In a press release sent Thursday afternoon, CVN says it expects the wait time between a veteran making contact and their first appointment will be less than a week, adding that people in crisis will have same-day access to help.
Florida has more than 1.5 million veterans — roughly 12% of our population. Of those, 177,494 are post-9/11 veterans, according to the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs. CVN, who has partnered with Aspire Health Partners (also a 501c3) to open the Tampa clinic, will offer veterans (and their families) treatment for "depression, anxiety, PTSD, adjustment issues, anger, grief and loss, family issues, transitional challenges, relationship problems, and child behavioral problems," according to the press release.
“After closely examining the post-9/11 veteran population throughout Florida it was very clear that Tampa was the ideal location to set up our first location in a state with a demonstrated need for mental health care,” said Dr. Anthony Hassan, President & CEO of the Cohen Veterans Network, said through a press release. “Soon we will be able to serve veterans and their families across the state via our confidential, online video platform. Our clients will be able to receive tailored, high-quality care from the new clinic or from home in most circumstances.”
And what about Vietnam veterans, and other vets? Acoording to Anthony Guido at CVN, "We do screen all veterans and if our clinics have capacity we do treat pre-9/11 veterans if the help they need matches our model, which is short-to-medium term outpatient care. If not, we refer them to others that can help. Across the network about 20% of all clients so far are pre-9/11, that is out of 8,600 clients since April 2016."
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This article appears in Dec 6-13, 2018.