COSF & VetLinks Announce Partnership to Help Close Mental Health Services Gap

Code of Support Foundation (COSF) and VetLinks.org (VL) announced a multi-year national partnership to increase the sharing of critical services for veterans, caregivers and their families in crisis. In recent years, organizations in the veteran support space have begun to acknowledge that no one organization can provide all of the direct and often immediate services needed to support their respective veterans and caregivers who are on the brink of crisis.

COSF began working with VL in late September after one of COSF’s caregiver peer navigators received a phone call from one of its PATRIOTlink™ pilot sites. The organization was asking for assistance in helping the parents of a post 9/11 veteran who was suicidal. Their son was also self-medicating and they could not get him into a treatment program and time was running out. Within hours of collaborating on the case, COSF and VL were able to place the veteran into a 30-day treatment program and secure a service dog to assist in his follow up recovery. The young man has now successfully completed his in-patient program and he is continuing with counseling while his service dog completes its training. This is just one example of how the COSF/VL partnership demonstrates the need for greater collaboration in the veteran support space.

“Code of Support is excited to partner with VetLinks and help forward its mission to educate and empower veterans and caregivers by linking them to an array of services that will enrich their clients quality of life,” says Kristina Kaufmann, Executive Director of Code of Support Foundation. “This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission at Code of Support to leverage our nation’s resources, through our Case Coordination and PATRIOTlink™ programs, to ensure that troops, veterans, and their families have access to the support services they need and have earned.”

“VetLinks is proud and excited to announce a formal partnership with Code of Support, an important and effective organization dedicated to supporting military veterans and their families,” says Jessica Kavanagh, Executive Director of VetLinks. “We are stronger together, and this partnership is the latest example of our devotion to the fight against PTS.”

In keeping with the critical human element, the partnership also includes an intimate level of support where a caregiver will be invited, through COSF, to join VL’s private PTSD Caregiver Support Facebook Group. The purpose of the closed group is to pass on encouragement from the VL organization and its founder, Jessica Kavanagh.

COSF’s Coordination program provides holistic one-on-one assistance to all generations of service members, veterans and families regardless of discharge status. COSF’s team of Veteran and Caregiver Peer Navigators work to address the long-term needs of these families by helping them leverage the tools and resources that will improve their quality of life. VetLinks.org provides personalized, tailored support to post 9/11 individual combat veterans and caregivers suffering from the effects of post-traumatic stress, substance use disorder, and traumatic brain injury.

ABOUT

Code of Support Foundation (COSF) was founded in 2011 and is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides essential and critical one-on-one assistance to those struggling service members, veterans and their families who have the most complex needs. COSF is dedicated to leveraging the nation’s full spectrum of resources to ensure all members of our military, veterans and their families receive the support services they need and, through their collective sacrifice, have earned. COSF’s integrated programs include personalized, holistic long-term case coordination services that serve all service eras across the nation.

VetLinks is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit bridging the VA mental health care gap for Veterans with PTSD. We also awareness in hopes that families, caregivers, and veterans will not suffer in silence with PTS. Our focus is on assisting caregivers, families, and combat veterans suffering from PTS, Traumatic Brain Injury and Substance Use Disorder. We raise money year-round to assist those in need and link them with resources, programs, or alternative therapies unavailable through the VA.