Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Empowering Lives: Donna Meltzer on Brain Injury Services and the Path to Recovery
Ever wondered how a community can come together to support individuals with brain injuries? Join us for an illuminating conversation with Donna Meltzer, the CEO of Brain Injury Services, as she shares the powerful story of an organization founded by parents in 1989 to secure housing and employment for their children with brain injuries. Discover the breadth of services offered, from childhood through adulthood, focused on personalized, self-directed care. Donna's insights provide a compelling look at how continuous support empowers clients to reach their full potential.
Step inside the innovative ADAPT Clubhouse in Northern Virginia and discover how this state-of-the-art facility makes a real difference for adults recovering from brain injuries. Learn about the unique approach that combines teamwork, repetition, and socialization to help members relearn essential life skills. Hear the heartwarming story of Evan, a former chef who has found a new purpose in the clubhouse kitchen, and see how communal activities like cooking and newsletter production are pivotal in the recovery journey.
Finally, we shed light on the multifaceted approach of Brain Injury Services in Northern Virginia, discussing their various referral sources and community collaborations. Discover the specialized support available for veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) and the importance of community engagement in sustaining these vital services. Whether you're looking to get involved, refer someone, or learn more, this episode is packed with valuable insights and heartwarming stories that underscore the significance of continuous support and community involvement. For more information, see their website, https://braininjurysvcs.org/, or call them at 703-451-8881.
Good morning. I'm Larry Zilliox, D director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat, and today our guest is Donna Meltzer. She's the CEO of Brain Injury Services. They're located over in Fairfax and I had the pleasure of attending a ribbon cutting they did on their new facility over there. I'm going to let her tell you all about it. This organization does amazing work in helping anyone with a brain injury and navigating that illness Not just veterans, but veterans certainly can reach out to them for service, out to them for service, and I wanted to have her come talk with us because I think that there's a lot of veterans out there that don't realize that this service is available to them. They think, well, the only way I can get help is to go to the VA, and that's just not the case. So, donna, welcome to the podcast. I appreciate you coming and talking with us.
Donna Meltzer:Well, thank you so much, Larry. It's my honor to be here today and to see what you all are doing here at the Warrior Retreat Center and getting to have this conversation with you about the work that we have in common. We're both with organizations that are really tried and true organizations that just want to make a difference for people who are really struggling, and we know that there are a lot of people out there with brain injury, with TBI, with all kinds of disabilities, who feel like maybe they're not seen or they're not heard. They've had some challenging life experiences and we're here to support them.
Larry Zilliox:Great. Tell us a little bit about how old is the organization. How did it get started?
Donna Meltzer:Yeah, great question. So we were officially founded in 1989. The name was different at the time. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was really about head injury at the time. Later we became brain injury. But my understanding and please remember that I'm new to the role I've only been the CEO of Brain Injury Services for about four months, so there's still some pieces of history. You know, like any good organization, it was parents of it's lifelong. Maybe it's something that's been acquired along the way, but for parents, especially as they are becoming older, they want to know that their loved ones, as they become adults, will be self-sufficient, able to direct their own lives and be able to be productive folks in the community. And so the story I've heard is that Brain Injury Services was originally founded by a group of parents that wanted to find housing opportunities for their kids with brain injury, and the second thing that they were looking for is opportunities for them to be connected to good jobs.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, to be functional in society, exactly, you need a job to get a house. That's right. Yeah, to be functional in society, exactly, I mean, you need a job to get a house. That's right, or rent a place or something. So it's all connected. It's all connected. So what are the services that you all offer, say to do you help children, families, adults, we help everyone. Nice.
Donna Meltzer:Yes, yeah. So let me walk you through a little bit of the services that we provide, because there's a lot of them, actually, more than I actually realized or knew about prior to my taking on this role. But yes, we cover from childhood all the way up through adult and end of life. So what we really focus in on, let me just start by saying we are about each individual. We use the term self-direction, right.
Donna Meltzer:Each of our clients and we do call them clients who come to work with us at BIS talk to us about what they really need, right, what's going to make their life successful.
Donna Meltzer:And obviously, if it's a child, we're working primarily with the parents and sometimes others in the community that are working with the child. So it could be educators in their school, it could be other support at home, it could be a broader family Maybe grandma is a caregiver for the child or babysits often and so we really bring everybody in together to learn what their goals are. Every one of our clients talks about their own goals and our role is to empower the client to live their most fulfilling life and to give them the tools that they need to meet the goals that they choose, that they want to have to move forward in their life. So I'll, kind of you know, maybe take this. You know, since you asked about age, span across it. So we do have a pediatric department. So I'll, kind of you know, maybe take this you know, since you asked about age span across it.
Donna Meltzer:So we do have a pediatric department and I know that name is a little misleading because it's not just about babies.
Donna Meltzer:Actually, our pediatric department goes all the way up through the end of college because we want to make sure that if we've been working with somebody who's you know started as a child, then went on to high school and then on to college, you don't want to just drop them, especially at the time when they might feel most vulnerable and most alone going away to college.
Donna Meltzer:Right, it's hard enough for any student to leave home and go away to school. But when you're somebody with a brain injury and suddenly you're amongst other people that maybe you've never been with before, maybe you've never navigated, you know who do I touch you because I need a 504 plan, or I had an IEP and I need help with X, y and Z? Or how do I even just talk to my roommate to make sure that my roommate understands what it means to live and share a room with somebody who has a brain injury, with somebody who has a brain injury, and let me ask you this that child and then teenager doesn't age out of the program, they just age out of that department.
Donna Meltzer:Age out of that department. Here's the real thing, larry. This is why brain injury services is so amazing. We don't ever tell anyone you're finished here, ever. There will be times when we need to serve others, and so people might move from being a client who might need supports week in and week out to maybe moving to monthly, to then maybe quarterly to annually, or I just want to kind of need a check in from time to time, but we never actually say you're completely finished. People can come back. We have different lists and different ways for folks to remain engaged, including volunteering. So in fact, this morning, before I came here, I was at an event that we were running with what we call our PALS program. Pals stands for Providing a Link for Survivors. So it's not just people without brain injury who are supporting people with although it is but it's also some of our survivors of brain injury who are now taking somebody newer to BIS services who's newer, on their journey under their own wing.
Larry Zilliox:So a mentor, a mentor, and that's an internal program it is an internal program.
Donna Meltzer:It's our PALS program. We have a director of the program and she runs incredible events throughout the year and works with these PALS throughout the year, and we have a lot of college students from local universities here in Northern Virginia, students who want to support somebody their age or maybe younger, and other folks who are, you know, just like you have here at the Warrior Retreat Center. You have loads of volunteers who want to do something impactful and feel that they have time to give. We have those who sign up. They have to go through some training and understand our philosophy. This, you know self-direction, meeting their goals. You're not there to take over and and just tell somebody else what they're gonna do today. It's how do I support you to help you do what you choose to?
Larry Zilliox:do and are there intern opportunities.
Donna Meltzer:There are intern opportunities and volunteer opportunities. We've had some wonderful students, university students, who have become our interns, particularly if they are in the process of earning a degree that's going to have them work in a field maybe not necessarily brain injury specifically, but anywhere in this kind of space of supporting people who have a lot of needs.
Larry Zilliox:So let's talk a little bit about the facility you guys just opened, because I was at the ribbon cutting and it was really wonderful, really nice place with a whole kitchen that's designed to teach, show people how to function with that injury in the kitchen so they can be self-supporting. And I was really fascinated by the layout of the kitchen, how everything was labeled, which I kind of stole from you, because in the Grand Lodge when we have 25 cabinets and we have 25 drawers, now all the drawers are labeled and numbered. I love that. So when I saw that I said, well, that's, I mean, we didn't put it obviously on the front, but I said that's a great idea that helps everybody. Yeah, Talk a little bit about this facility and how it came to be.
Donna Meltzer:Great. I would love to, because I like to think of it as our crown jewel. It is called the Adapt Clubhouse, one of the things that I learned when I came to this job that I really didn't know about. I certainly knew about day programs that exist and, if you like, after I talk a little bit about ADAPT, I can talk to you about our Fredericksburg Day Program, which is similar but a little bit different. The ADAPT Clubhouse is part of an international model of clubhouses specifically for people with brain injury. There are a number of them throughout Virginia. There's a few in Richmond and other areas, but in our I'll call it catchment area of Northern Virginia, adapt is our clubhouse. We've had it for a long time, but this facility that we cut the ribbon on is brand new and, as you saw, state of the art.
Donna Meltzer:Yeah, it's really nice, just like I said to you here today, with your new kitchen. I said I had kitchen envy the second I looked at this place, but here's what it's really all about. Our Adapt Clubhouse has several purposes. So our clients who come to the Adapt Clubhouse are only adults. That is a place just for adults who are on their journey to recovery from brain injury. So some of them are very new on their journey. Some have been on a long path and others have been there for a very long time.
Donna Meltzer:We call them members so they come in and they can take a look around when they're new and maybe thinking about is this the place for me? They have to sign a contract that they agree to, kind of the rules of the clubhouse, right, which means you have to do your part. You are there to learn skills, you are there to participate, but you're also there to make friends and you are there to work as a team. So you know, one of the most important things about recovery from brain injury is that relearning of skills that you might have lost along the way. You talked about all of the labeling on things in the kitchen and now we're on like level number two of labeling not just words, but also icons or stickers that have pictures.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, those are really neat.
Donna Meltzer:Yeah, you saw some of them and we're working on more. So a lot of it is about repetition of skills, practicing over and over what needs to be done. But people come to the clubhouse. One of its major functions is relearning kitchen skills, everything from grocery shopping to food preparation, cooking the food, cleaning up after they do laundry. You saw that there were laundry machines and laundry and dryer so that all of the linens can get washed daily. But there's more than just that. You're a food guy, right, so you know food brings people together.
Donna Meltzer:We don't just eat, we socialize while we eat. We sit at a table together. You saw that we had round tables in there, specifically that shape, so that people can come together and they can have conversation while they're eating and enjoy each other's company. Guests often come by during lunch. You also saw that we have some office space around the corner and we can smell the food cooking if we're sitting there in the morning or we'll wander over earlier in the morning when coffee is brewing and we can interact and see what's going on in the clubhouse. I love to meet with the clients who are over there. They're always having a great time, so they come in first thing in the morning. Many of them come multiple times a week and we encourage that, especially if they're new.
Larry Zilliox:Sure.
Donna Meltzer:Right, because it's not just learning skills, it's also the socialization piece. So most of them come in around nine, nine, thirty in the morning. They will sit at their tables, they will have some conversations, they'll talk about what's going to happen during the day and then everybody gets their job assignments. That way we rotate who's doing what. So you know, we have a lovely, charming, charming, charming young man right now. His name's Evan. Evan was a chef before his brain injury Young guy he's in his 20s, so he was new in his career, and then he had his brain injury. But he loves being in that kitchen. If he could, he would be the lead cook every day Sure.
Donna Meltzer:But he also understands that that's not OK, that's not within the clubhouse rules, right, because everybody has to get a turn and all of the skills that we're teaching by doing in the clubhouse are important for everybody. Sure, to gain. So they'll go about their business for the day. Some days, on Mondays, they go out grocery shopping as a team with their staff and they, you know, do the menu planning, they do the grocery shopping, they come back, they start cooking and, you know, often there will be cookies baked and other things that are set out for the rest of the afternoon and they will enjoy their lunch together as a team. They might listen to music, they might have some discussions, some guests might come to lead a conversation. There's often game playing afterwards, because games are great for the brain, sure, but in addition to the kitchen, you probably saw our communications ring as well. Plenty of computers, yep, lots of computers, and so the team sort of divides up for the day. Some are going to be in the kitchen, maybe in the morning and comms in the afternoon, or vice versa, or might just go by the days or the weeks, but in the communications room, again, they're practicing skills you saw.
Donna Meltzer:Again, we have everything labeled so that they can self-direct. They come in. They know what their chores are going to be for the day. Maybe they're starting their day. They're given a list of individuals to call. It might be that they're calling other clients to check in on them. How are they doing? It might mean that they're calling some of our volunteers to say thank you and here's when we'll need you next week. Any number of things is happening. They're doing a lot of writing. They produce a quarterly newsletter.
Larry Zilliox:Oh, wow.
Donna Meltzer:And so they're like investigators, right? They have to come up with the stories, they have to interview people and then they write the stories and then they produce the newsletter and it goes out over our website and it goes out to a large list of people. So they love to work on that as well.
Larry Zilliox:What do they write about mostly?
Donna Meltzer:If they're new, they're often writing about themselves and kind of who are they as an individual, what's their journey? They might be writing about what they like. Maybe they've written about what they used to do, or maybe they're writing about what their plan is moving forward, what their dreams are, what they want to do. Maybe it's about their family. Maybe it's about an experience that they recently had, someplace they traveled to. They really get to choose what they write about.
Larry Zilliox:That's great.
Donna Meltzer:Yeah, we also have a little journaling room in an art space we have well, first of all, journaling. As I'm sure you know, Larry is just so good for that recovery process. Writing everything down, getting your thoughts and feelings out, is really helpful, but it's also practicing their writing skills, sentence structure. We have a number of clients right now who actually see themselves as writers. Either they were before or they want to be again, or maybe want to be for the first time. So spending that quiet time doing journaling and writing is also really important. We have a lot of artists.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Donna Meltzer:A lot of artists, and so they can also work in that space on some of their art work.
Larry Zilliox:So thinking about your clients. How do they come to you and what is the overall kind of breakdown of? Are they I'm sure some might be veterans? Are they people who've experienced a traumatic brain injury through an automobile accident, a slip and fall? Is this an extension of treatment that they got from a hospital or some facility and then the hospital said, well, we've done all we can and sends them home? And then, fortunately, somebody says, hey, I know this place, so where did they come from? What's the makeup?
Donna Meltzer:So yes, yes and yes. All of these are ways that people find us at BIS, and I will say that one of our challenges is we want more referrals. Right, that's part of my job, along with my staff team, to get the word out further that we exist. I can't tell you how many times I have met somebody with brain injury who will say, wow, if I had only known earlier that this existed. Now those might not be people in Northern Virginia or they might be newer. We can talk a little bit more about that. But let me directly answer your question. So, yes, it's all of those ways. Typically somebody's a pamphlet this is brain injury services. Everything that they provide for you is free. Please go check them out, go on their website or give them a call and say when can I come over and see what you offer? And then we can work with them to find out where do they belong in our services? Do they need pediatric stuff? Are they adults who are looking for the ADAPT Clubhouse? Or maybe they need our day program in Fredericksburg, based on where they live, or maybe they want a hybrid program. Maybe they are somebody who needs more mental health counseling support. We offer that, both one-on-one and in groups they can come. Members of the Clubhouse might, at the same time, like afterwards, come around the corner because they have an appointment with their therapist to go and get some support there or come to a group program. So, depending on what their needs are, we hope that they're going to find us. Yes, we do want to connect with all of the veterans' agencies. We are constantly reaching out to make sure we're sharing.
Donna Meltzer:A week or so ago I went over to chat with the lovely folks over at the Stroke Comeback Center, which is also in Fairfax, actually in Vienna. We actually have a lot of commonality because stroke and brain injury often go hand in hand. So we share client information back and forth about oh, this person might be right for you, this one should come over to our place. So, for example, over there at Stroke Comeback they have a lot of yoga classes, big yoga facility. We don't. We have one yoga instructor. She's fabulous. She does some online, she does some in person, but over at Stroke they're doing a lot in person and almost every day of the week. So we will cross refer to each other. So, yeah, we're all about getting those referrals.
Donna Meltzer:As I said, that's something we're really highly focused on right now is letting everybody in Northern Virginia know that we exist. So we work with schools, we work with athletic programs because you know, concussion can lead to brain injury. So we're working across all of these systems for children, for adults, and we want everybody to know that we are there to help. And, of course, you know, knowing that it is free is huge, because so many families need that help. They don't either. They don't have the insurance that's going to pay for it long-term. You know you have a brain injury. Your insurance maybe you have really good insurance it's still going to pay for a finite number of sessions, whether it's mental health counseling or, you know, it's more hands-on kind of therapy needs. We're always there.
Larry Zilliox:Wow, what's the percentage of your clients are children.
Donna Meltzer:It's probably I don't know an exact number, but I'd say maybe 40%, 30 to 40. I will say, though, what I'm learning from our Peds folks is that while we serve children, it's really the parents that have the needs, and you know, parents have a lot of struggles. When there's a child with any disability, a lot of it's usually left to mom to manage, and mom might be working full time, and family please be equally involved. Dads matter, the whole family matters. Sometimes it's the grandparents who are there and supporting.
Donna Meltzer:I met with our PEDS folks last week, and they were sharing stories. You know, they go into the schools they are at when the family is called in to do an individual education plan, an IEP, for the child, which maps out what they need. Um, it's often a very difficult time for the parent, um, because sometimes you walk in and you don't know who's going to be in that room and they're talking to you and, oh well, your student wasn't able to. You know, as the parent, you just want to shrink away, and I know this because I was one of those parents too, and so our staff will go with the family. They're in that meeting so that the family has an ally, the family has somebody who's listening, with a trained set of ears, taking notes in the meeting, so that when mom and or dad might come out of that meeting shaking and say they just told me that my student can't do, what do they mean? They automatically have this team who's right there with them saying let's decompress a little bit, let's talk this through.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Donna Meltzer:And let's figure this out together. We're here for you.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, yeah, veterans, veterans. One of the issues that we find with veterans, especially when they're suffering TBI and PTS, is isolation. And what would you say is the best way for a family to try to get a veteran with TBI into care through your organization? Should they reach out to you all directly?
Donna Meltzer:They absolutely should. We do veterans case management for active, for retired, for National Guard, whoever you are. If you have served currently or in the past, we want to work with you. So really that comes through our adult case management. We do have a specific position just for veterans case management. We actually have a vacancy in that position at the moment.
Donna Meltzer:The person we had for a number of years, who was excellent, needed to leave us, not because she wanted to, but her circumstances and her family just needed that. So we are seeking a new person, but we are continuing to serve our veterans families while we're looking for a new person to take that role on. But In our case management, the ability to again work one by one with a veteran to find out what their specific needs are, what their stress points are. Are they just seeking some you know reference material or do they really need mental health counseling? Do they need that skill building piece that we offer, that skill building piece that we offer A lot of our veterans we have found end up, at least for a while in what's called our COMPASS program.
Donna Meltzer:Compass is Community Participation, skill Building Services. So our COMPASS team really works they're primarily occupational therapists really works. They're primarily occupational therapists and they will work with somebody who needs help rebuilding their skills and a lot of it is related to technology. So it could be kitchen skills, like what we're teaching over in the Adapt Clubhouse as well, but it's in the community. It's either in their home, it's somewhere on the job, it's out in the community, meeting with people and retooling them for success.
Donna Meltzer:So you know today, like one of the big interests, of course, ai. How can that be helpful? Relearning how to use your cell phone, you know, and we see that with vets a lot. You know it's memory issues and, oh my gosh, I don't remember how do I do this?
Donna Meltzer:We had one veteran who came to me recently and he said I love taking photos and he's very skilled. I mean, he's quite the photographer. And he said but here's what I can't do and what I need help with. He said so now I have all these photos on my phone. Brian just can't compute with is categorizing them and setting them up so that you know when I'm doing my equine therapy. I have all my equine photos when I'm out doing something else. I have all the it's like. I need somebody to help me do that, structure them, help me learn how to print out my photos and create maybe some collages or some art that I can then whether it's just for me in my home or my family wants them or wherever I need some support in doing that Would staff travel to interview a veteran?
Larry Zilliox:So if a family called and said Uncle Joe had a TBI and he really is not getting out much, we think he needs help, do they have to come to you or do you, guys we?
Donna Meltzer:go out in the community Absolutely as long as they are in Northern Virginia we have. You know, we're kind of all over the map literally. You know Northern Virginia is still a pretty big area, right. So we're right on that border of DC and Maryland and we go out to Spotsylvania County and down to Fredericksburg and we're all over the place. Our staff will get in the car and they will travel. They will go meet somebody if it's in the home or we do have some satellite offices. So I know, you know you referenced our Fairfax office. We have a Leesburg office, we have the Fredericksburg office, we have an office in Winchester At the moment we do not have a staff person there, but we're sending people in who need to see somebody there and we have a Springfield office which we're looking to close out soon, but we will meet people where they're at. That's our goal.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, so let's talk about funding. Now you said this is free to the client, which is amazing. I saw that clubhouse. That wasn't cheap. Money doesn't grow on trees no, it doesn't, especially for nonprofits.
Donna Meltzer:Where do you get your funding? About 95, 96% of our funding comes from the state government Commonwealth?
Larry Zilliox:Yes, from the Commonwealth. Is it the Department of Health?
Donna Meltzer:It's DARS, the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services. Okay, Health.
Donna Meltzer:It's DARS the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services, so that's sort of our agency, our home within the Commonwealth government. We were very fortunate this year. We've been talking a lot over time with the state legislature, and when I say we not just BIS, but all of the brain injury service provider organizations across the state or others just like us that provide similar services. One of the things that we were struggling with was that we had little money to expand. You know, all of that funding really goes into these service programs that we provide, but we also have staff to pay and we have especially here in Northern Virginia, because we cover so many programs and so much territory we have a lot of staff and so we wanted to expand the number of staff that we have or the services that we provide, and we wanted to be able to pay our staff a living wage. Right, we don't want to be losing staff because they can turn around and go work for one of these hospital systems or some other provider or organization that might pay better. So for a number of years there was a lot of advocacy happening at the state house. It really ramped up this year and there were bills that were written that actually provided new money for us that came through just a month or so ago In the most recent bill.
Donna Meltzer:We had a lot of advocates. Many of us spent time in Richmond advocating, telling our stories. We do an annual day in January where we bring all of our clients and staff down to Richmond. We all come. It's kind of you know it's Brain Injury Awareness Day at the State House so that our legislators can meet clients and really hear the real stories and know what's happening in their own districts. But we did get two of several bills that we had put out there passed and then signed into law by Governor Youngkin. So we're very excited. That helps us tremendously. But in addition to the government funding we do also partner with our local counties. So that beautiful facility you saw in Fairfax was largely supported by Fairfax County.
Larry Zilliox:Wow, that's awesome.
Donna Meltzer:We do go after other grants as well that help support our staff team and our projects and programs. As you know, in nonprofit world you know you can't rely on just one source.
Donna Meltzer:You've got to have. You know we look at the pie right and say, okay, if this month much is coming from the state government, then we need this, this and this. We are making connections with corporate, you know, with healthcare industry, with corporate. You know with healthcare industry, with veterans organizations. We reach out everywhere to share. You know so in one conversation it might be us asking for will you partner with us and provide some funding, and in another it might be oh, by the way, you should know about such and such which is funding something specific that might be for another organization. Yeah, so you know we all come together in the nonprofit world and share our resources.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah for sure. The webpage is Brain Injury Services Well, not really Brain Injury, and then SVCSorg.
Donna Meltzer:That is correct. Yes, svcs, which is sort of an abbreviation for services. Yeah, yeah, but that is our website. We do encourage people to come to our website. You can learn more about us, how you can connect with us, certainly how you can donate if you are interested in doing that or know others who are.
Donna Meltzer:We also do a number of fundraisers every year we like to go out and have fun and connect with our community. We just had our annual golf tournament a couple weeks ago. We do that in Fairfax and we had a lot of people come out and golf or just come and hang out and then at the end of the day we do our volunteer awards. That's always a lovely piece of the day to come to. So if you're not a golfer, come join us for some refreshments and to hear the stories about our volunteers and wonderful things that are happening to connect people together.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, I will put a link to the webpage in the show notes. Is that the best way for somebody to contact you, or should they call?
Donna Meltzer:Either way, if you want to call 703-451-8881, your call will be either answered by a live person or sent to. You know you can go through the system and leave a message and we do our best to return everybody's call.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, great. So I encourage everybody to take a look at the webpage, learn more about the organization, the services they offer, because you never know who's going to need it Right. You know, people's lives just change in an instant Automobile accidents, especially elderly who fall, and so you may not need it right now, but next week, next month, next year you may, and you may have a loved one or a friend or somebody that you encounter who's struggling and this could be the answer that changes their life. Let me tell you, the work that Brain Injury Services does does change people's lives. It helps families deal with what is almost always the most unbelievable situation for them, especially when it involves children, veterans especially.
Larry Zilliox:I want their families to go to the webpage, take a look, see what resources there are and know that you don't have to go to the VA to get this kind of help. And, while you're on the webpage, look up there in the corner and hit that donate button. They need money to support these programs, to pay their amazing staff, and they can't get it all from the government. Some of it has to come from people who want to help and also, I'm assuming there's a way to volunteer through the webpage. Absolutely Okay. So that's another way to help is to volunteer, and you know, if you have a friend or a family member who's getting services from brain injury services, you need to donate because you're benefiting from that. You need to volunteer because they're helping you and your family. So don't be afraid to reach out to them and to say you know, can you help? You know, I'm sure if there's a way they can help, they will help you. If not, they'll refer you.
Larry Zilliox:There's plenty of organizations out here. One of the biggest problems we have in the veteran service organization space is that there are a lot of great organizations doing amazing work. People just don't know about them. And coming on with me and that's the whole basis of this podcast is to outreach, get the word out. This is a service that's out there, it's available. Reach out to them and take advantage of it. I really, really think that's important. Donna, I want to thank you for coming on today and telling us all about the organization. It's such an amazing group.
Donna Meltzer:It's been my pleasure. Can I share one quick veteran story with you? Yeah, for sure. So one of the other ways you can donate. You know people always think about money, but donating services or items is also really important.
Donna Meltzer:We had a group of Vietnam veterans who came together and one of them had a car that he didn't need anymore. He was going to pass the car down to his granddaughter and she looked at him and said Granddad, I don't need that car, I want you to give it to somebody else in need, you to give it to somebody else in need. So that gentleman worked with us at BESS and we identified another veteran who sustained multiple TBIs during his service and he needed a new car. He is able to drive but didn't have a serviceable car. And so we had this beautiful ceremony where the gentleman from Vietnam Veterans of America came over with a few of his pals, nice, and they came with the car and they presented the keys and we took photos and it literally changed somebody else's life. Sure, so there's so many ways to donate In this area.
Larry Zilliox:mobility is really how you survive. Yeah, it's everything. Yeah, for sure. Well, that's just, that's great. I love the stories.
Donna Meltzer:We all stood there and cried yeah, oh, it's just, it's just so amazing.
Larry Zilliox:I mean people want to help. They want to help and often they just don't know how. And so, again, go to the web page, take a look. You may not be able to volunteer. I know people work hard in this area and then they sit in traffic for hours so you might not have the time to help. But you may have a teenager who's in high school who needs volunteer service hours. You may know an aunt who just retired and is bored out of her mind. So think about that and think about the ways that you can help brain injury services, because they are out there in the community helping all your friends and your loved ones. So, donna, again, thank you so much for joining us.
Donna Meltzer:I really appreciate it, the honor was mine. Thank you so much for having me.
Larry Zilliox:So for our listeners, if you have any questions or suggestions, you can reach us at podcast at willingwarriorsorg. We'll have another episode next Monday morning at 0500 for those of you who like to get up early and listen to podcasts. Until then, thanks for listening.
