State Rep Marty Flynn, D-Lackawanna, said he is pleased that Valhalla Veterans Services has been awarded $25,000 to train veterans and veterans’ helpers to become first responders for suicide prevention.
The organization provides a program that delivers the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training workshops to veterans at no cost. They also provide counseling services and resilience and cognitive behavioral techniques to veteran inmates in need.
“Suicide is an important problem affecting military service members and we need to find those veterans in our rural towns and cities so we can help them from what they experienced as a result of their service,” Flynn said.
The funding is from federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s grant funding to programs offering supportive services to veterans suffering from opioid use disorder and their families.
In addition, the Treatment Court Advocacy Center of Lackawanna County received $50,000.
The center helps participants in the various Lackawanna County Treatment/Problem Solving Courts as they seek to overcome obstacles in achieving sober, drug-free and productive lives. With the funding, the organization will provide case management, family assessments and family service plans to veterans suffering from opioid use.
The grants are part of the $55.9 million SAMSHA grant secured by the Wolf Administration to bolster the state’s response to the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic.
