever know that they were there. That's extreme. And that's that's what a lot of people have trouble understanding. And I know you about and I know a lot about The VA worked with it.

00:03:42:45 - 00:04:00:28
Unknown
It is it is true that there is nobody going to go around and say, okay, Tech Sergeant Sam Smith came in today and he had this. Listen, it it's all quiet and it's a place like you said, where they can go. They feel like someone's listening to them. And it's not 40 people sitting in a room. It's one on one type counseling, right?

00:04:00:33 - 00:04:25:42
Unknown
Yeah. Well, actually, we we do individuals, but we also can't we do have groups set up as well, but we do individual counseling, group counseling, and most of the groups are special where the PTSD MSD, which is military sexual trauma. Right. Different groups. We do some alternative therapies too, like we have a an equine therapy group that meets every Monday afternoon.

00:04:25:42 - 00:04:47:19
Unknown
We go out to the Hope Project Ranch up on the mountain and do do therapy with horses. I love going on that one because I love to see the horse. Right, Right. We have the golf therapy program that Chip does. We participate in that. But basically just giving these veterans a safe place where they've got nothing to worry about.

00:04:47:24 - 00:05:08:55
Unknown
And it's so important now that it used to be when you were at a military, it dealt strictly with the military member when you retired adult strictly with the military retiree. But now it's branched out and it's so important and I'm so glad that you're doing it. Expand just a little bit on how you do not only the individual service member, but you also do entire family counseling.

00:05:08:55 - 00:05:32:09
Unknown
How does that work? Well, the big reason is, you know, PTSD has has a way of destroying families. Yes. You know, in most of your your spouses, children, parents, brothers and sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends, they don't really understand what's happening with their military. Right. So the vet center can bring them in and we can do them, you know, individually will even see the family without the veteran.

00:05:32:14 - 00:05:51:23
Unknown
And but just to help them know what's going on, you know, how best to help their military member and then work with the couple together as a couple to help strengthen their marriage and and just be able to to work together to help with that veterans or active duty members. PTSD. Can their children be involved in it, too?

00:05:51:23 - 00:06:12:41
Unknown
Absolutely. Do you have like an age limit on that or no age limit? that's super. You know, it's just really a beautiful thing. A lot of people get worried about, you know, what else are they going to find out? Because, you know, file insurance claim, right? No, there's no insurance filed. Everything is paid for upfront and and 000 cost.

00:06:12:52 - 00:06:30:04
Unknown
And that's what's so good about it. All right. Let's get into some of the individual type things you do. The first one on the list is grief and bereavement counseling. That's kind of a side thing. What what does that entail? A lot of people thing grief. Okay. That's you know, my wife passed away or my husband passed away.

00:06:30:13 - 00:07:00:01
Unknown
I lost a member when I was overseas. Grief covers a lot more than that, but. Right. Well, and that's our primary focus. Well, PTSD counseling is always going to be our number one focus. Right. But the bereavement and grief counseling is something that that that we can do. You know, in addition to so a widow or widower of a of a military member or a veteran that's been that's passed away, we can work with other family members to help them through the grief process and everything as well.

00:07:00:06 - 00:07:16:07
Unknown
Now, I'm not a counselor, right? I don't know all the ins and outs. All right. But you have experts that already do. Yeah. We get them to the right people that can take them through the process. And and we work for the lot, you know, So and it's just such a beautiful thing that we can help the family members like that.

00:07:16:12 - 00:07:41:21
Unknown
I would imagine, too, one of the things that's hard to overcome and I've talked with people before that have been in grief counseling is what more could I have done to help the situation? Yeah, I don't know. How do you deal with something like that? I mean, I guess just the love and support that they have over there, We just we just like to make sure that they know that there is some somebody that cares and there's there to help them.

00:07:41:26 - 00:08:00:43
Unknown
You, you know, me being a first sergeant, I did a lot of right. Grief counseling, my own my own, you know, working with troops and their families. Sure, sure. But, we're we're there to do whatever we can for them. And one of the things we like to do is we try to never turn anybody away, right? They come to our office.

00:08:00:47 - 00:08:26:27
Unknown
We do have eligibility criteria, but we will do everything we can to put them into that criteria. Sure. And if we can't, we'll still see them for a while for at least, you know, maybe six, ten visits just to make sure they're stable. And that was that was one of the questions I had, too, is someone comes into you for grief and bereavement counseling about how long can they go to see you before you recommend they go somewhere else?

00:08:26:28 - 00:08:55:21
Unknown
Are usually, say, six, eight visits. Is that enough to help them? well, I don't. That's actually between the counselor and the director. We can see them, you know, as long as they want to keep coming in. but, if they if they can't, if we can't get them into our eligibility criteria, then we would have to, you know, we'll work with them for like 6 to 10 visits and then give them or, you know, refer them to another organization.

00:08:55:25 - 00:09:17:06
Unknown
But we don't like to just kind of. Right, right. Just say, okay, six visits, you're over with. Now. There's other ways that they can go talk a little bit about mental health and that mental health covers a whole realm of things. A lot of people think, you're crazy. No, mental health can be something as being afraid to carry a weapon when you're in the service or something like that.

00:09:17:06 - 00:09:43:43
Unknown
So expand on that a little bit. The mental health care. Well, it's just it's such an important aspect to everybody's life, you know, to be able to stay positive, stay focused on anything that mentally prevents you from from living your life or, you know, moving on to something in the future. And like I said, I'm not a mental health right to understand it, But, you know, my own personal point of view is I, I try to make people smile.

00:09:43:48 - 00:10:10:16
Unknown
Yeah. All the time. I'm always every person. I mean, I try to make them smile. And that's my own little contribution to making the world a little bit better place. Because if we can be positive, make people smile, their mental health is going to be on the on the better side. And the big thing is, is when someone goes to the vet center for their services, it doesn't take but a few minutes to realize that you were there for them.

00:10:10:16 - 00:10:25:38
Unknown
You're not there for somebody you say all matched. And as you do such a great job, you are there to help them. And they feel that confidence and they start being able to open up and talk. And that's a big thing. And you have all of these problems. You got to talk about it, right? Well, and that's that's always that's just the way I am.

00:10:25:51 - 00:10:50:18
Unknown
I love helping troops. I went to Iraq in 2005, had the best time in my entire career because it was all about my troops every day and was just trying to find ways to have fun with them. Right. Right up. And now, you know, the first sergeant deals with a lot of crazy things. what I do now is a lot like being a first sergeant again, except none of those headaches.

00:10:50:32 - 00:11:12:36
Unknown
Right know, 2:00 in the morning, phone calls anymore? No jail cells. I'm really like that one. Right? But I still love taking care of troops and I get to do it. Now, one of the things, Matt, that's really starting to come to the forefront now, when I joined the service back in 68, retired in 88, it was still kind of hush hush hush.

00:11:12:36 - 00:11:39:25
Unknown
But one of the things that's really starting to come out now is military sexual trauma is what has happened that all of a sudden people are now starting to realize that this goes on just because you're in the military. There's still these things going on. Why is the VA at the VA? The centers are and everything finally decided that, you know what these young men and women can be feel a male or female don't make any difference.

00:11:39:25 - 00:12:01:30
Unknown
But these young men and women need help. So tell us a little bit about the sexual trauma care for military. Well, I mean, you know, in the in the years ago, they kind of brushed aside and tried to hush it up and, you know, and it's just taken years for it to really open up. I mean, it. And it's sad that it still happens right.

00:12:01:45 - 00:12:25:15
Unknown
You know, and I, I as a when I was active duty, I dealt with several, what's changed? I think it's just mostly an awakening. They're realizing that, you know, this has happened to so many people. We need to put things in place to get them to help now rather than later. Let's assume everything we can to right.

00:12:25:24 - 00:12:44:24
Unknown
And because it's private, nobody knows about it. These individuals feel like they can open up and talk about it now. Right. And that's why we partner a lot with the different sexual assault response teams, because every county has one of those. Right. They know that we're there. So I think. Right, veteran or an active duty member, we're going to get into some of that in just a few minutes here.

00:12:44:24 - 00:13:14:31
Unknown
But something else that surprises a lot of people is your minority veteran care. What is it and what's it all about? well, we never turn anybody away. I mean, right? If they, you know, experienced, you know, PTSD is related to, you know, whether they're a minority or right. It doesn't make a difference if you're black, white, brown.

00:13:14:31 - 00:13:31:48
Unknown
We really don't doesn't make any difference. And that's one thing that people are realizing now that everybody is equal when it comes to this VA counseling service, which is really good. And I'm so glad that they're trying to get that out so that people become educated on it. Yeah, we just we just look at them and say they're a veteran or military member.

00:13:31:48 - 00:13:47:49
Unknown
They need help. We're going to do what we can to help. But one of the big things that I want to expand on that you know quite a bit about is that is the PTSD care right now. A lot of people you can look at them and they seem like you and I sitting here having a conversation, everything.

00:13:47:54 - 00:14:14:35
Unknown
But in 5 minutes they can be down in a corner somewhere going completely to pieces and everything. Right? PTSD is not a physical ailments, so it's very hard to diagnose. So tell us about PTSD, because a lot of people don't understand that. Or traumatic brain injury, right? Well, I mean, PTSD is, of course, post-traumatic stress, which means they experience a traumatic situation.

00:14:14:40 - 00:14:37:43
Unknown
And I would be the last person to say that it's exclusively a military thing. Right. And that's what I wanted to hear. You can experience PTSD from just about any situation, even the loss of a of a pet they've had for 20 years. You know, all kinds of things can cause it. But there are a lot of signs and it's not obvious, you know, talking to somebody.

00:14:37:48 - 00:15:00:53
Unknown
but there are things to look for. And I was actually getting real good at that when I saw First Sergeant, I classic one that I always find is if somebody you know, you're you're in a crowded room of people and you've got this person that always sits in the corner right facing right the rest of the room knowing where the exits are and just so they can keep an eye on everything.

00:15:00:58 - 00:15:26:07
Unknown
That's kind of a term that we call hyper vigilance. And it's really kind of funny because they say veterans with PTSD make the best motorcycle riders because they are hyper vigilant. Right. They're always scanning exactly what's going on around them, looking for threats and, you know, possible things. But PTSD, I mean, it's like I said, it's not just a military condition that affects a lot of people.

00:15:26:12 - 00:15:45:57
Unknown
I don't think I have PTSD of any sort. but there's no telling. I mean, I've seen a lot of things, but we'll see. And that's the thing. It used to be until the last few years when these things have finally come out to where people realize it and there's an avenue for these individuals to go, they thought they just had a just it's a normal part of life.

00:15:45:57 - 00:16:09:44
Unknown
I'll just keep it inside, know it, and well, you know it. It's always been around just to have different names for it, Right? You know, back in older wars, they called it shell shock. Or what was that trench syndrome? You know, all kinds of different things. but personally, the way I look at PTSD is I try to drop the D off the end of it.

00:16:09:49 - 00:16:46:46
Unknown
I don't like the word disorder, right? Because post post-traumatic stress is a natural reaction to a unnatural situation. That's just me. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I've always been more comfortable with just saying post-traumatic stress because it's a natural thing. And it happens when you've been exposed to a horrific situation. Yeah, well, the big thing is, is when you have this PTSD and it comes, like I said, and you explain it in all different forms is once you understand your feelings and the big thing is, is you're not alone.

00:16:46:46 - 00:17:09:26
Unknown
A lot of people, when they have PTSD, they think, okay, I'm going to sit back here because nobody else knows what's going on. So I'm just going to sit here, look around at people. They realize that there could be ten other people in that room. Yeah, that's why we do have, you know, groups dedicated to PTSD. You know, that they can sit down with other people who are experiencing the same thing.

00:17:09:31 - 00:17:34:24
Unknown
there was one thing I wouldn't say I can't remember it was. But anyway, you'll think of it. I'll think of it eventually. One of the things also that you talk to people about is and it's a some people that get out of the military, they actually have problems once they leave the military to try and transition back into the civilian side of life, because they're used to certain things that they do in the military.

00:17:34:29 - 00:17:56:16
Unknown
You actually have some services over there to help with that also. Yeah. And it's it's just part of our overall program. We do help with, you know, that's why our official title of our program is Readjustment Counseling Services. So it is about readjusting and getting out of the military mindset and becoming as you know, a civilian. You'll always have that military, you know, Right.

00:17:56:30 - 00:18:17:57
Unknown
I agree. But, you know, helping them get to a normal life and what things that we can't do directly at the vet center, all vet centers and there's over 300 of these across the country is we know where those other resources are. Right. And that's the important thing too. We, I want to get into this because there's all kind of different aspects here.

00:18:18:01 - 00:18:40:28
Unknown
You guys not only are there to help immediately, but if something happens that you can't really help this individual, you have referral services out there that you go through. The first one I want to talk about is the addiction and substance use care. Okay? That's one thing that has really come to the forefront now in military. There's a lot of addiction and substance abuse out there.

00:18:40:28 - 00:19:05:25
Unknown
One, number one, it's so much easier to get marijuana or some of these other drugs in that. So you actually have referral service. Tell us about that one For the addiction and substance abuse, a lot of the referrals we do is we do try to encourage it. You know, if we get a veteran who's not in the VA system, the VA does have programs, you know, in places they can go to help recover from addiction problems if they don't want to go through the VA system.

00:19:05:30 - 00:19:32:12
Unknown
You know, there are a lot of resources we partner with, like America's Behavioral, the arc out on the beach, which is a transitional living facility that works with its base and works with people that have, you know, addiction problems, the auction houses that kind of in the news kind of controversial. They actually do a great service by helping people get off of, you know, their their addictions.

00:19:32:17 - 00:20:07:29
Unknown
Now, once you refer someone to say, like one of the different services that are available, once you refer them that, do they have to pay for that or does the VA or their TRICARE or insurance payments, once they leave us, it's okay. The insurance and things. But but I'm sure that there's there's avenues to where you could tell them, hey, these this group may be able to help you with some of them and you know, like there's a there's a new place in off of East Avenue called the Evans House, which is for women, women who have substance abuse problems.

00:20:07:34 - 00:20:45:25
Unknown
You know, they can live there for a certain length of time. Sure. And, you know, and get off of stuff. What I really always emphasize to anybody that we we get them to go somewhere else is they can always come back to us for follow on care, you know, to keep the keep them the therapy going. And one of the big things I've noticed, too, after being around different veterans groups, and that is suicide, a lot of them think that especially like PTSD or TBI, if I just end it, it's all over with.

00:20:45:37 - 00:21:08:26
Unknown
They're thinking totally about releasing the problems from them and getting rid of their suffering, but they're not thinking what's happening to the people that live that that they leave behind. Suicide prevention is very important. And I know that six sessions is not going to cure that. So where where would you refer somebody to in our area to help deal with this suicide prevention?

00:21:08:31 - 00:21:33:08
Unknown
well, they're like I said, they can come see us, you know, we'll do everything we can. and we do have protocols, you know, like I said, we do offer that extreme confidentiality, but we're not chaplains. Exactly. chaplains have that for confidentiality. if somebody is actively suicidal or if they've committed a crime, you know, we are mandatory reporters at that point, Right.

00:21:33:13 - 00:21:56:02
Unknown
but, if they are actively suicidal and they're in our office, we do everything you can to to talk them down, right? You know, find out if they've got a plan to see how. And we actually work together with the, the regular VA medical system. That's, that's. That's great. Yeah. And that's. That's becoming better and better, too.

00:21:56:07 - 00:22:16:48
Unknown
What about connections for veterans? I mean, there's a lot of different things in here in this community, and that's one of the reasons why I'm doing this program called our military community, because a lot of people don't know different areas out there, whereas a veteran or not, you you can go and talk to these people or get some help from them, feel welcome in the area.

00:22:17:00 - 00:22:38:50
Unknown
yeah. Well, I mean, you know, we have all the sexual response, sexual assault response teams in each of the counties that can help with you know, anyone who's been sexually assaulted, or harassed or whatever. And these are all community partners of ours that and I could try to remember all of my community partners, but there's not a chance.

00:22:38:55 - 00:22:58:22
Unknown
Yeah, there's so many of them, but they're out there. And if. yeah, if a veteran has questions, all I got to do is talk to you also. You guys just don't sit in this little office on Minnesota Avenue over there by Haney and just say, okay, we're here now. Come and see us. You're actually in the community some touch briefly on what you guys do with community engagement.

00:22:58:34 - 00:23:31:39
Unknown
Well, my part is I'm called the outreach specialist. I actually have the funnest job because I get to travel, I travel 11 counties and just talk and talk. I set up at fairs, festivals. I do speeches and presentations. I've spoken to churches, to clubs, to I mean, you pretty much name it I've talked to, right? I can do a fairly good motivational speech and just to let people know about this program, because what most people don't know is the vet center program is over 44 years old.

00:23:31:52 - 00:23:53:54
Unknown
Right? It was started back in the seventies by Vietnam veterans who wanted that safe place where they can talk to other veterans, you know, about the things they were experiencing. And from day one, there has never been a commercial, Right. Never been in advertising because it you don't go around bragging about it. It's kept private. Right. But it's it's all it's all been word of mouth.

00:23:53:54 - 00:24:22:13
Unknown
So every vet center has a person who is that's their job. Yeah. Now we have veterans out there that are in wheelchairs. They're they're homebound and things like that. You have a telehealth tool. You can actually help them with that. How does that work? Well, that's pretty easy. The counselors all have access to it. If they've got a phone or a notepad or some kind of pad that we can connect up to, we can always have a course.

00:24:22:13 - 00:24:45:33
Unknown
I always say that's the one good thing that COVID 19 did for us. Yeah, we made the telehealth program grow. the VA is big into it, and they give us the tools we need so we can, you know, vet centers aren't everywhere, but the connection is exactly That's the big thing. You know where to go. All right, we got one more thing before I want to talk about a book there in front of you.

00:24:45:37 - 00:25:05:49
Unknown
Workshops and classes. You do. You do workshops, you do classes, things like that. We do. Well, we're always looking for alternative therapies. Like I mentioned, the Hope Project. You? Yeah. Therapy with horses. Yeah. We travel out there every Monday afternoon. We have the golf therapy program, which is every Tuesday morning, which is that is literally changing some lives.

00:25:05:49 - 00:25:28:38
Unknown
It is, Yes. Some great work we do, some some art therapy. usually that's in our office and one of our one of our group rooms. some of my counselors travel to other locations. one does a group in Mariana then follow that up with a group in blunt style. We have a counselor now who's traveling up to Dothan.

00:25:28:38 - 00:25:46:43
Unknown
Yeah, who's got a psychiatrist up there. So there's. There's different avenues out there. All I got to do is contact the vet center, find all out. We got about three and a half minutes to go here, Matt. But you wrote a book. Tell me about it. Yeah. One of my side things is I am an author. I do it all myself.

00:25:46:48 - 00:26:03:53
Unknown
It's a little book that I put together that, I'm going to hold it up so they can get a close up of that. I call it a motivational autobiography. And basically, like I said, I like to make people smile. Yeah. You know, So the way I do that is everywhere I go. Whenever I meet somebody, I always say, how are you doing?

00:26:04:05 - 00:26:19:10
Unknown
So they usually ask me if I'm doing good, how are you doing? And I say, I'm having more fun than I should be. A I have. And that's what they do is they smile. Then the second thing they do is they ask me what I'm doing to have so much fun, right? And that's why I tell them about the vet center program.

00:26:19:15 - 00:26:40:08
Unknown
But my book, You Can Smile too, is all stories from my life that made me smile. And hopefully it's a way to make people smile that I might never even meet. And that's a big thing. A smile is worth a million words to me. How can I help people get that book? It's on Amazon. It's on Barnes and Noble, on Amazon.

00:26:40:08 - 00:27:08:01
Unknown
It's available as a e-book and paperback. I am working on maybe doing a hardcover version, and I'm actually planning on a on a second book that's going to be similar. It's going to have more stories from my life, more since since Hurricane Michael type stories, sure. But I also want to include I've been writing for a local magazine for about three and a half years and interviewing, doing a short story about veterans on Panama City Beach.

00:27:08:06 - 00:27:23:50
Unknown
So I want to include those there. And then in between, I'll tell a few more of my own stories. And I've got a copy of this book and reading some of the stories and looking at some of the pictures in here. Lots of pictures. It does make you smile that that's true. Thank you for writing it. I appreciate it.

00:27:23:51 - 00:27:42:48
Unknown
You go through it, you'll see there's a canon, there's like 340 some smiley faces in there. Yeah. And that's that's good. And that's. That's good. That's all the point. All right. We got less than 2 minutes to go here. Okay, Brief summary on the vet center. It is that safe place where that better truth. They won't go anywhere.

00:27:42:48 - 00:28:08:37
Unknown
No matter what their need is. They can come to the vet center. No worries. Nobody's going to know about it. if we can help them directly, we'll set them up for it. If we can't, we'll try to always point them in the right direction. But it's just us. One of the beautiful things about the vet center program, also the VA as a whole is about employee wise is about 20 22% veterans.

00:28:08:42 - 00:28:27:55
Unknown
The vet center program is over 70% veterans. So we are taking care of our brothers and sisters. I think a lot of probably I think this other half of those veterans that work in the vet center program could potentially be clients because they they've all been there, been there, done that. And and that's what's so good about it.

00:28:27:55 - 00:28:51:33
Unknown
That is veterans helping veterans. Thank you, my friend, for coming in today. I appreciate it. Go see the vets that are and unfortunately that's it for this edition of our military community. That's 30 minutes goes by real fast. Again, I can't emphasize enough if you are military, active duty, retired, whatever, and you're having questions about certain things in your life, go to the vet center is very easy to find.

00:28:51:42 - 00:29:09:06
Unknown
Look it up in the phone book. Go online, vet center. It's also right over there in Minnesota Avenue, right behind Haney Technical Center. So it's a good place to go. People will treat you as loved. They'll treat you with respect. And we want you to have a happy, healthy life as a veteran. You deserve every second of it.

00:29:09:11 - 00:30:06:39
Unknown
So, again, thank you so much for tuning in to get today to this edition of our military community. Hope you have a great day, everyone, and we will see you next week.