Free Counseling for Military Families across U.S.

Educating the Next Generation of Mental Health Care Providers for Veterans 

Give an Hour provides free and confidential mental health services to military service members, veterans, and their loved ones. Our nearly 7,000 licensed social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists donate time each week to those who serve our country. Thanks in part to those who generously donated via Global Giving, our volunteer mental health providers can continue to offer their critically needed services in every state across the country. We are grateful to the nearly 500 donors who contributed over the last three months. You have increased greatly our ability to provide free mental health care to those in need and we are very grateful for this outpouring of support.

 Although the war is winding down, in many ways the work back home is just beginning, as returning service members face the challenges of reintegrating into the civilian world. Assisting all post-9/11 service members, veterans, and loved ones will require additional mental health professionals for years to come, particularly those familiar with the invisible wounds of war and the challenges facing military families. 

 To help meet this need, Give an Hour has committed to training the next generation of mental health professionals to prepare them to address these specific issues. We have developed a website dedicated to this training and are hosting our second annual conference on April 7, 2014, to gather in Washington, D.C., some of the greatest thought leaders and practitioners in the fields of military culture, military medicine, mental health, and civic engagement. Our conference will address topics such as the use of technology to support those who serve and their families, nontraditional forms of healing, and the effect of war on the children of those who serve.

 Well-respected journalists will serve as moderators and panelists: Yochi Dreazen (The Atlantic), David Finkel (author of Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers), Joe Klein (Time), Quil Lawrence (NPR), Mark Thompson (Time), and Gregg Zoroya (USA Today). To end the day, we will screen the PBS documentary "A Matter of Duty" by Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Charles Stuart.

 The entire conference will be live streamed and subsequently available online. We have invited students in mental health disciplines, licensed professionals seeking additional training, all of Give an Hour’s supporters, and anyone interested in learning more about these issues to go to http://connected.giveanhour.org/webcasts.shtml for more information.

We would like to extend a personal invitation to all of our Global Giving donors to join us in D.C. for the conference and to meet those who have benefitted from your generosity.