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In addition to free mental health services, eligible PRIDE Center veterans receive physical therapy, hearing testing, speech and language therapies at no charge.

It came just in time for Christmas.

A seven-figure gift from a family in Fairfax, Va. helped establish a groundbreaking free mental health and rehabilitation center for wounded combat veterans and their families now open on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro. Personal Rehabilitation, Individual Development and Education (PRIDE) are the core concepts of the just-opened Beck PRIDE Center for America’s Wounded Veterans. The center is the brainchild of ASU supporters and alumni Charlotte and Buddy Beck.

Chancellor Robert L. Potts said the center will supplement rather than supplant other federal and state veterans programs “It is being established not only to offer rehabilitation and prepare these wounded warriors for post-service careers,” Potts said, “but also to provide peer and family support during this critical period of these veterans’ lives.”

Any veterans wounded in combat are eligible for services for themselves, their spouses and children. Psychiatric problems like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder count as wounds as much as physical ailments do, Director Susan Tonymon said.

Charlotte Beck volunteers at a Veteran’s Administration hospital in Virginia. She realized that veterans leaving the hospital had a lot of problems getting the care and resources they needed once they were back in their hometowns. “VA provides a lot of services, but there seems to be some gaps, like waiting periods between the times that veterans would apply for disability benefits and when they get them,” Tonymon explained. “There are long delays and sometimes denials for veterans who desperately need services now.”

Tonymon said Charlotte Beck went home from her volunteering and told her husband, “Buddy, we’ve got to do something more to help.” The couple decided to talk to ASU about a funding a program in partnership with the university.

After discussing the idea with the Becks, Potts and College of Nursing and Health Professions Dean Dr. Susan Hanrahan formed a committee to research the possibilities and investigate what veteran rehabilitation assistance models other universities were using. To their surprise, they found no similar programs on college campuses anywhere in the nation. But they felt the program made a lot of sense, and was a good fit for ASU in particular for a variety of reasons.

Northeast Arkansas is one of the sections of the state with no VA outpatient facilities, so veterans in the area must travel to Memphis for VA care. “We badly needed someplace for veterans in this part of Arkansas,” Tonymon said. “Plus, Arkansas State [University] has the resources to partner with the Becks to make this happen.” The university offers its facilities and absorbs the administrative and salary costs, so 100 percent of the Beck family’s gift directly supports care of the veterans.

The program uses existing university resources such as physical and speech therapies through the College of Nursing and Health Professions, and partners with community professionals and organizations to provide mental health counseling, psychiatric care and other resources not found on campus. Every service is completely free for eligible veterans enrolled in the program, and for their family members.

“If you’re at all familiar with mental illness, you know that it doesn’t just impact the person that has the illness, it affects everyone in the family,” Tonymon said, “particularly with something like post-traumatic stress disorder, which is something that is now being talked about again because of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. So we treat the kids and spouses as well, as they need it.”

Tonymon also coordinates resources for wounded veterans needing information about or guidance on sorting through complicated bureaucracies. “It can be pretty bewildering for them just figuring out where to get a disabled veteran car tag or knowing where to go for healthcare or how to fill out a form for GI benefits,” she said. “I help with all that, and we also have career counseling, skill testing and development and education and financial aid services available if they want to take a class or develop a degree plan.”

Tonymon said ASU’s student body mix was another reason the center was a good fit for their university. “We have a longstanding commitment here to traditional and non-traditional students,” she said. “When vets come back from a war zone and want to pursue college or come on campus for therapy or resources, they already have so many stresses. We want them to fit in as much as possible. They can feel comfortable here.”

The campus’ Sigma Pi fraternity, whose foundation recently established Governor Mike Beebe Veterans Scholarship Fund for Arkansas veterans and their dependents, also plans to work with the center to assist with some of the veterans’ socialization needs. “We haven’t figured out yet what that will entail, but we want to enlist their help with social networking where possible,” Tonymon said.

Likewise, offers of support have been flooding in from the medical and mental health communities. Bonnie White, director of Mid-South Health Systems, Inc. in Jonesboro, said the program was an “outstanding resource for the community” and that her center was looking forward to partnering with the university to address wounded vets’ mental health needs not met by the VA system. Tonymon said she is still assessing the PRIDE Center’s needs, but appreciates the many offers to help and knows she will need assistance with more off-campus medical resources like sleep studies for veterans as the program grows and develops.

The gift from the Beck family launches the center into its first phase, which provides free mental health care and other rehabilitation services for up to 50 wounded veterans and their family members. But the program is expected to expand significantly as new federal and state funds and private donations support the mission, said Tonymon.

“We’re just getting started, but we’d love to expand the program,” she said, “and we plan to expand it for as many people as we have funding for, taking them in from anywhere in the country.”

Once those additional sources of funding are secured and additional community partnerships are cemented, Potts said the center would really come into its own. “With that support,” he said, “we believe this will become a national model.”



December 2007

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