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GIVE | CARE | SHARE: SOLDIERS AND FAMILIES EMBRACED

by Sixteen Media - VIP Clarksville Magazine, Clarksville Business Journal & VIP Health & Beauty

APSU GOVS FEST

Since 2011, local nonprofit Soldiers and Families Embraced — or SAFE — has provided short-term mental wellness counseling confidentially, quickly, and free of charge to those affiliated with the military in Clarksville-Montgomery County. The program’s offerings of individual, youth, and couples counseling are available to all associated with the military, including service members, veterans regardless of their discharge type or length of service, and their families. Additionally, no insurance is required to access SAFE’s services.

However, in 2020, the program expanded its offerings to include local first responders such as police officers, sheriffs, firefighters, and EMTs. SAFE Executive Director Christina Watson, LMSW, told VIP that while it was founded to serve soldiers and their families, there was a need in the first responder community that was not being met. “So we started to see in 2019 that a lot of our soldiers, once when they were transitioning out of the military, they were going into that first responder line of work. Then, we were seeing the extra struggles that was adding to their plates,” Watson said, adding that struggle was very similar to what they were seeing in the active duty military population. “I mean, they too get up and go to work every day not knowing if they are going to make it home, and their spouses feel that as well and their kids know like, ‘Hey, mommy or daddy could go into work today and not make it home,’” Watson continued. This realization led SAFE to expand to the family members of first responders in 2021. In addition to its roster of licensed mental health providers, S.A.F.E. is essentially run by two full-time staff members: Watson and Alyxandria Morgan, MSW, SAFE’s program manager. “We handle all the day-to-day operations of it. I write the grants, we have fundraisers as far as getting clients enrolled for services, and then I also carry a caseload of clients of my own as well to deliver services,” Watson told VIP, adding that they are not affiliated with Department of Defense or the VA in any way. They operate strictly through grants, private donors, public donors, and public support, which gives SAFE an added bonus: they’re completely confidential. “So for our soldiers who might go through behavioral health or our veterans who would go through the VA — or first responders on their insurance — there’s still record-keeping and potential for superiors to know that they are seeking treatment. Because of the way we’re funded, just with the grants and donations, we’re able to again offer that extra confidentiality that our clients can’t get anywhere else,” Watson said.

Another unique aspect of SAFE is that all of its mental health providers and staff have their own affiliations with the military or first responder community — which allows for what Watson calls “cultural competence.” “That really helps with our clients because when they come in for a session or they call the office to discuss something they’re going through to sign up for services, they don’t have to explain a lot of what it means to be in the military or to be a first responder because we already know what that experience is like — what that unique lifestyle is like. So that just adds and extra benefit for our client, and they don’t have to explain what a deployment or PCS means,” Watson explained, adding that it helps to provide an additional layer of rapport and confidence with their clients. While SAFE’s overall mission is to ensure delivery of essential and potentially life-saving mental health care, it also benefits the solider or first responder to know that their family member is being taken care of as well, which is why Watson said it’s doubly important that those services be delivered quickly. “We are usually — at the most — on a one to two-week wait whereas most other mental health agencies in town are on a six-week plus wait for services. When somebody does finally make the decision to reach out for help, that’s not usually an easy decision and they might have been struggling for a long time, we don’t want them to have to wait,” Watson said.