Operation Outreach

The Need

14,200 soldiers have returned to Arizona from the Middle East
with a traumatic brain injury or post traumatic stress syndrome

Up to one half of these brave young men and women are at risk of developing post traumatic epilepsy

Post-traumatic seizures can develop as soon as three months, but may take up to twenty years to manifest

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) account for two-thirds of combat injuries during this war

The Walter Reed Army Medical Center found evidence of brain injury in almost two-thirds of returning soldiers who had been exposed to blasts

The Program
The Epilepsy Foundation of Arizona has partnered with the Phoenix Veterans Administration (VA) to reach these Arizona veterans viaOperation Outreach. This program has redefined the relevance of the Epilepsy Foundation of Arizona to a new audience desperately in need of our services.

Operation Outreachis a four-pronged approach to educating, mentoring, assisting, and counseling the Veteran’s continuing to return from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families including:

• The VA has an extensive list of programs to meet the needs of the young veterans, but they are having trouble getting them to take advantage of the 5 years of free health and psychological care offered for those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. A public awareness advertising campaign has been developed to create an understanding of these services.
  
  
• To improve veterans’ and their families’ access to medical and psychological care; to provide information regarding seizures and epilepsy; and to aid veterans and their families in receiving educational materials about epilepsy and its treatment, the Epilepsy Foundation of Arizona will hold an educational conference followed by a family-friendly cookout on October 3^rd, 2009.
  
  
• Often times it is the needs of the families that are overlooked when developing a program for injured Veterans. A program of support is being developed in partnership with the experts at Barrow Neurological Institute’s Traumatic Brain Injury Rehab tailored for the families of the injured veteran.
  
  
• Finally, volunteer staff will help to shepherd returning members of the active military through the debriefing process, mentoring and advocating for these veterans to get the help and treatment they need.

Operation Outreach cannot be counted as a successful program unless each and every TBI and PTSD veteran is touched in some meaningful way, and that cannot happen if the program is restricted to only the partnership in Phoenix. The developed outreach program will serve as a model for Epilepsy Foundation affiliates around the country so that we can reach the 660,000 veterans nationwide who have suffered traumatic brain injuries in defense of our country.

Funded in part by the Boeing Employee Community Fund's Crystal Vision Award.