TRENTON – Legislation sponsored by Senators Fred H. Madden and Jim Beach that makes permanent a toll-free mental health helpline designed to assist New Jersey’s soldiers once they return home from the battlefield today has been signed into law.
The law makes permanent the “Vet-2-Vet” program, which provides direct counseling services and trains combat veterans to serve as volunteer peer counselors, since they can best understand the strains that veterans feel upon returning home.
TRENTON – A measure sponsored by Senators Fred H. Madden and Jim Beach which would statutorily ensure the continuation of a toll-free mental health helpline designed to assist New Jersey’s soldiers once they return home from the battlefield was unanimously approved today by the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs panel.
“The wounds suffered on the battlefield are not always visible. Too often, our men and women in uniform return home from war with mental scars, that if left untreated can prove to be just as harmful as physical scars,” said Senator Madden, D-Camden and Gloucester. “This line is helping returning troops reintegrate themselves into civilian life, and this bill would ensure that the program is made permanent, thereby ensuring that the veterans who need help are able to get it.”
“There are certain traumatic events that can only be understood by people who have shared a common experience,” said Senator Beach, D-Camden, who chairs the Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “This program has proven to work, and we owe it to the men and women who have risked their lives protecting our freedoms, to ensure that they are able to receive the best possible counseling and care to help them work through their post-war stress.”
TRENTON – Senator Fred Madden has introduced legislation that would ensure the continuation of a toll-free mental health helpline established to assist New Jersey’s soldiers once they return home from the battlefield.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) first partnered with the state’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMAVA) five years ago to create the “Vet-2-Vet” program, which last year managed more than 3,200 cases. But the program is only funded by the agencies on a year-to-year basis – Madden says the state needs to ensure the program is a permanent help to New Jersey’s veterans.