CFR and Headstrong announce partnership to serve veterans in Greater Philadelphia
June 6, 2018 | Today, Council for Relationships announced a partnership with Headstrong to provide therapy to local veterans at no cost. Headstrong is a mental health care treatment program that is cost-free, rapid response, stigma-free, confidential, and a model which takes out the costly “brick and mortar” facilities, allowing funding to go directly to treatment. The Headstrong model eliminates care wait times and veterans who seek treatment through Headstrong will be contacted within 48 hours.
CEO Deb D’Arcangelo shared a brief history of CFR’s work with veterans and the military during the press conference. Following World War II, the Navy became concerned with the problems sailors experienced when they returned home from the war and the Veterans Administration established neuropsychiatric residencies with Council for Relationships, which provided an integral part of their training. Today, Operation Home and Healing provides direct services – including individual, couple, and family therapy sessions – that address issues that can arise post-deployment and heal wounds that affect the service member, their spouse or significant other, and their children.
Former Under Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy spoke about the importance of cost-free mental health services to veterans and their families. Murphy said “Veterans are taught to leave no one behind, yet 20 veterans due by suicide every day.” Breaking the stigma is so important because veterans are trained to believe they’re invincible and do not require help. Murphy emphasized that there are enough barriers to getting help; Headstrong has streamlined the process to make it as easy as possible for veterans to receive high-quality care from CFR therapists.
Headstrong Executive Director and Army veteran Joe Quinn talked about the power of stories to end mental health stigma, and his excitement about bringing Headstrong to the great veterans of Philadelphia. Clinical Director and Co-Founder Gerard Ilaria went on to clarify that the average time from initial contact to an appointment with a therapist is one week, and services will continue to be cost-free for as long as the veteran requires care.
Additional coverage of the launch can be found at WHYY.
About Council for Relationships
Founded in 1932, CFR is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help people from all walks of life improve their important relationships by providing exemplary therapy, educating and training clinicians in the family systems approach, and advancing the behavioral health field through research. More than 60 therapists and psychiatrists and 50 student interns work across 10 offices and 12 community partner sites in Greater Philadelphia to provide high quality counseling, workshops, and training. CFR clinicians work with children, teens, adults and families and represent more than 40 specialties. CFR provides therapy services to more than 5,300 individuals each year, including more than 1,700 clients who receive free or low-fee counseling.
CFR is also a leader in clinical education, training clinicians through our accredited Post Graduate and Master’s programs in Marriage and Family Therapy and our Sex Therapy Certificate Program. Low fee counseling is provided to clients by these highly supervised clinical interns; low fee services are based on income and no one is turned away due to financial limitations. The Community Partnerships Initiative increases access to counseling services for at-risk populations through 12 partner locations throughout Greater Philadelphia. Operation Home and Healing provides counseling from specially-trained therapists for active service members, veterans, and their families. CFR’s long-standing research project, Transcending Trauma, applies the studies of hundreds of Holocaust survivors and families to counseling techniques, guiding treatment of individuals and families with complex trauma histories. Through its therapy, education, training, and research efforts, CFR helps a total of more than 5,000 people each year.
About Headstrong
Headstrong, founded in 2012 by combat veterans, provides cost-free, stigma-free, and bureaucracy-free mental health care to post-9/11 military veterans that works. In partnership with Weill Cornell Medical College, they’ve developed a first of its kind, individually tailored, comprehensive treatment program for: Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS); addiction treatment; anxiety and depression; trauma, grief and loss; Military Sexual Trauma (MST), and anger management. Headstrong does not put a cap on the number of sessions or services they provide, enabling veterans to utilize treatment options in the short term, long term, and return later if their needs change. Headstrong currently serves the New York, San Diego/Riverside County, Houston, Washington DC, Chicago with plans for additional expansion. Click here for more information on Headstrong.
Deb D’Arcangelo, Patrick Murphy, and Joe Quinn during the press conference