Transcription:
Supporting Veterans After Injury

Prakash Chandran: On Veteran's Day and every day, we are grateful to the brave men and women who serve our country at home and abroad. In this episode of Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center, we're joined by Travis Ellis, co-founder of Shepherd's Men, comprised of active or retired service men and civilian volunteers, Shepherd's Men enthusiastically raises awareness and funds for the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and advocates for veterans experiencing the hidden injuries of war.

Welcome to Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center. I'm Prakash Chandran. So Travis, thank you so much for joining us today. You know, one of the things that I wanted to start with was just a question that I think a lot of us know the answer to, but I feel like it's an important place to start, which is why is it so important to support our veterans?

Travis Ellis: You know, I believe that there's really truly one thing that kind of binds us all together as Americans and it separates, you know, us from how we worship, how we believe, how we vote and that's freedom. It's offered to each and every one of us. And there's such a small percentage of the population that guarantees the freedoms we all enjoy. And so it's my opinion and the opinion of our group that we should do anything and everything to help lift up those percentage of veterans, especially the ones who are struggling with these types of injuries that we're advocating for.

Prakash Chandran: Absolutely. So I want to dive into it a little bit. You know, I just mentioned up at the top, the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center. Could you talk to us first about what that is?

Travis Ellis: Yes. SHARE is a TBI treatment program at Shepherd Center. It was stood up about a decade ago thanks to some seed money provided by Bernie Marcus of Home Depot and SHARE provides acute comprehensive care to post 9/11 veterans who have suffered some sort of neurological trauma, specifically TBI, but also to include the co-occurring symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Prakash Chandran: Okay. And when you say TBI, just for the lay audience, what does that mean?

Travis Ellis: Traumatic brain injury.

Prakash Chandran: Okay. Building on that and supporting that, you are one of the co-founders of Shepherd's Men. Could you tell the audience what that is and why you started it?

Travis Ellis: Yeah. We, myself and some friends of mine who are active duty still in the Marine Corps back in 2014, wanted to do something to help support SHARE, because we thought it was such a worthwhile program. And so that time, we came up with what we like to call a diabolical plan and just on a whim said we were going to run from Shepherd Center in Atlanta up to the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington Virginia. And at that time, set a goal of raising a month's worth of programming, which was about a hundred thousand dollars at the time. And, you know, had no idea what we were doing. None of us, you know, certainly work in the non-profit world, but raise about 35% more than our a hundred thousand-dollar goal and met a lot of wonderful people along the way and built some synergy and decided that, "Wow, this went okay," and it was pretty successful. So, every year since then, we've done various events to advocate or share to hopefully identify clients in the communities who have a need for this program and to raise the valuable resources that help the program operate.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah. That's absolutely amazing to hear. And it has clearly provided so much support over the past couple of years. You know, I think one thing that people don't realize is that I've read that one out of five veterans returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with a traumatic brain injury. So can you talk a little bit about what that does to a service member that's returning home and why a program like this is so important?

Travis Ellis: Yeah. The numbers you cited were based on a 2012 DoD study that showed that, like you mentioned, one out of every five who was deployed in the Global War on Terror to Iraq, Afghanistan, the horn of Africa, were returning home with these types of injuries. These injuries are the signature injury of these wars due to reoccurring concussive blast, exposure to IEDs, repeated breaches and just, you know, multiple rotation in combat. And you know, it's the wars that we fought the last 20 years are a little different than what we've known historically. You know, you go back to the generation before ours, the Vietnam generation, and their obligation was one tour. You know, a one-year tour many would do more, but your obligation was only that one. We have deployed young men and women, you know, a half a dozen or more times in this 20-year, you know, cycle that we've been engaged in combat and, you know, those reoccurring deployments rotations had a lasting effect. And just the exposure to these blasts, the development of these types of injuries often unseen to the naked eye, but, you know, equally as debilitating as a gunshot wound or, you know, loss of limb.

Prakash Chandran: absolutely. And I think that's such an important point to kind of emphasize on and something that I know Shepherd's Men advocates, you know, just really recognizing these service members that experience symptoms of traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress. Can you talk a little bit more about what these service members go through when they get back, you know, maybe some of the symptoms that they experience and then how a program like SHARE or Shepherd's men works to try to bring them back to some sense of normalcy?

Travis Ellis: Sure. Yeah. You know, so many come back, you know, experiencing things that perhaps. Were foreign to them, you know, prior to enlisting in the Armed Forces or certainly their deployment. You know, you return and, you know, you have reoccurring headaches, you suffer memory loss, you struggle to perform basic daily functions, something as simple and benign as balancing a checkbook. You know, if you've got something going on in your mind and in your head and you're injured there and there's some sort of physiological, you know, trauma, then menial tasks that each and every one of us would take for granted become just very burdensome, and if you could imagine just the frustrations associated with that. "I can't remember to do this today and I can't remember how to balance my checkbook. I can't remember how much air pressure goes in my tire" and certainly that could create some other issues such as, you know, certainly anger and depression and, you know, so many who are returning are struggling with whether it be moral trauma, survivors' guilt, things that really have a lasting effect and certainly allow one to inside one's own head and oftentimes can produce a pretty dark place for that individual.

Prakash Chandran: You know, one of the things that I wanted to ask You about is, you know, for a lot of these veterans, they are so used to helping and protecting others that finding the time to kind of find the mirror on themselves and say, "You know, I might need help," might be something that's difficult. So I guess this is the two-part question. The first is, number one, is that something that you notice in veterans that need help? And the second thing is if there are veterans that are listening that might fall into that category, what might you say to them?

Travis Ellis: You know, it is something that I noticed and I know this firsthand because I have a friend or had a friend then two years ago, last month was the anniversary of his death. And you know, he struggled with a lot of things related to whether it be injuries or just some of the moral trauma that I mentioned earlier from his three deployments. And in October of 2019, he took his own life and he had every resource available to him. He was engaged in our mission. He knew the help that SHARE could provide. And he said on multiple occasions, you know, "I don't deserve it. Someone else needs it more than I do," when in fact he did deserve it. Every person who is deployed to these, you know, foreign lands and these horrible regions of the earth and return injured, they deserve it. And, you know, it's unfortunate that's the mindset, but it truly is. You know, for many of our service members, they've just spent so much of their career, so much of their life helping others, putting others first, having a selfless attitude that often, you know, putting yourself first comes on the back burner. And we still have this ridiculous mantra kind of within the military ranks or at least some of them, that "Put your head down and press on." Well, you know, oftentimes that doesn't work and that's one thing that we've got to graduate past because if someone is injured, just putting your head down and press on doesn't work. It may work for a temporary moment, but it doesn't provide a long-term fix.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, I think that makes so much sense. And like you said, even I have heard this from my friends that are veterans, is that they sometimes don't feel like they deserve the help that they need so desperately. And I do know that one thing that Shepherd's Men advocates for or believes is that every single person that wears that uniform deserves the opportunity to live in peace, to live in a wellness and to enjoy the freedoms that they have fought so hard to defend. Isn't that the case?

Travis Ellis: No, absolutely. And you know, everyone, you know, whether you're wearing a uniform or not, you know, needs to live a life of purpose. And when you have that gutted from you, it makes one's daily existence a lot more difficult. So that's what this program does. That's what SHARE at Shepherd Center does. It allows our nation's veterans to reclaim that purpose in their lives. And that purpose might not be anything more than going to school with my, you know, five-year-old daughter once a week, and being able to sit in the lunch room with all this background noise and all these potential triggers and just have lunch with my daughter or just waking up every day to be a husband and a father or a mother and performing that, which is really the most critical thing, you know, in an individual's life. But you know, SHARE is allowing that. It is widely successful. And, you know, I know our group is incredibly honored to be able to support SHARE, to be able to have raised over $6 million for this program and to be able to save lives along the way. That's a pretty special thing.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to move on to cover more tactically how someone can reach out for help. So if someone is listening to this and they feel like they want to take that first step to reach out. Which resource should they go to? Who should they call? Maybe talk to us a little bit about that.

Travis Ellis: Sure. First and foremost that I think if someone is struggling and is at the point where they're willing to harm themselves, should either call the Veterans Crisis Hotline or their loved one should call 911. That is first and foremost. If someone is interested in, you know, the SHARE Initiative at Shepherd Center, you could certainly go to www.shepherd.com, and there's a link on their main page, which will take you to the SHARE Program or you could go to shepherdsmen.com. You can reach out to us via any of our social media platforms. You can call me directly on my cell phone. I'm not a clinician, nor is anyone on our team, but we'll talk to you and we'll point you in the right direction. And we'll get you on the phone with someone who is a clinician and someone who can help real time.

Prakash Chandran: And then finally, as we begin to close here, if someone is listening to this, they may not necessarily be a veteran, but they want to get involved. They want to help. What's the best thing that they can do?

Travis Ellis: You know, first of all, you know, I think it's important if they are, you know, engaged within their sphere of influence with folks who are veterans, just pay attention. If someone wants to talk to you, make time for that individual. Ask that individual, especially if you know they have deployed and, you know, just make sure they're okay. Make sure they're well, and just the care. Beyond that, if you were wanting to engage with our mission, there are many opportunities, whether it be physical opportunities, financial opportunities, volunteer opportunities, whatever that may look like, so we would encourage you to reach out to us. Again, you can do that at shepherdsmen.com or send us a message through our social media platforms, which is just @ShepherdsMen.

Prakash Chandran: Well, Travis, just before we close here today, is there anything else that you wanted to cover regarding the SHARE Initiative at Shepherd Center or Shepherd's Men?

Travis Ellis: You know, I think it's important to realize that since that DoD study I cited earlier, you know, which along with referencing the one out of every five to deploy returning with these injuries, also it stated that every day 22 veterans were taking their own lives, 22 veteran suicides a day. And we have come nearly a decade, multiple presidential administrations, many members of congress and these numbers remain at that level. So whatever we're doing from a national policy standpoint is not working. The traditional methods of treatment and therapies aren't working. But what is working is what is going on day in and day out with the treatment offered and rendered by SHARE. So, the private sector more often than not can be the solution to problems versus contributing factor to problems, and SHARE is winning. They're winning each and every day that a veteran wakes up and lives his or her life with purpose.

So, it's important to know that what SHARE is doing, they're doing very well. But it's also important to know that the government provides very little in terms of financial reimbursement for this program. Tri-Care pays about 6 cents on the dollar and many of the clients aren't even eligible for Tri-Care. So it's incumbent upon the private community to support. We've made it our obligation to raise the budget required to operate this program annually. And that's $1.2 million, that's what we're doing, and a hundred percent of the dollars we raise goes to save the lives of the men and women that SHARE treats.

Prakash Chandran: Well, Travis, I just wanted to thank you so much for everything that you and your team does at Shepherd's Men. Thank you so much for your service and thank you so much for educating us today.

Travis Ellis: Thank you very much. I appreciate the time.

Prakash Chandran: That's Travis Ellis. He's the co-founder of Shepherd's Men. For more information about Shepherd Center, you can visit shepherd.org. And you can learn more specifically about Shepherd's Men by going to shepherdsmen.com. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

This has been Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center. I'm Prakash Chandran. Thank you so much and we'll talk next time.