Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Swords to Plowshares' Combat to Community: Veterans Mental Health Awareness Training in the San Francisco Bay Area - Swords to Plowshares project, Combat to Community: Veteran Mental Health Awareness Training will provide veteran cultural competency education for law enforcement, first responders, behavioral health providers, legal professionals, and other service providers. The project aims to train 2,000 San Francisco Bay Area professionals that serve veterans over five years, with annual yearly goals as follows: Year 1, 300; Year 2, 350; Year 3, 400; Year 4, 450; and Year 5, 500. The project’s focus population is veterans with military service and transition-related mental disorders, serious mental health illness and serious emotional disturbance conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), military sexual trauma (MST), substance use disorder (SUD), depression, and suicidal ideation. Swords to Plowshares will provide training in the 9-county San Francisco Bay Area including the cities within Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Napa County, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Solano County and Sonoma County. Veterans experience increased rates of PTSD, TBI, and sexual assault, and substance use disorder; each of these conditions increase their risk of homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2019 Annual Homeless Point-in-Time reports and finds 2,445 veterans are homeless in the targeted region, 74% are living unsheltered. California Veteran Suicide Data Sheet notes 526 veterans committed suicide in 2018 at rate more than double their civilian peers (30% vs. 14.4%). Swords to Plowshares’ Combat to Community: Veteran Mental Health Awareness Training program aims to improve awareness of veterans’ mental health issues by training service providers who may encounter veterans. The goal of the training is to increase identification of veterans, and increase awareness of veterans’ military experience, challenges veterans face in their transition to civilian life, and recognition of symptoms, behaviors, and signs of mental illness among veterans. Our trainings follow an evidenced-based Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) model, focusing on de-escalation strategies, aiding trainees to recognize a mental health crisis, de-escalate a potentially violent encounter, engage with appropriate mental health referrals and other support. We expect that 85% of individuals trained will report positive outcomes, including increased ability to identify veterans among those they interact with in crisis and ability to make appropriate mental health referrals; and development of new skills to improve their interactions with veterans in crisis.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).