About Grace After Fire
How It Started
Providing an online delivery of recovery support services, The Woman’s Heart has been operating since 2002, attracting hundreds of women in search of crisis support services. A significant data point was the frequency of women veterans disclosing their chronic use of alcohol and drugs as a means of coping or self-medicating their symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and military sexual assault. The online crisis ratio trends show 8 out of 10 women veterans are in crisis at the time of contact.
This brought about our greatest initiative, Grace After Fire (“Grace”). Grace is designed to serve women veterans from all eras and branches of service (currently 1.8M), and is preparing to meet the high numbers of women (approximately 14 percent of the armed services) currently serving. Although women veterans represent less than 6 percent of veterans accessing VA healthcare, 71 percent of the women who do use the VA System have a mental health concern. Unfortunately, a challenge that can occur in offering VA services to women is providing accessible gender-responsive and trauma-informed care at all locations.
Grace is a virtual organization reaching across the nation, and is already engaging with women veterans still in theater as they prepare to come home. Grace’s Board of Directors is comprised of 80 percent veterans, managed by women veterans; and our Clinical Advisory Committee is comprised of 100 percent women trauma experts, researchers, and addiction specialists.
Why a Social Network?
Grace has been created by women veterans for women veterans to offer a safe and confidential venue – a social network. Women can share common experiences and offer unique peer support for wellness while providing increased access to resources for healthcare, family and self. Utilizing social media, our women can instant message, write blogs, and participate in forum discussions.
Women as a whole are naturally resilient, strong, enduring, and nurturing. Not all women veterans have been hurt, whether silently or physically. Many of the women veterans that come to our site may be experiencing difficulties with the VA services. This provides an opportunity to reach out to fellow sister veterans and offer a hand, an ear, a story of support, and direction to wellness – together. Here, women veterans share experience, strength, and hope for a strong and bright future for ourselves, and our friends and family.
A significant membership program within Grace uses educational queries embedded in a designed reward system where women can “earn points” as they increase their individual understanding of mental health manifestations, coping skills, self-awareness, healthy decision making, knowledge of available services, and empowers her to advocate on behalf of her personal wellness, and offers leadership opportunities.
These earned points can be redeemed at a community of services and goods located at Grace’s List, where the local community can post and donate healthy and appropriate services for women veterans. As only our members are able to redeem these goods, women will have increased access to resources such as basic needs of housing, clothing, and household goods.
Why The Internet?
The Internet creates outreach to the silent homes of those struggling, 24/7. It allows women to confidentially connect when they need to, when they are available, and increases the ability to access services or a friend anytime day or night. Many women veterans live isolated in urban cities, or in rural communities without any ready access to support. Often, access to mental health services in rural and underserved locations can be strained. Working with all of our partners, Grace is working to develop online pre- and post-adjunct mental health services by using telemedicine. For example, while a woman is waiting to be seen by a VA clinician, Grace can offer online Beyond Trauma therapeutic support services available to her 24/7, overcoming barriers of work, childcare, and transportation. This would allow her to engage in more healthy behavior and begin self-care in preparation and following mental health services, if needed.
