BMS Grants Support Mental Health Needs of US Military Veterans

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation’s Mental Health and Well-Being initiative, launched in 2011, is awarding 10 grants totaling $3.28 million to fund new programs that will establish sustainable community-based support systems for veterans and their families.

The Foundation’s 2013 Mental Health and Well-Being grant recipients are:

• New York Legal Assistance Group and Connecticut Veterans Legal Clinic will receive two-year grants to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to study how civil legal services impact mental health and quality of life outcomes for veterans treated in VA mental health and homeless programs.

• Points of Light, National Council for Behavioral Health, and Massachusetts General Hospital will each receive two-year grants to partner with Outside the Wire on its Theater of War performances to military and civilian audiences in 25 US cities. Outside the Wire is a social impact company that uses theater to address a number of pressing public health issues.

• Minnesota Veterans Medical Research and Education Foundation will receive a two-year grant for a new program called Building Spiritual Strength that will use pastoral counselors to address the issues of moral injury – killing or wounding others – among combat trauma survivors.

• Rush University Medical Center Department of Behavioral Sciences will receive a one-year grant to complete an efficacy trial of the mental health services provided by Vets Prevail and recruit and enroll more than 6,200 additional veterans into the program, which received funding from the Foundation last year.

• Boston University School of Public Health will receive a two-year grant to transform a pilot version of a self-directed, web-based intervention that focuses on self-management to control alcohol consumption as a critical approach to managing PTSD into a consumer-ready version.

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) received a three-year matching grant to adapt the evidence-based NAMI Family-to-Family Education Program to the needs of families of active duty military personnel and veterans.

• Carter Center received a grant to conduct the Mental Health & Well-Being Grantees Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, in June 2013.

Source: Bristol-Myers Squibb