Interview Grove Higgins/LifeQuest Transitions March 17, 2011

Grove Higgins, President / Director

Dr. Higgins received his Doctorate of Chiropractic (DC) medicine from New York Chiropractic College, and holds a BA from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Dr. Higgins has research experience in a variety of subjects, has taught graduate-level anatomy and physiology.

Question: Please speak to the relationships of the board members – each to their own impact on LifeQuest.

Response: CW Conner, Founder – Chairman/CEO founded the original LifeQuest which was an adventure racing team of the original LifeQuest (a team we started).  It is a great platform for teaching life skills.  You start to rely on everybody else in the team to bring up everyone else’s skills to something that allows the team to operate together effectively a lot like the military does.
 

Advisory Board members act as a sounding board for changes. CW has the advisory around the business aspect. I have the advisory board around the health services aspect of what we do.  He can pull up research and come up with ideas, structures and new protocols and the board can act as people I can really count on to look at it critically and provide feedback, criticism etc.  They don’t have any power over the organization; they are just there for advisory purposes.

The Board of Directors is there for a couple of reasons. They can help to guide the direction of the company. They are the ones that we work for.  We created this company but we work for them now. Technically, they can fire you or hire somebody else. They help to keep the company’s mission on track.  On the day to day sense, it is people like CW and me who help to ensure we stay true to the course and are most effective.  Sometimes that means taking some tangents to come back online. Especially in a small organization like ours, we have to be fairly nimble.  The board we have allow us to be very dynamic and evolve in the directions that we need to without nailing us to a very strict path of development like a big non-profit like Focus on the Family would have to be. Focus on the Family is a large ship; it takes some room to turn one of those suckers around. Therefore it keeps them very strict so they stay focused on the families.  Whereas, we have to be nimble.  The Board act as individuals who go out to be advocates for us, draw people to us for donations, volunteerism, for relationships with corporations, and through community resources.
     

Question: How intricately are the board members involved in funding?

Response: Our board is less geared towards fund raising at this stage as it is to helping us build this organization.   We are young still and we are evolving considerably.  The board that is there is to provide legitimacy and also to help us stabilize ourselves as we are moving into that state. We have people who work for us for the fundraising.  They have a lot of freedom to do what they need to do. The board we are poised to building the structure of LifeQuest.

Question: What was LifeQuest Transitions’ start date?

Response: October 2009

Question: What professional organizations do you have associations with (both military and private)?

Response: Outside of Fort Carson, we have affiliations with Air Force Academy, local recruiting area/army recruiting area primarily.  We are starting a relationship with Peterson Air Force Base, UCCS.  As to the community at large – Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, various other non-profits in and around the area ranging from Pueblo Warrior Support Center to include Denver, Operation TBI Freedom through Colorado Trust Fund. There are hundreds of organizations out there serving who overlap with the population we work. We have some contact with all of them and in cooperation with a great many of them. There are a lot of organizations that we have those collaborative relationships.

Question: Do you have a collaborative effort with the Chaplain’s office at Fort Carson?

Response: Not as much as I would like but that is something that recently I have been trying to make forays into in working with the Chaplains.  Of course they work with a lot of the people we work with.  I would love to work with them because the spirit aspect of what they do is highly integral.  It is one of the biggest deficits that these soldiers have.  It doesn’t allow them to develop the proper context with the truths that they have seen and been a part of.

Question: What is your job in facilitating LifeQuest’s mission – what do you actually do on a daily basis?

Mission Statement from LifeQuest Transitions their web page:  http://www.mylq.org/

“To empower, with transitional programs and techniques to facilitate personal growth, leadership skills and positive change for our military’s wounded, ill and injured, through the use of fitness and adventure based learning.”

Response: Our titles are somewhat blithe and do not reflect the true nature of what it is that I do and what it is that CW does. CW being founder and CEO, me being co-founder and president, we wear many, many hats.  The president, of course, is supposed to be more geared towards the daily operations and the personnel that are involved in carrying out the operations of the organization.  Now, that being said, he and I share those aspects.  He is more on the business side.  I am more on the service provision side of what we do. So, he takes those individuals - those aspects of the staff and drives it.  I drive the other part.  In a traditional sense I would be the one that sets the hiring and firing policies. I would then ensure the performances are up and the organization is there to provide for the completion of the mission.  I am also the individual – who wrote the curriculum and I drive the curriculum.  I train all the people. I am involved in a lot more all the way from the actual application of the mission, to the individual soldier, to the creation of the structure to make that possible.  My facilitation is quite broad at this point in time. As time goes on I will back more away from that and be more at an administrative angle in developing people to replicate those more individual touch-points that I have with the soldiers.  Not that I want to lose that but at the same time it is becoming more and more of my job to represent LifeQuest in the community and do my academic work.
 

Question: Can you describe how the influx of deployments or returns might affect your daily operations?

Response: It changes things drastically.  Because we are working with the military there is not this consistency of participation. On a daily basis – things like today, we will have worked with maybe a half dozen soldiers; whereas on a normal day 60 to 120 depending on the day.  That is because today there is a safety stand-down; there are meetings and all those soldiers get drawn off.  As it goes to deployments, we are going to hit spots where large and significant numbers of soldiers will get pulled away.  That doesn’t mean that all of them.  They leave rear detachments that still have the work of healing, soldiers potentially going into the med-board process and retiring them. Or, they are not fit to return to duty yet.  You need that. As units come and go that increases the amount of interest we have being called into us as to utilizing our program.  It can change things drastically on a moment’s notice.  We have 2,500 soldiers over the course of the end of this month through next month and in doing that providing for those individuals, we are going to be quite busy. That does not mean all of them will become part of our program. We will make sure that they know our program is here. We can engage them if they are interested and able to.
Question: Do they have a set period of time where they can use this program and then it just drops off for them or not?

Response: The curriculum is designed to run 120 days.  In 120 days though, because we operate on an individual basis and it is not our program that you are going through – it is your program. We have a curriculum that you play with.  When somebody goes through – you might go through the curriculum faster than someone else goes through the curriculum and you may find at the end you want to continue.  You have more to get out of your time here.  We have some soldiers here that they get everything that they need and want within 60 days (physically, emotionally etc).  Other individuals stick around.  One, because they are not through the med-board process and they still have a long time to go; and this, they find is a lot of stability and health here.  Many times they volunteer.  Right now there are three soldiers filling out volunteer packets.  They want to volunteer and work in this environment with their brother soldiers to help soldiers healing.   We try to engage the individual at the level they are at and then if they need to continue or they need more, they can travel down the rabbit hole as long as they want. We will eventually start hiring some of these guys on. That is the way we want it.  We want the organization to look more like the product that we produce.  That is, an individual who is self-motivated, stable and competent where they are at with the family and so forth – everything that a healthy person civilian or otherwise needs.

Question: Do the soldiers have to pay for the program out of their own pocket?

Response: It is all funded through other funding. The last year and a half we have raised only (amount available on transcript).  That keeps the lights on and allows me to now, finally now, after over a year - to hire three other individuals.  I can then have consistency and stability in the personnel that I have as it pertains to directly interact with the soldier. Up to this point, it has been 100 percent volunteer.  CW and myself still have not pulled a paycheck from this organization.  The majority of what has kept this organization afloat has come from his and my back pocket.  I had a growing practice and as we got into this I pretty much closed that down.   I stopped advertising and let that die off as put 80 hours a week in here.  CW has done the same thing.  There are a lot of opportunities to pursue other things but this is the end game.
  

Question: What would you consider liability issues that might impact your organization and the services you provide?

Response: From a practical sense, we are doing exercise and activities where there is always a chance for injury.  Anything – walking across the street has its own liability.  Then, of course, we try to mitigate that as much as possible by finding individuals (staff) who within the curriculum have a big heart and put their concern for the soldier over their desire to see performances or results – which is often times what happens in the fitness industry - the trainers put their desires on the individual instead of helping the individual find the desire to drive it the other way around.  And then, we follow very simplistic rules in trying to reformat the individuals thinking on how they address themselves in the environment. Which is - you have to be the master of your own self. So, in everything you do you have a higher interest and pay attention to it more.  Your self-awareness has to be higher.  In doing that, you become a partner with the individual serves driving down the liability.  Then you say “don’t do things that cause pain and let’s find ways around it?”  Then, they are looking for where is the edge of that pain so that way I don’t go there. When you are taking that election time, you are taking that higher awareness – it allows the individual to be much safer in anything that they do (physically and in the environment we have created here).
 

Then, of course, the people we have working here from volunteers on are trained meticulously with knowledge of what is a safe operation and to look for those signs  of things going south (stress etc.).  Of course, we are doing outdoor activities and events.  There are a lot of safety protocols to be adhered to in those environments to make it safe.  Literally, in the adventure aspect of what we do you are safer doing what we have you doing – say climbing down a rock face – then you are in your own mom’s arms.  It doesn’t feel like that.  We don’t want it to feel that way.  We want it to feel like what they need, which is that adrenaline and that aspect of risk they are taking.  Even though if they all of sudden passed out and they didn’t want to come down, we have control of it.  We don’t want them to have to see that.  That would break that illusion. It is taking the same opportunity or window that it took them to get injured in and reformat that, re-contextualize that into something that is positive.  It is kind of like practicing a phone number.  The more you practice the new phone number the less the old phone number you can remember.  Another behavior it is important where the less you practice it the better.  Quitting smoking is a good example of that.  When you practice not-smoking it makes it harder to go back to smoking. These behaviors are much the same in a lot of context. The only bad part is we are humans and we tend to will things to be. It makes things much more difficult than they need to be.  A lot of it is subconscious.  It is survival. With the stress disorders these guys have it stress.  Stress overrides any sense.
    

Question:  Do you use outside partner relationships to provide healing services to the soldiers?  Do you have any specific requirements of those relationships?

Response:  What we look for in those relationships are 1) we are very protective of the soldiers because we built up so much trust with the individual.  The last thing we need to do is hand him over to an associate organization and then have him come back and say “those people are a bunch of loons” or “whatever they are doing it doesn’t work.”  It reflects badly on the relationship we have tried to garner with the soldier.

We are also in trying to find solutions for soldiers that have effectiveness.  Not just that it’s out there, it’s good and evokes a good feeling.  Does it provide a result?  There are a lot of organizations out there that do good things but its pat-on-the-back good things - things that provide a diversion but no lasting benefit.  The example: the adventure aspect of what these organizations might use; it is very short-lived.  They go out for a weekend and they come back and have a big smile on their face but that eventually dies away.  What do you do with that inspiration that has been evoked in that individual is very important!  Those things can be good diversions, but is it what they need?
 

They get so many things – particularly in the Wounded Warrior battalions get so many opportunities thrust upon them such as to go to a football game and have dinner with the football team; this hunting trip or that event.  Eventually, they can become numb to all of the opportunities around them. They are not making good choices to pursue the things that will actually give them a benefit. They start turning down opportunities. If you are going to utilize a stitch of time or a brain power that a soldier has towards healing, it better be towards something that is effective. It would be the same thing as if you give a child the opportunity to always go and pick a toy out of the grocery store.  Eventually they don’t respect it anymore.  When you give them a toy it’s not like “oh, thank you so much” it’s like “oh, thank you so much for another thing.”  It decreases the value of all the opportunities around.

Question: In your return-to-duty program, have you successfully returned-to-duty either paraplegics or amputees?
 

Response:  Paraplegics are difficult for the military to deal with.  It depends on what it is of course. Especially now with the draw down on the military budget, they are finding it very difficult to hold on to individuals that are not deployable.   They are finding opportunities for some individuals.  Fort Carson doesn’t have that many paraplegics.  Most of the individuals we have suffer from stress disorders; there are a lot of peripheral joints, spinal problems and head injury problems are what you see through Fort Carson. Amputees – yes we had one individual who was able to return successfully to duty.  We only have had a few paraplegics.

Question: I assume you work with traumatic brain injury (TBI) (small to large degree)?

Response: A lot – to a large degree.  A lot of these soldiers have been in blasts so they have some minor brain trauma at some level to some severe. We see a lot of severe TBI through here.

Question (GB):  On a facility like this, what is the insurance cost?

Response: It is volume dependent.  It doesn’t matter about the severity of the individual we are working with; it depends on how many people we are seeing.  We can see 1,000 highly functioning individuals and it will cost us the same as if we were seeing 1,000 paraplegics.  It is based on the activities that we do and the volume we are seeing.

Question (GB):  As long as they are still in the military, does the military fund the program for the individuals?

Response: This has been a free-ride for the military entirely.  It’s been a free ride for the soldiers too.  We provide the service for the soldiers and this allows the military to benefit. It doesn’t matter whether it is equine therapy, water therapy, to what we do to psychological counseling; unless it can be billed through medical process there is no chance for it to become an evolved point of service for the soldiers.

Question: Have you ever used water or equine therapy?

Response: No – not directly.  There are a lot of individuals who have utilized equine therapy in programs all over the Colorado Springs area.  It has been a recommendation that we utilize as to filling out the program for the soldiers especially as we enter the reintegration aspect of what goes on in Fort Carson.  I can see that becoming more and more a part of what we do.

We are active with the board in Fort Carson and it is made up of entirely military organizations and two private organizations (us being one). The other one being El Pomar; and, El Pomar is the one that has all the money.  We still don’t qualify for any assistance. They require three years of audited finances. We don’t even have that long of a history yet. At the same time there are a lot of effective organizations out there because these people have tenure over here.  I will use the example of one huge national organization where their stand point is good will and back packs and they get millions and millions of dollars because they have the brand and the history.  They can get those resources; but their long term benefit is just not present.  And, additionally they don’t work with active duty soldiers (that is where you have to do it).

Kids, before they go off to college, the last opportunity you have to do anything is with those teenage years; if you don’t intervene then your opportunity to be successful with them later becomes less and less.  The same thing with the soldier, the sooner you get to the time of their trauma – especially as they are making that huge transition into the civilian world - if you can make the intervention then (make the difference there) it follows them into their civilian life.  That is where the biggest push needs to be. Unfortunately, 90% of the non-profits out there have no influence whatsoever.
 

As an analogy – if you coral the cattle the cowboys will come; we are a very unique group in that we went we went after the cattle - found the soldiers - the people who need the efforts.  Now, because of that we have all these other organization coming and saying “Hey you guys have active duty soldiers.  How can we benefit from that?  We have resources and we can’t reach these guys.”  The only reason we are successful is because we are tenacious as hell. That is what it takes.

Question: Do VA benefits help the soldier transition from active duty to civilian life?

Response:  They all have the opportunity to take advantage of vocational rehab – which is fantastic. They all have opportunities for the transitional type programs which are out there.  The only bad part is that (and this is one thing we try to stay cognizant about).  A person is a holistic thing.  They are not just a spiritual issue and are not just an emotional issue.  Everything is addressed as a solution to a problem or an aspect of the person.  It doesn’t address THE person. That is where those programs fall short because they never address the problem.  They never address the person as a whole.  Also, to take advantage of a lot of things you have to be in the right state of life and mind.
 

As an example:  You want to run a marathon.  You need to have a certain foundation to be able to do that. The muscles have to work right. Now, is it possible – don’t know if I don’t know you. Through some time and effort and doing assessment we can find that out. Then we can find out how to get you towards that goal.  It may not be the exact goal that you imagined it to be.  It means taking in the whole picture. Sometimes it is a very slow process.

Programs are out there that are designed to hit plateaus and then insurance cuts you off.  There are always more benefits to be gained.  You just have to change gears work harder.  Insurance typically has this rule, if you can’t see more than a 20 percent improvement over a certain period of time - that must mean you have achieved the maximum medical improvement – you are done!  I have been in the game of rehabilitative exercise and therapy for 24 years.  I can tell you just when you hit that wall – if you try that different route and can find new improvement – particularly with brain injury.  The brain is more plastic than any other body part. It does heal.  Is it ever the same as before – no.  But, you go to school and you aren’t the same.  You hit somebody on the head and they are not the same either.  It takes a lot of sustained effort and consistency to make a difference (particularly in brain injury).  That is just not how the medical establishment is designed. For long term planning and care – it is just not there. Unfortunately, society is just not built for it either.
 

If you consider World War II, you had 18 percent of the population directly involved in prosecuting war.  The rest of society was involved because they knew somebody.  So when those individuals came back whether they were injured, had some mental injury or whatever these people were looked at differently than those people coming back today.  This is because you have only less than 1 percent of the population involved.  To the rest of us, it’s news – mostly bad news (often poorly reported) with no connection to the soldiers.  When this person comes back, they have no connection to the soldier.   When the soldier comes back, the reaction is “this guy’s acting like a loon.  Why is he acting like that?”  The understanding is not there.  The soldiers don’t want to admit anything is wrong with their behavior either.   Society has not prepared them for reality in living in the community.  They see the results of their actions as without something to link them to reality.  They see everything as if it is happening to them.  Not that they are a part of a bigger piece.   It is enough to drive anybody insane.
   

Question:  Do you have on-staff handicapped employees?

Response: We have several soldiers having completed the program are now on staff.  One staff member will be coming on staff shortly and was injured with PTSD.  Another individual also went through similar things.  And then one of our nutritional counselors, although she is not military, she is disabled and an EMT.  As we move forward, as we evolve and as I am able to hire people, I need to hire individuals like that especially coming from the military.  I need the company to look more and more like the product we are producing.  That way the guy that sits on this side of the desk and is interviewing the potential participant can say – “How are you doing today?  Are you ready to engage?”  I can’t do the same thing because I didn’t go where the soldier went and see what he did.  Even if you don’t know, it’s there always as the background conversation going on.  Whereas the guy on the other side of the table, if he has got a similar background, he can reach in a little bit deeper to the soldier and help pull something out that I potentially can’t.  As well intentioned as much as I love the guy across the table from me, there is always going to be that limitation there.  I try to work real hard around it but I still run into that wall.
 

Note:  This concludes the interview with Grove Higgins.
 

Many thanks to Grove for taking his time to detail what LifeQuest is about and his personal mission within LifeQuest.  The soldiers are so very lucky to have such an organization and individuals within of such high caliber bringing healing and attention to their very worthy healing needs.  


A tour of the LifeQuest facility followed this interview.  If you wish to see pictures please see the travel log for March 17, 2011.

Equine Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Found this web page on Equine Therapy and PTSD

http://www.disaboom.com/disabled-veterans-general/equine-therapy-for-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd

For thousands of years horses have been mystical, magical creatures playing the role of companion, transportation, gladiator, entertainer and more. Now they are also playing the role of psychotherapy assistant through a discipline known as Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) which is increasingly being used to treat war veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs estimates that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder afflicts as many as one-quarter of the troops returning from the Middle East, or about 300,000 men and women.  The growing field of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy is showing great promise in treating veterans and their families who suffer from the nightmares, anxiety, depression, anger, irritability and other debilitating effects of this invisible, yet very real disability. 

Equine Therapy for Emotional Healing
In Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, horses are used as tools for military veterans to gain self-understanding and emotional growth.  It recognizes the bond between animals and humans and the potential for emotional healing that can occur when a relationship is formed between the two species.  In most cases, the horses are not ridden, and usually are not tethered in the arena, but allowed to roam free.  Exercises can be as simple as giving the client a halter, and letting them figure out how to approach the horse and put it on. 

Why Horses?  
According to Dr. Laurie Sullivan-Sakeada, a Utah based Clinical Psychologist and leading practitioner of EAP, horses are prey animals, and like those who have been to war, rely on their heightened senses for survival.  They react to and mirror the emotions of visitors directly, without words.  Horses respond negatively to negative emotions.  They respond positively to positive emotions.  And they have no ulterior motives. 

“They are just there,” says Sakeada, “providing non-verbal feedback.”  The horses are therapeutic and interactive tools that speed up the therapy process substantially.  Dr. Sakeada notes that one session of EAP in the barn is equal to five sessions “on the couch.”  

1,200 Pounds of Lie Detector
Jennie Hegeman, an equine rehabilitation specialist as well as a professional horse trainer is another proponent of EAP for PTSD.  She is creator of The Hegeman Method, a patented, cross-discipline equine bio-kinetic training and rehabilitation method based on the muscle structure and bio- mechanics of the horse.  She has worked with Dr. Sakeada in treating children with physical, emotional and mental disabilities at the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah.  

Ms. Hegeman refers to horses as “1,200 pounds of lie detector.”   Her role is to interpret the horse’s body language, such as flicking ears, wide eyes, or a dropped shoulder that will provide feedback for the therapist and the veteran.  Horses also possess a variety of “herd dynamics” such as pushing, kicking, biting, squealing, grooming one another and grazing together.  In the process of describing the interactions between horses, clients can learn about themselves and their own family dynamics.

Preliminary Studies Validate EAP for PTSD
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD has garnered the attention of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, who has provided grants for practitioners to run equine assisted therapy groups with returning troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.   Preliminary results are favorable, suggesting statistically significant rates of change. 

The Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) also evaluated treatment of members of the Georgia National Guard where deployments averaged two years or more.  The study revealed that 100 percent of soldiers who completed therapy had dramatically reduced stress levels.

For more information about Equine Assisted Therapy for PTSD, you can visit the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) website.  To hear Dr. Laurie Sullivan-Sakeada and Jennie Hegeman discuss their experience, go to their site and click on “Equine Assisted Psychotherapy” in the show archive section.  For additional information on PTSD, visit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs PTSD website. 

Monthly Soldier Family Ministry Forum Notes March 17, 2011

Note:  This document contains the transcribed notes as transcribed by Dory Switzer derived from a private recording of a public event - the Ministry Forum and is not meant to be anything more than for the purposes of general reference notes as they relate to the issues concerning soldiers, their disabilities and CHAT.   This document should not be reviewed in any other context.   

Welcome:  Chaplain Jonathan Gibbs, Garrison Chaplain

Topic this month is ministry support for wounded soldiers and their families.  We have a number of presenters which will present information in that area.  Obviously, this is a topic of great concern and interest to us. As chaplains and I hope to you as religious leaders in the community.  As I mentioned before 70% of the soldiers at Fort Carson live off post.  So, there are people who are that are in your neighborhoods  in your churches synagogues and mosques your places of worship they are people that you have the opportunity to provide direct ministry to  I assume you are here because you are interested in that and you want to know more to better minister to the soldiers in your congregations.

What we try to do at the forum is present information from a variety of sources on different topics so that issues that are of concern or directly involve our army families, not just army but our military families in general.  Obviously we have proprietary interest in army families but we are also concerned in our air force, coast guard and marine families as well.  Ministry to Wounded Warriors is an important topic and obviously takes up a considerable amount of time with our Warrior Transition and our army hospital but it also takes place in the community because we have Wounded Warriors who live in the community and who access civilian resources as well. So understanding some of the challenges the soldiers that they face because of their wounds and recovering and possibly returning to the units or in many cases transitioning out of the army and the challenges that presents to soldiers and their families is what we are going to be talking about today.

Introduction of Sergeant Major Brian O’Connors by Chaplain Gibbs

First speaker is going to be Sergeant Major Brian O’Connors – he is the Command Sergeant Major for the Warrior Transition Brigade here in Fort Carson.  He is going to be talking about some of the challenges wounded warriors face as they recover from their injuries.

Sergeant Major O’Connors

I am kind of old school we are used to doing our operations orders where we find a wide spot in the trail and we draw it out. So, that was back before we had computers and stuff.  My name is Brian O’Connors Warrior Transition Battalion.

 

Since it is St. Patrick’s Day and I do have a repertoire of Irish jokes I can’t tell in mixed company. So, what I thought about was going to kind of lead into what I was going to talk about for those of you the story of Saint Patrick, first off he wasn’t Irish he was Scottish; he was kidnapped by the Irish; spent his childhood in Ireland escaped and went back to England; went to seminary and became an ordained bishop; went back to Ireland to convert to Catholicism.  Of course he wasn’t welcome when he got there he wasn’t welcome.  When he showed up they were going to burn him – behead him whatever they did back then.  He was kind of struggling trying to explain the whole idea of Christianity and the tri-union of the father, son and the Holy Spirit.   I guess either he thought of this before or God blessed him and he reached down and plucked a shamrock off the ground and he used the used the three leaves of the shamrock to demonstrate how you can have three different yet one divine entity.

 

The three issues I want to talk about and the three issues we need to deal with– we have what we call the triad of care we also have the triad of healing and that is the body the mind and the spirit.  We call our organization the Warrior Transition Battalion because less than 50% of our warriors are combat wounded today.  Some of them are – when I say that and I have to caveat that is because you see the poster and everyone expects to see the guy in the wheelchair or the guy on the crutches missing an arm or the bad burns and that is a segment of our population but we also have population that has multiple traumatic brain  injury where they have survived IED attacks and have no bodily injuries but just like Troy Aikman have had their bell rang one too many times because of that we now been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and we have to deal with that.  Because of what they have seen we find now they have PTSD and one of the things we have learned about PTSD is that there could be people in the audience with PTSD because something happened previously where you really feel like your life was threatened.  Some event happened, a car accident, childhood event, something you witnessed but nothing has triggered that in you.  So in our case we have soldiers, some of which they had when they came into the military and now something has happened since they came into the military and it has triggered this PTSD and we are treating them for that. We have other behavioral disorders, bipolar, anxiety and depression.  These are all things that society has and we are part of society, we have them too.   So those are the mind piece.

And then the spiritual piece is sometimes the soldiers are not who they used to be and sometimes they are struggling with all of that.  I think that this is a piece that this group could maybe help us with.

The body is - I hate to say it - is easy – but you know when you are missing a leg you can see that.  We have been dealing with missing legs forever right and now we have great prosthetics and therapies and now you can learn to accommodate the fact that you are missing a leg or missing an arm or you have been burned, you have been disfigured or you have been shot and we can fix you up inside and make you as close to whole as possible. People expect that from veterans, if you see a soldier/veteran that is missing a leg or an arm or has those issues - they have been in combat so that is what they expect to see and they are visible wounds and they are treatable.  They are accepted by society, so you when you go into get a job, there are all these benefits to hiring a disabled veteran.  The government will come in if you need a wheelchair ramp they will build one for you.  If you need to adapt your equipment so that a disabled veteran can work at your facility – the government will you do that too.  So there are all these programs that are offered that have been out there for a while to deal with all this.  The family also has an easier time dealing with this because the soldier looks different but is not a different person he just looks different he is the same person. Maybe he can’t throw the ball with his right arm any more but he can still throw with his left, he can still catch; he is can still run around – he has limitations but he can work adapt and work with those.

So, when we have a soldier which has a bodily injury, it is an easier thing for us to treat because medical science has evolved and we have been dealing with that for a lot longer.   When we come to the mind it’s a little bit different.  We have an idea on how the brain works but we aren’t 100% sure we get it right.   Its confusing if men are right sided and women are left sided.  There is that whole issue of how does the brain actually work. How is we have people that lose half their brain and they still function.   We don’t understand all this.  It is not the exact science that if your wound is here we are going to take it above the knee and we get this prosthetic and in six months we will have you running down Arlington Cemetery with the President.

  

The mind is a little bit different.  With that there is a lot of other challenges.   The onset is a traumatic brain injury (TBI) a concussive device or fall, some kind of injury or a lot of minor injuries which have added up.

 

Football fans – a quarterback gets a concussion in practice he doesn’t play on Sunday.  That’s a new rule they started this past year.  They give him that two week break – not sure that is long enough.  What we found is that minor concussions are cumulative.  If you don’t let the brain heal in between injuries, the injuries get worse they don’t get better.  If we give the brain time to heal it will.  The upside to traumatic brain injury is, if severe, we can see that.  We have the technology to see the brain has been damaged.  Guess what – you get a purple heart for that.  The IED goes off and you have a severe concussion, unconscious and they do an MRI, CAT scan and they would see the injury – you get a purple heart for that.

 

You don’t get a purple heart for PTSD.  That is still a challenge we have.  Now think about this…I have a younger sister who has a traumatic brain injury. She lives up in Maine and used to be a school teacher.  She is not a school teacher any more.   She still teacher; she does tutoring in special-ed – she can’t function in a regular classroom because of her injury.  My brother-in-law and my niece and nephew had to go to training (as my nephew used to say) “What to do when mommy starts acting goofy.”  Its  little simple things like remembering the socks go on before the shoes. You laugh about this but this is a serious injury.

 

I am a guy; we don’t ask for directions because we know how to do everything.  When we really don’t know how to do it; it becomes very frustrating and this is where the anger comes in – so we have anger management issues to deal with.  This could lead to the onset to PSTD – part of the issue.  Now we get depressed because we are not the man that our wife or our parents thought we were. By the way we have women with the same issue.  Although, we don’t put women in combat; women are in combat.   So this is a big issue for us – these injuries.   So all the behavioral health that we have to deal with…we tried medications, we tried therapy – some if it works; sometimes it’s a matter of time – adjusting different meds and trying different things.  What works for one may not work for another.  So even though you may have the same injury; it’s not the same people and their brains don’t work the same way.  So we have to constantly modify and change that.  You can’t just go to the doctor get a prescription for TBI PTSD, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders.  What we find is they are all intertwined.  So, we are trying to treat one while we are trying to treat the other.  If we give this guy medication for PTSD and then when he give him Ambien because he has trouble sleeping  and now he doesn’t sleep for 20 hours because this medication affects the other.   So, now we have a non-functioning person, so we can’t do that.  So it is a constant.  I am NOT a medic – I am a combat engineer by training.  I am here for leadership purposes not for medical purposes. That is an issue.

Now you look at how this affects relationships. So now you have soldiers who normally would stand at parade rest – do everything right.  Now as soon as you challenge them they get very defensive.  They get irritated.  So there is that piece there – their anger management is always right below the surface.  The way they deal with their spouses, with their friends - again they are not the same person.  The spouse has to learn that the person I married is not the person who I am married to.  He or she has changed.  There is a whole challenge with that. Same thing with kids, sometimes the kids are pretty adaptive, sometimes we have an issue with who is this stranger who looks like daddy? Why do they always get so angry?  They never used to yell at me.  They went away to the war and now they are always angry at me.   So there is a lot of challenges to that.

Now you look at the employer side of it.  The employers are kind of…”PTSD …you’re not going to go postal on me?  Cause I hear that happens, I had this experience with some Vietnam guys and they had PTSD and it was bad.”  So there is a stigma associated with PTSD.

 

A lot of veterans’ hospital clinics have separate clinics for behavioral health, PTSD, TBI from the physical injuries.  There are a couple reasons for that.  One is if I am a soldier going in there, I walk talk and look the same, I can do a PT test, I can shoot, move, communicate but I have PTSD TBI behavioral health issues and that is what I am being treated for and I am waiting in line to see the doc with the guy next to me that doesn’t have any legs. “Well – he needs it more than I do. I am not going to take services away from him. I am going to do something else.  Maybe Jack Daniels can help me, or Jim Beam or something else.”   That is the challenge we have.

The last piece of this is the spiritual piece. I have to be careful because I am wearing a uniform. I like to tell the story… If George Washington was General of the Army today and somebody took a picture of him kneeling in his tent at Valley Forge before an open bible, he would be fired.  That is just a reality of where we (the Army) are at.   They even coach chaplains on how to pray sometimes so that we don’t offend people if they are doing a non-denominational service.   It is just the society we live in today.

Spirituality of our soldiers is a very important piece, a very important segment of what we do. There is a reason why there are as many chapels in Fort Carson as there are day care centers.  Every battalion should have a chaplain because we understand that is a big part of who we are and what we do. Soldiers struggle with this.  Part of this is a generational thing, I refer to them as the X-box generation.  They grew up in a life where reset is an option. That was not the way I was raised.  Decisions have circumstances and I am going to be held accountable for those.  That is how my parents raised me.  Even being raised as a Roman Catholic I was given that sense that I had value and that my life means something and that every life means something. We struggle with that with some of our youngest soldiers.  They just don’t have that base. Their foundation is on shifting sand not on solid rock.  So that is a big issue for us.  The challenge we have is we kind of rely on our chaplains to do that (a piece of it for us). You got one chaplain 600-800 soldiers in a battalion, if you are fortunate to have a chaplain in your battalion.  They can’t be everywhere at once. They do a phenomenal job.

The spirituality piece is something that we find is very, very important. I am going to tell you it has been a challenge because we have some soldiers go off to combat and come back and now they want to drag their family to church. Family: “What you got to be kidding me?” Soldier: “No, trust me, I have been there, I know it is important.  We need to go to church.  It is what held me together for the 12 months I was in Iraq or the 12 months I was in Afghanistan.”   This is a big challenge for us. Because one of the things we deal with is we have young soldiers who some of them came into the Army for the education and the benefits and pay their dues and get out. There are some soldiers, they really raise their right hand, (less than half of one percent do that by the way). They want to serve 20-25-30 years.  Now we are telling them they can’t be a soldier anymore because they have an injury.  To the guy without the leg, give him a PT test; fit him with a prosthetic; return him to duty.  Soldiers with PTSD TBI, well, it’s the opinion of the doctor you are not fit for military service. I got it; you still shoot as expert; you still pass the PT test; you can hump a rucksack. Challenge is we can’t have you wigging out with a loaded gun in combat.  So, we are going to kick you to the curb.

We DO treat them, one of the things we change; one of the challenges we have in our program that something that happened a few years back was the Army says you are either fit for duty, you had to be retrained and do MOS*; if you can do combat Army; you can still do something else and stay in the military or you are not fit for duty.   If you weren’t fit for duty, we treated you as best we could.  We made you a veteran. Then we told you to go knock on the VA’s (Veteran Administration) door to get benefits.  We don’t do it that way anymore.  2006 forward, you get diagnosed as not being not physically fit, you go into the disability evaluation system.

By the way, I have got just under 400 soldiers in my battalion. There are 2,000 counting my 400. There is another 1,600 not medically ready at Fort Carson.) of which about 1,200 of them are in the disability evaluation system. I only get the complex cases.  The less complex cases – the simpler cases they are still in the 4^th Infantry Division of the 45^th garrison first special forces; all the other units are here in Fort Carson - 1,200 of them are in the disability evaluation system and what they are doing is they are being evaluated by the military and they only need one disqualifying factor – they could have five – but we are just going to list the one.  At the same time they are going to be dealing with the VA and they are getting the Veteran’s assessment.  So that the one disqualifying factor that we give them which is 30 percent or higher usually is one piece of it.  Then the VA looks at the whole thing. Ok – so they disqualified you because of severe PTSD – wells that’s 50 percent; but you also have traumatic brain injury (TBI) that is another 25 percent; you tore your rotator cuff and you got hearing loss so there is another 15 percent so you are 90 percent disabled from the VA. If you did that math it doesn’t add up – it is VA math and that is a whole other class. It is just the way it works.

Now, we just had a job fair yesterday at what is called The Soldier’s Family Assistance Center.  The job fair catered specifically to our Wounded Warriors population that we know are going to be getting out and looking for civilian jobs. A young E-4 – 50 percent of an E-4 salary does not pay a lot of money. Because people forget that if you are on active duty, you are a single soldier you get your base pay – you are living in the barracks; you get a housing allowance and a food allowance – that is not part of your disability pay.  When you retire you get 50 percent of your paycheck – it is 50% of your paycheck not your housing piece or substance piece. And the same thing at the VA – it’s based on your base pay. So, even at any point he is drawing 90 percent of his base pay that is still not a lot of money when you realize that about 30 percent of what he was living on is gone and 90 percent is what is left.  So they are still looking to get other jobs.

The other issue we have is that we have spouses who had nice jobs. They have left those employment to deal with their Warrior transition because the medications they are on means they can’t drive. Their physical limitations mean they can’t drive. Guess what – the spouse drives.  Now we provide transportation but that is not always the solution.  Sometimes the spouse is still required because they guy forgets.  We give them PDA’s and we give them tools to try to help them but sometimes it really takes that non-military family member who is dedicated and loves that soldier who is going to take care of them.   Now we are asking them to live on a lot less than half of what they are used to living on.  So it is a big transition for them.

We get a lot of help from a lot of people.  It is GREAT.  One of the challenges we have is getting the help together  in a systematic way so that we can maximize the benefit.

 

Where I see you helping us is coming in and understanding and talking to a wide population which is a little bit easier because we are all in one place. Versus the other group it’s a little tougher.  Getting them to the sense that they still have a value, they are a value to themselves, they are a value to their family, they are a value to their community, and they are a value to their church.  Now whether they want to hear it or not God still loves them.  They need to hear that.  So they can transition and realize that my life is different but is still my life and I own it.  This population that we have is 18 to 25 or so called the X-box generation – they are the ones that really need this. Us older guys, just cause we been around a little bit longer; we kind of gather that things happen and we kind of moved on.   We are used to dealing with it but for some of these younger kids this is the first really bad thing that has happened to them and they just don’t know how to deal with it.

 

At this point I will take any questions you have.

Question:  The Strong Bonds program ( I am not familiar with); that is not specifically a spiritual-based  program, of which there is a spiritual element to it and that gets to be a little tricky at times as to what passes through that  spiritual window (as you might call it).  Would it be a parallel in looking at the Warrior Transition program.  Would have that same thing NOT (specifically spiritual based obviously) but a spiritual window where materials and things that would serve that need come into play?

Response:  Yes, the big challenge we have and the premise we touched on correctly.  We can do all the spiritual stuff we want it just has to be voluntary.  If we understand and we do that disclaimer up front, when you go to Strong Bonds you are going to learn about these things and one of those is your spirituality, your moralistic foundation, what are you basing your decision making on. That is one of the key points that some of our younger soldiers are missing – they just don’t have that solid foundation to make decisions on.  Now add into that if they are borderline and now their brain’s not functioning because of traumatic brain injury (TBI) or other brain issues – now we have an even bigger challenge.  So, a lot of soldiers that I get to talk to, unfortunately, are the ones that are in trouble and that is one of the chronic issues I see is that their decision making is flawed.  We need to help educate them and try to fix that.  Something that is coming from the outside, as long as we are up front and tell they that “hey, we think this is going to be a good program for  you,” like Strong Bonds is and America Retreats and all the other stuff we do. Chaplains do this all the time – PowerPoint at the bottom of the slide is a psalm is a proverb, there is some other saying, they don’t even read that part but it is there just to kind of reinforce that this is based on something this isn’t something I made up.    Our civilization has been doing this 6,000 some years going back to Judeo-Christian foundation that this country was founded on regardless of what people may claim.  There is ways to do that – so yes sir.

Chaplain Jonathan Gibbs:  The main thing is that it’s (A) whatever information is being put out is being put out by the unit chaplain so that the route to get at the soldiers is through the chaplain cause we have literature racks, displays, we do briefings so that is the first thing we work through our unit chaplains.   The second thing is participation by the soldiers of any kind of spiritual fitness or religious program event is strictly voluntary.

(Ministry took 15 minute break.  Please see note below for reference to other presenters at this meeting.)

(End of Sargent Major Brian O’Connors Presentation)

Note:  Two other speakers addressed this ministry forum speaking to issues not relative to soldier disabilities as they relate to CHAT; rather their presentations relate to the business activities of CHAT and will not be included in this transcription of these notes.

Trip to Colorado Springs March 17, 2011

 Interview – Grove Higgins LifeQuest Transition

Attendance at the Ministry Forum Fort Carson, Colorado Springs, CO


On this trip I brought along my step-brother Gary Bylsma to be a companion to my travels and to add his perspective to my interview with Grove Higgins, LifeQuest Transitions.  It was a nice but windy day and all along the Front Range. The sky was an amazing clear blue with a few scattered clouds.  The sky over Pikes Peak was clear.  My dad had always told me that if you could see clear sky around Pikes Peak it would be a nice day.  Good job dad – it was true.

Gary has the debilitating disease of Muscular Dystrophy which causes him to have to walk with a cane in a slow, somewhat impaired, but deliberate walk.  I was concerned about his comfort along this road trip but it appears it was not an issue or he just didn’t speak about it.  With his disability he can bring a special perspective to my upcoming business that may escape my capture.  I was very grateful he was interested in coming along.

On this trip I came equipped with my new Canon digital camera and a hand-held sound recorder.  This equipment to be used for the purposes of interviews I need to conduct for CHAT.  I was excited to be able to use both for this trip and this - my first targeted in person interview for the business with Grove Higgins.

Gary and I arrived about 30 minutes early for our appointment at LifeQuest Transitions.  We had spent some time being lost for a short while but with Gary’s navigation and familiarity with Colorado Springs we were soon back on track.

 

Before entering the LifeQuest Transitions building for the interview, I noticed we were in an industrial warehouse area of Colorado Springs and the LifeQuest business seemed to be occupying half of a shared warehouse (I believe the other half was an electric equipment company).  Later Grove shared with me that the location was donated by that company as a shared part of their warehouse not in use.  What a great use of an in-kind donation.  This would serve as food for thought for the CHAT facility.

Gary and I entered the LifeQuest Transitions building (picture of entrance below):

On entering Gary and I were greeted by one of the organization’s physical coordinators (not sure of exact title or name).  The administrative offices are towards the back of the warehouse and was where Grove Higgins was awaiting our arrival.

As we walked through what was obviously a very large workout area much like a gymnasium,we passed through yet  there was another smaller  room (a special physical program therapy room) complete with program details on a whiteboard, a carpeted area including a mat area on the floor and some basic gym equipment. The location was quite clean and obviously meticulously maintained. (As we came in someone was vacuuming the area.)

We went through the large and smaller room to the back of the warehouse where the offices were located.  As we went through a door in the smaller room we came into what was obviously the office and administrative services area:

As we met Grove he cordially greeted us stating he would spend a few minutes with us and then have one of his staff conduct the tour of the facility.  Once we sat down I asked Grove if I could record the interview and he granted that permission.  As I began asking some rather pointed questions it was clear Grove was very interested in addressing all my questions.  The interview took about one hour and I was very happy to have his time and attention for the extended period of time.

I won’t go into the details of the interview.  That interview will be addressed as a separate document contained on the CHAT blog.  As an aside, Gary was able to ask some very good pointed business questions regarding operations at this interview.  Thank you Gary.

Once the interview was completed we were escorted around the area and our escort provided detail about what each area of the facility involved. 

This is the equipment room where climbing biking and outdoor equipment is stored for the LQ programs.

This picture is a testimony to the LQ Adventure program.  And what an amazing program it is.  Take a look at the link below. Most interesting of this program is as it works to re-channel in a positive way the andreneline Warriors  commonly have become accustomed to at very high levels during combat missions.  http://www.mylq.org/programs

This area was for strength training.  What was not so clear in this picture is the anchored ropes or straps used for working out.  Notice the net in the picture (for the trapeze I guess).  See the next picture.

This area is where the Warriors work out with kettle bells and gym equipment some of which is not seen in this picture (treadmills, stationary bicycles, etc.)  You may notice that at the top center there is a trapeze for working out.

The staff member who escorted us around was most gracious sharing information about her role in the organization, the programs LQT is involved in and the positive influence on the targeted Warriors (soldiers).  She spoke of the community LQT serves, the population fluctuation of the programs and other supporting organizations. 

As we left, Gary and I discussed the interview and how satisfying it was having all the questions we came with answered and much more information than we would have imagined.  Grove Higgins was a very gracious host at LifeQuest Transitions.

Since it was only around noon we had some time before our meeting at Fort Carson began.  We ended up eating at the Mason Jar restaurant.  http://www.masonjarcolorado.com/  The meal was an extraordinary experience in down home cooking.

 We arrived at Fort Carson just about 25 minutes before the Ministry Forum was scheduled to start.  As we came in Chaplain Dave Brown, the chaplain who appears to be in charge or conducting these monthly forums greeted us at the reception table.  This month’s topic was “Ministry Support to Wounded Warriors and Their Family.”

The speakers at the forum were:

• Challenges for Wounded Soldiers & Families: CSM Brian O’Connors: Warrior Transition Brigade
• Ministry To Wounded Soldiers & Families:  Doris Meeks:  When War Comes Home
• Support to Wounded Soldiers & Families:  Andrea Kirkland: Army One Source

As the group settled in, I noticed there were fewer in attendance this month as there had been in February.  At the introduction Chaplain Jonathan Gibbs, Garrison Chaplain speculated it could be the warm weather that was keeping folks away.  Chaplain Gibbs made a brief introduction to the speakers, their topics and upcoming Ministry Forum topics through October 2011 detailed below:

•  21 Apr:            Ministry to Victims of Domestic Violence & Sexual Abuse
• 19 May:           Fundamentals of Military Ministry
• 16 Jun:             Ministry to Survivors
•  21 Jul:              Marriage Enrichment/Relationship Building
• 18 Aug:            Suicide Prevention
• 15 Sept:            Outreach to Veterans
•  20 Oct:            Ministry Through Family Readiness Group

The CSM Brian O’Conners was the first speaker speaking most eloquently about the Wounded Warriors, their issues and the current approaches and solutions to the challenges facing this Warrior group.  He spoke with great clarity, detailed in his experiences, the Warriors experiences and the support so needed from the community and how that spiritual community might best serve the Warriors, their spouses and their families. A detailed transcript of that presentation appears on the blog as a separate document.


The second speaker was Doris Meeks who was a substitute for the absent Julia Warton.  Doris Meeks was filling in at the very last moment as Julia had an emergency of some type. Although hers was a last minutes presentation, Doris was poised and presented eloquently about an upcoming event “Bridges to Healing Seminar and Workshops, Saturday – April 30, 2011 Woodmen Valley Chapel Colorado Springs, CO.

Doris had made a point to talk to me about her organization, Military Ministry www.militaryministry.org  She was a very cordial sincere and modest professional of her organization.

The third presenter was Andrea Kirkland, Community Support Coordinator of Army  OneSource.   www.MyArmyOneSouce.com  Andrea introduced herself at the beginning of the presentation as Draya for short.  I spoke to her briefly before she presented.  She seemed most excited to talk to me about CHAT and the potential of a liaison relationship with Army OneSouce.  We closed with agreeing to contact one another so I might further discuss CHAT, its mission and the possible interaction with Army OneSource.  Army OneSource offers many supportive soldiers organizations on their web site as resources for them; however, it takes a very deliberate vetting process by Army OneSource to become one of those preferred referenced resources as well as at least three years in business for a financial review as part of that vetting process.   So, it would be several steps and a few years in business before CHAT would be a listed soldier resource of Army OneSource.

As part of her closing, Draya indicated she would be most interested in coming out to any church or community to speak about their involvement and providing a potential resource to the soldiers.  There are a number of churches and community organizations which I believe would love to have Draya come out to present to their organizations.

 

On closing of the meeting, Chaplain Gibbs invited us all to stay a while and network among one another.  Gary and I spoke to some of the folks around us including Draya and some other folks associated with Military Ministry.

The trip back home was uneventful but busy as we left Colorado Springs it was the beginning of rush hour.  Gary and I reflected on what we both felt to be a successful business adventure.

• We discussed liability issues and mutual risks involved for non-profit businesses of this type.
• The dynamic programs they offer at LifeQuest and how some of programs to be offered at CHAT would be a compliment to LifeQuest.
• Soldiers served at LifeQuest would be the exact population CHAT is targeting to serve.
• LifeQuest has a community business board member function as a private business providing services to the active soldiers at Fort Carson.