National Center for Healthy Veterans (NCHV)

The National Center for Healthy Veterans is holistically designed to prevent Veteran suicide, help Veterans overcome the lingering wounds of military service, assist with rebuilding individual Veteran lives and families, and redeploy Healthy Veterans back into America for continued service and fulfillment.

Over 73,000 Veterans in the past decade have taken their own lives, far greater than the 58,220 Americans who died fighting the Vietnam War and the equivalent population of the New Orleans Superdome. Our Nation’s suicide epidemic has grown larger over the last three decades and remains tragically high.  As well, a large segment of military Veterans endures many other challenges including mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), moral injury, various other mental and behavioral conditions, and additional challenges related to their military service, whether directly related to combat or related to rigorous training and military service. Each of these Veterans has signed a blank check to America, payable with their own lives. Each of their families have likewise been drawn into this vortex of sacrifice and service for the Nation. Care for these Veterans and their families is a moral imperative as well as high leverage to put committed and competent Veterans of character back into America as entrepreneurs, tradesmen and women, coaches, educators, loving parents and spouses, and societal role models.

Veteran suicide is extremely complex with a number of causal factors. Social isolation is “arguably the strongest and most reliable predictor of suicidal ideation, attempts, and lethal suicidal behavior,” according to the VA. Counterintuitively, the preponderance of Veteran suicide is not related to combat wounds but usually related to loss of community, lack of purpose, broken relationships, psychological pain, and unraveling life circumstances surrounding family, finances, and other hardships. Of note, NCHV programmatic elements directly combat these primary causal factors of Veteran suicide.

While suicide is perhaps the most tragic statistic, the array of physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and relational (PMSER) wounds that result from combat participation and non-combat military service present daunting challenges to millions of Veterans and their families. Regarding these lingering wounds of war, in addition to the Vietnam War generation of warriors, over 2.8 million Americans have been deployed to the Middle East in the last 20 years of continuous combat operations (the longest America has ever been in sustained conflict).

On their return home, many find themselves unable to relate to their families, friends, and usual support structures – leading to a serious erosion of their key pillars of life – Family, Faith, and Profession. They have often lost their families, professional relationships, their faith in the support systems intended to help them, and often their faith in God. Recovery from these seen and unseen wounds of war requires significant compassion, continuity of care, patience, and integration of best practice procedures and technology. 

To accomplish our tactical MISSION of “Returning Healthy Veterans to America,” NCHV engages with hundreds of Veterans through virtual interaction, case management of walk-ons and referrals, and a one-year residential program at its Virginia Valor Farm. It integrates proven best practices one veteran at a time 1) to heal the mind, body, and spirit; 2) to defeat isolation in community living, 3) to provide dignified work on active farm, ranch, market, and construction projects; 4) to deliver trauma recovery and life skills programs, and 5) to enhance career preparation and skills training.

Our strategic VISION of “Reshaping Veteran Care in America” significantly addresses challenges in the ranks of America’s Veterans nationwide. Decades of Veteran despair attest that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) does not have a sufficient local presence to solve these problems.

NCHV is a replicable “national private sector prototype” to achieve effective Veteran care across America, leveraging the efforts of many other public and private sector veterans’ organizations. As well, Governor and First Lady Youngkin awarded their first-ever Spirit of Virginia Award to NCHV in March 2022.In February 2023, NCHV hosted a State of Virginia site visit to explore how the NCHV prototype complements Virginia Veteran Services, along with that of other states.

Serving Veterans in the Greater Lynchburg Area and from across the nation!