INDIANAPOLIS— On Tuesday morning, Darian Moore is sitting in his therapists office.
"The more I focus on mental health now, the less I have to worry in the future," said Moore.
Moore does his therapy sessions at Helping Veterans and Families. He served ten years in the Air Force before coming back to Indianapolis.
"That’s different to be honest. It's kind of like living in a whole other world or country and then coming back you kind of getting adjusted to how it is in civilian world," said Moore.
Moore says he knew early on to ask for help.
"You're more useful to yourself if you're healing then just struggling by yourself," said Moore.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, HVAF says more than 70% of the veterans they served last year reported a mental health diagnosis or substance abuse issue.
"We are still working really hard to remove that stigma that is attached to mental health," said Kascha Koelling, a mental clinician at HVAF. Koelling provides a number of services including intensive individual therapy, individual and family counseling, substance abuse psycho-education, sexual trauma counseling, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment, and suicide prevention.
Koelling comes from a military family and knows the importance of offering these services. Her grandfather was her biggest inspiration.
"He was a homeless veteran when he came back from the war and he had actually shared with me how the services he received at that time was the motivation he had to get back on his feet. For me, I look at all of these veterans not just as members who have served our country but as somebody's family that I want to be able to help so they can restructure their life again," said Koelling.
Koelling says she can also now help every veteran in the state through telehealth.
Another group that is helping get veterans connected to the resources they need is Indy Warrior Partnership.
"We don’t want to leave out the veterans that could be looking for resources in the future," said Aaron Bacon, the program lead.
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The goal of Indy Warrior Partnershipis to end veteran suicide. Numbers from the VA show 150 Hoosier veterans committed suicide in 2020, which is significantly higher than the national rate.
In April, IWP launched the "Be Known" Campaign as an effort to expand their reach and connect veterans with resources and support.
"We want them to know that there is help, that there is somebody they can talk to, and there’s other veterans out there that want to help," said Bacon.
To "Be Known" you can fill out this form.
IWP is hosting events around the campaign you can find out more here.
