Right on Time: D.C. Trip Comes Amid Change in Nation's Capital
Posted 01/29/2010
Washington, D.C. – When a contingent from Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group arrived at the security gates for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday and the president’s helicopter was lifting into the air, the timing of the long-planned and much-anticipated trip seemed a bit questionable.
But as the day progressed and meetings were held in the White House’s West Wing, the Capitol, the Department of Labor and the Department of Veterans Affairs, it became crystal clear that, as Matt Flavin, director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, put it: “You’re coming to D.C. at exactly the right time.”
Flavin, of course, wasn’t speaking to the group’s punctuality. Rather, he was talking about a change in the culture in the country’s Capitol regarding how the government can best treat and care for its wounded warriors.
Just a couple days before the trip, First Lady Michelle Obama had announced that the federal government would increase its spending on programs for military families by 3 percent in the coming fiscal year despite proposed spending freezes in other areas.
And on top of that, the federal budget for 2010-11, to be unveiled in the coming days, has more than a $1 billion dedicated to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury, Flavin said.
“We have a public health crisis.
We have stressed to the VA that they need to partner with the private sector."
-Matt Flavin, Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy
“We have a public health crisis,” Flavin said as he sat down with a small group of Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group board members, staff and clients in the White House’s Ward Room.
“We have stressed to the VA that they need to partner with the private sector.”
Thursday’s trip was the culmination of almost a year of planning and hard work by many at Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group.
When its programs and ideas for serving veterans and their families, including the Peer Navigator Program, started to garner regional and national attention many months ago, a group of clients, some veterans themselves, began work on a special gift they designed and built for President Obama for his attention to military and veterans' issues.
CEO Morris L. Roth and COO Paul D. Sexton were so impressed that they vowed to deliver it to the White House in person and talk about the great things staff and clients are doing in Colorado Springs, home to five military installations.
The trip was also aimed at finding new ways to partner “as effectively as we can” with the federal government to improve the lives of the military and their families, Roth told Flavin.
Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group representatives meet with
Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy Matt Flavin, Thursday, Jan. 28. CLICK THE PHOTO TO SEE MORE PICTURES FROM THE TRIP.
Some of that partnering could happen in the form of new government-funded pilot programs, one of which will be announced in the coming weeks, officials with the VA told Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group on Thursday. It was just one of many promising leads that surfaced during the trip.
While in D.C., the group stopped by the Capitol to give an update to Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, literally in the halls of Congress. As has been the case in the past, they threw their full support behind plans to get better treatment for war veterans and their families.
“We’ll do what we can,” Bennet said. “Just let us know what you need.”
In addition to Roth and Sexton, the Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group contingent in D.C. included Board Chairwoman Bonnie Martinez, Peer Navigator Rich Lindsey, Peer Navigator client Marquez Berrian-Valle, military spouse and friend Marshel Waddell, and Director of Public Affairs Kevin Porter.
Links to recent media coverage of the trip:
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