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The Network of Care for Service Members, Veterans & Their Families is a one-stop-shop for virtually all services, information, support, advocacy, and much more. This public service is an attempt to bring together critical information for all components of the veterans' community, including veterans, family members, active-duty personnel, reservists, members of the National Guard, employers, service providers, and the community at large.

"Montana's suicide epidemic is a public health crisis,” said Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.During 2010, at least 227 Montanans killed themselves. In 2011, the number was closer to 225. That’s about 22 people per 100,000 residents, nearly twice the national average.The victims are military veterans, American Indians, senior citizens and teenagers. Often, they are depressed and hundreds of miles from the nearest mental health professional. Even where they can get help, they tend to "cowboy up," afraid their illness will be seen as weakness.

Founded in 1948 as Recording for the Blind, Learning Ally serves more than 300,000 K-12, college and graduate students, veterans and lifelong learners – all of whom cannot read standard print due to blindness, visual impairment, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities. Learning Ally’s collection of more than 70,000 digitally recorded textbooks and literature titles – downloadable and accessible on mainstream as well as specialized assistive technology devices – is the largest of its kind in the world. More than 6,000 volunteers across the U.S. help to record and process the educational materials, which students rely on to achieve academic and professional success. 

Register for Conference Each National Conference brings together the OI community to share, earn and enjoy life. Attendees are as diverse as OI itself – parents, grandparents, kids with OI, siblings, teens, adults of every age, spouses, people with a new diagnosis and people who are conference veterans. Planning is well underway for the 2010 Conference scheduled for July 8-10, in Portland, OR. The theme will be: Living Well with an Unbreakable Spirit!  

What: The 4th annual National Brain Injury Employment Conference, Building Bridges, will bring together all the stakeholders in the brain injury and employment fields—survivors, veterans, family members and professionals—for an interactive and inspirational two days of learning and networking. “One of the biggest adjustments brain injury survivors make is often around employment. With support and retraining, survivors can open new doors to success,” said Conference Chair and Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer Nancy Freeman. Job hunters and professionals will discover useful tips on getting through school, accessing effective tools for employment and learning strategies for job seeking from nationally recognized experts. This conference will focus on finding purpose after brain injury and attendees will leave with insight into innovative employment strategies and have the opportunity to network with national professionals.

A significant amount of attention, money and resources are devoted to soldiers who return home after war and experience a host of issues that fall under the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet according to a leading expert on childhood trauma, the number of affected veterans is dwarfed by the legions of American children who are being abused and neglected. Those children, Bessel van der Kolk told Missoulians last week, experience their own psychological, emotional and physical trauma on a daily basis. And they are much the worse for it.

Click here to download the full flyer and registration form for this event (PDF) What: Becoming a high performance organization requires coalitions to be purposeful in how we organize to do our work and not fall into the trap of doing what we have always done and expect different results.  This training is designed for new and veteran coalition leaders working toward strengthening their coalition to become a high performance organization that will produce results in the community.  Participants will learn tools and techniques critical to building and sustaining a strong coalition with an emphasis placed on organizational management, recruiting and retaining coalition members and utilizing media outlets in the community to advocate for our cause.  The training is designed as an interactive opportunity for participants to both learn new skills and hone existing ones.  When: September 14-15, 2011 Where: Missoula Forum for Children and Youth 435 Ryman St Missoula MT Cost: $25/person $20/person for dues-paying Forum members Contact: 406-721-3000 ext 1020 or jsudnem@co.missoula.mt.us for more information

WASHINGTON — Montana's program to aggressively screen combat veterans for signs of mental trauma is going national.

President Barack Obama signed a Department of Defense authorization bill Wednesday, which among other provisions extends the Treasure State's program by requiring all military personnel to get face-to-face screenings before they leave for combat and periodically after they return to see if there are signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other mental illnesses.

Many praised the series for taking such a comprehensive look at autism. But not everyone was pleased with MacNeil’s reporting on the issue. In blog posts, comments and e-mails to PBS, self-advocates are chiding the veteran reporter, saying that their perspective was left out. What’s more, they are criticizing MacNeil for comments they say suggest that those with the disorder lack empathy and can be violent. “There’s always a problem when you talk about autism and do not include autistic people in the discussion,” says Ari Ne’eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, who suggests that the series featured “dehumanizing rhetoric” and language insinuating that people with autism are “violent and that we’re a burden on society.”