Coming All the Way Home

A U.S. Military Veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes, on average, according to a recent study from the Department of Veteran Affairs. THAT’S 22 VETERANS PER DAY!  More active duty soldiers die from suicide than combat.   Last year, a record-setting 349 members of the armed forces took their own lives.

For every military veteran coming home, there is a family member who has been waiting for them to return.  We understand, by first-hand accounts, that it’s just as hard, if not harder, for the family members waiting on the home front.  A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that wives of soldiers sent to war have higher rates of depression than other women.  The effects of deployment spill out on the entire family.   Because, for many of our military veterans, the war doesn’t end when they return home.  The entire family lives with the repercussions of a warrior who has “not come all the way home”, a warrior who carries the unseen wounds of combat in their hearts and in their minds.  The entire family suffers and, all too often, that suffering ends in tragedy.

At Pathways, we believe this is preventable and unacceptable.  Our training helps these families deal with the invisible wounds of war.  That’s why we created the Pathways Military Family Fund.   This fund helps the Warrior, the home-front hero (spouse), the grown children and teen children of active duty military personnel.  The Pathways programs help bring our Military ALL THE WAY HOME… all the way home to their families, all the way home to healing.