Scott Silverman, the CEO of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in San Diego, has encountered his fair share of veterans who are having difficulty making ends meet after leaving the military.
One number, however, has stuck with Silverman, and it’s one of the reasons he’s launching a new business that will only serve veterans. “A lot of folks, I’ve noticed through the years, when they run into roadblocks, they kind of quit up,” said Silverman, a former addict who recently celebrated 30 years of recovery. “However, one of our community management supervisors told me this statistic: 80% of veterans who have committed suicide, have not accessed any kind of mental health support.” After seeing that many veterans lack the resources to properly transition from active military to civilian life, Silverman founded the Veterans Navigation Center in San Diego as a result of devastating statistics like those. Currently, the Veterans Navigation Center only serves the San Diego region, but Silverman hopes to expand it to the entire country. According to Silverman’s observations of encounters with veterans at Confidential Recovery, the biggest obstacle for many veterans who need treatment when they first leave the service is simply that they are too ashamed or scared to ask for it.
Source:https://www.army