An Army Veteran with three children, Cassandra and her family face the same challenges all families do with an added layer of complexity due to her service history. Then she found herself dealing with the most difficult mental health issues she had ever experienced, which she admits impacted her family.
“I could barely leave my room and on certain days I wasn’t eating,” Cassandra says. “I wasn’t functioning, so it was definitely hard on them.”
A conversation with her husband, also a veteran, motivated Cassandra to get help.
“My husband was like ‘we need to do something’ and I think the realization that somebody else was telling me to look for help was what did it,” she says. “It definitely wasn’t the easiest conversation to hear.”
Desperate for help, she had been waiting several weeks for an appointment with her Veterans Affairs (VA) office to find support. Along the way, someone suggested United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County’s military specific support programs. The first program she enrolled in was Triple P (Positive Parenting Program), a resource that gives parents practical strategies to help them build healthy relationships with their children.
Cassandra would also enroll in United Way’s Strong Families Strong Forces (SFSF) program. Strong Families Strong Forces is an 8-week program designed to help military families build resiliency to face challenges in the future by strengthening their communication skills, connection and parenting skills. SMVF programs support military families with special needs resources, child mentorship, parenting education, counseling and military transition assistance.
After discovering these programs, Cassandra was still nervous about exposing her vulnerabilities to others even if she knew she had to change for her family. “When it finally came to the moment to go, I was terrified to get out of the car,” she admits. “I sat in my car forever, just nervous, trying to get the courage to go into the appointment. But the more I went to them, the easier it got.”
With support from these two veteran-focused initiatives, Cassandra regained her personal stability and her family’s resiliency. She believes these programs, which includes in-home counseling with child participation, showed her children that “we’re all human and things happen.”
“Strong Families Strong Forces came to our house which made it easier for our kids to interact and open up,” Cassandra says. “I think once they start understanding things like my military background better, the mental health issues I was going through and why I’m going through them, I think that made it easier for them to understand and accept it” she added.
Her relationship with her three children, all between the ages of 11 and 15, has improved significantly as they each better understand what the others are going through. She has observed positive changes in her children’s personalities, including taking responsibility for their own emotions. The improvement in her own mental health and the emotional growth in her children has been transformative for Cassandra’s family. She encourages all military service members, veterans and their families to reach out for help like she did.
“A lot of military people don’t know where to go to get help with parenting or dealing with family problems. They just keep things to themselves and try to deal with it but it is okay to ask for help,” Cassandra says.
To learn more about support services available to active-duty service members, veterans and their families please visit our website. You can also contact MISSION UNITED by calling the 2-1-1 Helpline. MISSION UNITED is a specialty helpline for military resources, where callers are connected to a trained Military Navigator who can help them navigate the maze of military resources available locally. 2-1-1 and MISSION UNITED are always completely free, anonymous and available 24/7/365.
“United Way does a lot for San Antonio, they do a lot to help our military and veterans,” Cassandra said. “I think it’s really important because we’re in ‘Military City U.S.A.’ so United Way donations go to help families that need crucial services,” she added.
MISSION UNITED callers work with United Way’s Impact Partners to provide services tailored to military individuals and families like financial literacy classes, peer-to-peer support, advocacy and more.
With the support she received from United Way, Cassandra’s life in back on track as she now pursues a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
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Categories: Impact Stories |
