Vets4Warriors will now serve all active duty service members and their families
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Vets4Warriors, a 24/7 nationwide peer-to-peer support line for servicemen and women, is expanding. Services offered by Vets4Warriors will now be provided to all active duty military servicemembers and their families wherever they are located.
Sponsored by the United States Department of Defense Suicide Prevention Office and operated by Rutgers' University Behavioral Health Care, Vets4Warriors launched in December 2011 and, until now, was serving members of the National Guard and all branches of the military reserves. The program provides peer-to-peer support, referrals as appropriate, resilience case management and outreach services to help overcome an individual's or a family's daily challenges.
Since its inception, the Vets4Warriors support line (toll-free 1-855-838-8255) has received more than 41,000 calls and conducted nearly 1,900 live online chats. The support line is staffed with 30 peers who are veterans representing all branches of service and family members.
All calls to Vets4Warriors are confidential – callers can remain anonymous by request – and the counselors often maintain regular contact with a service member for weeks or months, or until a particular matter is resolved. The Vets4Warriors peer counselors help increase service members' life skills, assist in improving their relationships at home or at work and address stress management; adjustment issues; grief and loss; legal and financial issues or other problems. The counselors also reach out proactively to at-risk service members. Although Vets4Warriors is not a crisis line, its peer counselors are certified to respond to suicidal callers and will "warm transfer" crisis calls to the Military Crisis Line.
"It is indeed a unique privilege to be in a position to help the men and women who defend our country in the ways in which our peer counselors do," said Christopher Kosseff, president and CEO of University Behavioral Health Care. "We greatly appreciate the confidence the Department of Defense has in our abilities."
As part of the new agreement with the Department of Defense covering the expansion, Vets4Warriors, in addition to Live Chat, will add more capability and outreach through social media.