Butler VA holds mental health summit
CENTER TWP — Local mental health professionals and veterans came to the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Center on Tuesday, Sept. 10, for the “Stop the Stigma” mental health summit.
The summit featured six hours of presentations from mental health professionals and veterans, centered around addressing the various stigmas surrounding veterans and mental health. While some attended the event in person, others were able to watch a livestream of the event.
“We're referring to the collaborative work that we all do in the field of mental health to try to reduce the stigma of mental illness,” said clinical psychologist Chris Noullet.
Noullet said the presentations were intended mainly for the mental health professionals in the audience; however, veterans who attended the summit could pick up plenty of information as well.
“The communication is for mental health professionals,” Noullet said. “But we're also hoping that the presentations are tailored in such a way that it touches on areas of interest that our veterans and their families would also be interested in.”
Kristina Marsch, Lexi Miller and Mallory Unger led a presentation on the stigmas surrounding veterans who identify as LGBTQ+, including the lasting impacts of military sexual trauma.
During this presentation, Marsch highlighted the multiple programs the Butler VA offers for LGBTQ+ veterans. These include two dedicated LGBTQ+ groups — Pride and Transcend — as well as gender-affirming care, but not surgery.
The mental health summit also featured two testimonials from veterans. The first came from Leonard Sunday, a Marine who served during the War on Terror and Operation Enduring Freedom. Sunday, who is now a peer specialist, detailed the battle he faced with stigma while he was overcoming a drinking problem after he retired from the Marine Corps in 2014.
Sunday said not even 20 years of military service protected him from negative stereotypes and harsh criticism when he initially opened up about his problem.
“As time went on and I began explaining some of the things that I was learning and some of the changes that were happening, it was like, ‘OK, so what?’ That was the reaction I was getting,” Sunday said. “’It doesn’t mean anything. You’re just going to do it all over again. You're just going to keep doing what you did because that's all you know.’”
Just before the lunch break at noon, Michael Zimmerman gave a half-hour talk to promote the Vet Center at the Pittsburgh VA in Oakland, where he serves as a counselor. The Vet Center was established in 1979 purely to assist Vietnam War veterans who felt shortchanged by the standard of care at the VA. Since then, the Vet Center has expanded to serve veterans of other conflicts.
“Back in the late ’70s, Vietnam veterans felt like they were getting a really bad shake at the VA,” Zimmerman said. “It felt like VA care was substandard. They were hitting a lot of stigmas. So they decided to infiltrate through the VA and create their own service, separate from the hospital system.”
Zimmerman served with the Marines from 2000 to 2005, a tour that included active duty in Iraq. His time there left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, which led him to a career focused on mental health.
Throughout his talk, Zimmerman related multiple stories of veterans who overcame the stigma of seeking help despite fears of potentially losing opportunities in life. One such example was a Marine infantry reservist who came to the Vet Center to seek help for a substance use disorder.
“This guy is terrified that if he gets help, he's getting kicked out,” Zimmerman said. “He's losing his security clearance, he's losing his livelihood, he's losing his opportunities in life. That’s something he believes ... because the stigmas that he believes are all bad. Help equals bad. But he came anyway.”
