Stand for the Troops (SFTT) is committed to providing therapies & treatments for American War Veterans who experience the debilitating effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We’ve sourced wellness practitioners who are in alignment with the SFTT mission to alleviate the TBI and PTSD symptoms and suffering of Veterans and their families. These organizations have become our Rescue Coalition of partners and treatment providers, dedicated to improving the quality of life for all who are, or who have been, afflicted with brain trauma.
Archi’s Institute For Sustainable Agriculture, Escondido, CA
SFTT has partnered with Archi’s Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (AiSA) to help active duty, transitioning and Veteran as well as their spouses find careers in Sustainable Organic Agriculture. In a six-week intensive course, students receive training in hydroponics, drip/micro irrigation, environmental control, soil biology, composting among other agricultural fields. At the end of this vocational training, participants earn 17 academic credits and several certificates.
Honored by the White House, AISA’s innovative Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training program has helped over 200 men and women transition into civilian life while revitalizing American farming. Many TBI and/or PTSD sufferers say that their symptoms have lessened by engaging in meaningful employment in an agricultural atmosphere that is naturally decompressive.
EquiCenter, Mendon, NY
SFTT has partnered with the EquiCenter to use the restorative power of caretaking and riding horses for Veterans with TBI and/or PTSD symptoms. Located in Mendon, NY at the 200-acre William & Mildred Levine Ranch, EquiCenter currently offers Therapeutic Equestrian training once a week with a goal of fostering personal growth and individual achievement for Veterans and their families.
Equine-Assisted Therapy
SFTT also supports Equine-Assisted Therapy for treating veterans with PTSD. Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) Treatment does not include riding horses, But through various interactive exercises with the horses, the veterans learn how their actions, intentions, expectations, and tone have an impact on their relationship with the horses (and ultimately with the people in their lives). Over the course of treatment, the equine specialist and the mental health professional assist veterans in drawing connections between what the horses may be doing, thinking, or feeling, and their own PTSD symptoms, increasing emotional awareness and ability to regulate emotions and behaviors, and learning to more effectively interact with the horses, and by extension other people as well.
Harch Hyperbaric, New Orleans, LA
SFTT has partnered with Harch Hyperbaric to offer oxygen treatment therapy (“HBOT”) to Veterans suffering from TBI and/or PTSD. Neuropsych-testing and SPECT brain imaging are also available.
New York State Psychiatric Institute
SFTT has supported Dr. Yuval Neria’s Attention-Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) for PTSD research at New York State Psychiatric Institute. ABMT is a novel 4-week, intervention designed to normalize attention bias to threat and reduce symptoms of anxiety. This neuroscience-informed treatment grew from research linking attention biases to neurocognitive perturbations in PTSD. Currently available treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, may fail to address anxiety-related deficits in rapidly deployed processes instantiated in subcortical circuitries. ABMT was designed to at least partially address such rapidly-deployed processed through repetitive, computer-based training methods, methods previously shown to alter implicit and dynamic neural processes.
iSynchrony, Oakton, VA
SFTT has partnered with iSynchrony, the national leader in iTMS, a non-pharmacologic intervention using intense magnetic fields guided by the TBI and/or PTSD sufferer’s own brain patterns. This risk-free therapy triggers no reliving of painful experiences, medication changes or discussion analysis.
Operation Warrior Wellness, New York, NY
(https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/veterans.html)
SFTT has partnered with Operation Warrior Wellness (OWW) to provide grants for Veterans and service personnel to learn the Transcendental Meditation technique, a mental relaxation technique that can reduce the symptoms of TBI and/or PTSD.
Pets For Vets (R.O.A. R. Ridgefield CT Chapter)
(https://petsforvets.com/roar-ridgefield)
SFTT support the efforts of Pet for Vets who match Veterans with a skilled Animal companion at no cost to the Veteran. A skilled animal companion is a pet that provides unconditional love, comfort and support to its owner. While there is a need for both, Pets for Vets focuses on matching rescued pets with Veterans based on their needs, personality and lifestyle. Although we most commonly place dogs, we have also matched Veterans with cats and even rabbits! Once a match has been made using their unique Super Bond™ approach, we work one-on-one with the animal to teach them basic skills and manners required to fit seamlessly into the Veteran’s life. Pets For Vets also supports the veteran companion team through the life of the animal.
Train a Dog Save a Warrior, Nationwide
SFTT has partnered with Train a Dog Save a Warrior (TADSAW), a nationally respected organization that trains Medical Alert Service Dogs in accordance with the standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Any wounded warrior, active duty or Veteran, who is struggling from the effects of TBI and/or PTSD is given a canine “Battle Buddy.”
Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS is a form of neurostimulation (also known as neuromodulation) where very low levels of constant current are delivered to specifically targeted areas of the brain, often producing profound results. Originally developed to help patients with brain injuries such as strokes, however tests on healthy adults demonstrated that tDCS can increase cognitive performance on a variety of tasks, depending on the area of the brain being stimulated. Scientific studies have shown that tDCS has the ability to enhance language and mathematical ability, attention span, problem solving, memory, and coordination. In addition, tDCS has also been documented as having impressive potential to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD, as well as chronic pain.