It’s not always in combat that a service member gets hurt.
Sometimes it’s an unexpected illness or injury that changes their life and their military career, which affects their entire family.
That’s when Navy Wounded Warrior Safe Harbor steps in and provides non-medical care and support, even though the affected families might not have known this organization existed.
“We thought it was for amputees or folks injured overseas, not for people with what they call ‘invisible illnesses’ like mine,” said Capt. Mary Hallerberg, who was diagnosed with dysautonomia – a progressive autoimmune autonomic neuropathy.
After months of not being able to work at her job at the Pentagon, she said the clinics didn’t know the right paperwork to help get her started on the medical board process. She was able to find information by browsing online and finding Navy Wounded Warrior Safe Harbor. After contacting them, she said they had her paperwork submitted in two days.
“I think not knowing what we needed to do was kind of the worst part for us,” she said. “[Safe Harbor] told us exactly what we needed to do.”
Hallerberg was part of a panel of Sailors and their family members who discussed their experiences with Safe Harbor at a Wounded Warrior Family Symposium held at the USO Warrior and Family Center at Bethesda (USO) Nov. 9.
Jennifer Cigna said after her husband, the late Capt. Christopher F. Cigna, was diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer when they were deployed in Rota, Spain, she received a jacket from Safe Harbor. “We’re not wounded in combat, so thanks for the jacket,” she thought.
However, after she learned how Safe Harbor could help, they became an important resource to her during her husband’s illness in tracking down answers.
“When you’re given medical paperwork every day, and this and that, and you’re in crisis and you’re not listening to half the things people say,” she said.
The Safe Harbor program made her feel they were emotionally invested in helping her not only answer questions but also answer questions she didn’t think to ask.
“There were a lot of questions that I had – whether he should stay active duty or retire? I did not know the answer to that question,” she said.
Cmdr. Colin McKee, Safe Harbor director, said the program’s purpose is to provide non-medical care and support for Sailors with serious illnesses, wounds and injuries.
“Helping support them in the many, many things that are impacting their lives as they adjust and figure out what that change in life will look like,” McKee said.
The program has non-medical case managers, recovery care coordinators and a transition care coordinator who all work with the families. On NSAB, the Safe Harbor Office is located in Building 17.
Traci Stahl said her son, PO3 Trenton Stahl collapsed while doing his physical readiness test at the Navy Nuclear Power School and subsequently suffered an anoxic brain injury that has left him in a hospital or rehab facility. She’s had to relearn that she needed to take care of herself, too.
“There are so many opportunities [at NSAB] to ‘take care of you’, because you can’t take care of them if you’re not taking care of yourself and it took me 12 months, 13 months, to figure that out,” Stahl said.
She said Safe Harbor has helped with getting financial assistance for travel and connected them with others who have gone through similar situations. She said they even drove them to tour a Veterans Administration Hospital in Richmond to see if they would be willing to use that facility for Trenton’s care.
Since his motorcycle accident and subsequent leg amputation, PO2 Alan Thomas has been helped by Safe Harbor to find answers about adaptive sports and his wife, Gabriela Vanoni, said they helped her with the immigration process.
Thomas suggested Safe Harbor should be its own command like the Army’s Warrior Transition Brigade.
“Why can we not be one command, in one place, under one person like everyone else in the military?” Thomas asked.
Other suggestions from the panelists on ways to improve Safe Harbor were to do outreach to clinics in the area so they are aware of the Safe Harbor program and to start a host family program of those who have used the program before who’d be willing to help those just starting to use the program.
Before the panel, Seema Reza, a writing instructor who coordinates recreational art classes on base, explained how the arts can help in the healing process.
There are in-treatment classes, weekly open sessions at the USO, and weeklong workshops between March and October where individuals work on their own project that is then displayed at an art show in the community.
In October, there were 622 participants at 41 open sessions, 34 treatment-directed sessions, and 7 special sessions, she said.
“Numbers are good, but they’re not necessarily the point at all,” Reza said. “The point is community, which is the hardest piece to measure. It’s impossible to put into a spreadsheet … People who have met at the arts table have taken road trips together, have looked after one another’s children and pets, go to dinner, shows and just look out for each other.”
| Date Taken: | 11.18.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 11.18.2016 10:15 |
| Story ID: | 215112 |
| Location: | BETHESDA, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Safe Harbor Puts Spotlight on Wounded Warrior Families, by Andrew Damstedt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
