Episode 539 Karen Hetherington Lifelong Care for Veterans and Families with Semper Fi and America’s Fund Transcript

This transcript is from episode 539 with guest Karen Hetherington.

[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Sometimes after coming home, you think that the hardest part is over, but then it hits you the pain that doesn’t let up. The nights where sleep never comes, the builds that keep stacking up even while you’re just trying to keep your head above water. And guess what? It’s not only you. Your family is feeling it too.

[00:00:19] Your wife might be taking on more than, she should be. Your kids might be picking up on the stress that you’re trying to Hide and your whole family is carrying it right alongside with you. That’s where people like Karen Heatherington and her team at. Semper Fi and America’s fund, step in.

[00:00:35] They don’t just hand out one size fits all solutions. They listen to the veterans, they figure out exactly what you need and show up to help. Sometimes they provide a van. Sometimes it’s help finding a job. Sometimes it, it’s just making sure that you’re not facing it all alone. This episode, we’re gonna be talking about the kind of support that will stick with you for the long haul, not just for the moment.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] But before we get into this episode, I, I wanna pause to highlight something important to our community, the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. They’re working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families, and civilians who are impacted by the global war on terrorism.

[00:01:16] It’s a way to make sure that the sacrifices are remembered for generations to come. If you’d like to get involved or learn more to support their mission, visit GWOT memorial foundation.org. Now, let’s get into today’s episode. I.

[00:01:44] Hey, Karen. Welcome to the Drive On Podcast. I’m, I’m really looking forward to this conversation and hearing about your work with Semper Fi and America’s Fund and, and all the, the great stuff that you guys do over there at the, at the fund. But first off, I just wanna welcome you to the [00:02:00] show.

[00:02:00] Karen Hetherington: Thank you, Scott. Thanks for having me on.

[00:02:03] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. Before we get you know, kind of too far into, you know, what, what the fund is and what you guys do and everything, tell us a little bit about yourself and your involvement with with the fund and, and how you kind of, got to the role where, where you are today.

[00:02:16] Karen Hetherington: Well, as you may know the fund was started by a group of military spouses literally sitting around a dining room table. Our founder, Karen Gunther, was a nurse at the base hospital at Camp Pendleton in California, and she started seeing the first wave of wounded coming back from Iraq and she started seeing families struggling to care for them.

[00:02:38] She tells the story of watching this wounded marine being discharged from the hospital and his 90 pound wife struggling to put him in the car and. That was where she got the idea to fundraise for a wheelchair entry van, and that’s the first need they addressed. This group of women saw, kept seeing needs like that and kept fundraising for those [00:03:00] specific needs.

[00:03:01] And it snowballed from, from there, you know, 21 years later. But I was friends with some of those women around the table as well as some of the women who were the first employees of the fund and my husband himself. Is a veteran of three tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. So, I, I do understand some of the challenges that the families face.

[00:03:24] And when we were moving to the East Coast in 2011, one of my friends at the fund said, you know, we need someone at Walter Reed. Would you like to, to work for us there. And I said, yes, I would love to. And so I started working for the fund at Walter Reed in 2011. I I had certainly never seen that level of physical trauma.

[00:03:46] That was a bit of a shock. But as far as what military families go through what their challenges are, I was very well versed in that. And. Getting to know those families, getting to [00:04:00] know those service members starting those relationships with them, you know, meeting them in probably their worst moment.

[00:04:07] That was hugely impactful. And that was like, I, I knew this is what I wanna do. I wanna be able to help people as best I can. And you, you really see the need, you know, that. And that’s, that’s pretty much how I got started.

[00:04:22] Scott DeLuzio: And the. I think a lot of people who maybe haven’t been a part of the military community, you know, maybe as a military spouse or a service member themselves to your point, what you were saying before when you, when you walked in and saw that level of trauma, I don’t think a lot of people really recognize or understand that.

[00:04:41] That is kind of the, the cost of cost of doing business in the military, right? It it, when you send people overseas and do a dangerous job, a lot of times people get injured and they, they come back and they, they need the support and the, the healing and, and all that kind of stuff. And when you were talking [00:05:00] about that that military spouse who is struggling to get her, her husband into the car and, i, I, I could just, I was envisioning that scene of, of this little, you know, petite woman trying to get this big, you know, muscular marine, you know, this heavy, heavy duty guy and trying to get him into a, a vehicle. And I can only imagine the frustration that would be going on with, with both of them. Quite frankly, you know, the, the Marine who was probably used to being.

[00:05:28] Rather independent and being able to do a lot of things, especially physical things on his own. And then now having to rely on, on his wife and you know, and, and not and seeing her struggle. And that’s the last thing anyone wants is, is for you know, their, their family members to, to struggle that way.

[00:05:44] And. So there’s gotta be a lot of frustration on, on both ends. But then having an organization like what, what you guys do come in and, and help out, I can only imagine the, the relief that must have been felt by those two, you know?

[00:05:59] Karen Hetherington: Yeah, [00:06:00] that that’s our goal. We want to give that. Service member, his independence, his or her independence back, get you back to your normal life. And we wanna give support to that spouse or that parent or that, you know, child caregiver. Really the whole family’s involved in the support system. And that’s what we’re here for.

[00:06:21] We wanna listen to you and what your particular challenges are, and we wanna be there to meet you where you are and with what you need.

[00:06:29] Scott DeLuzio: And, and I think that’s another important aspect of what it is that you guys do is be, because it’s not like a one size fits all program where everybody gets the same level of care and you know, attention and all the, the things that, that go into it, it’s not like you’re handing them, you know, a swag bag at a, at a conference with everyone has the same exact thing inside of that bag.

[00:06:49] And, and everyone gets the same level of attention because sometimes people might need something that other people don’t need and, and then somebody else might need, you know, the other way around. And, you know, for [00:07:00] example, a, you know, a, a van that, that’s able to get a, a wheelchair in, or maybe not everybody needs that, but, but maybe they need, you know, some, some assistance inside their home.

[00:07:09] You know, with maybe, you know, the, the bathroom, you know, some of the fixtures in the bathroom to make it a little bit more accessible or, you know, things along those lines. But, you know, whatever it is you guys seem to be able to, to kind of swoop in and. Kind of just take care of those needs to, and, and you said, you know, to get you back to a back to normal and, you know, obviously nobody’s going to be a hundred percent back to normal if, you know, they, they have some traumatic injuries and things like that, but as, as close to normal as you can get to as I think the goal, right?

[00:07:39] And to get these people so that they they’re not dealing with those frustrations in a day in, day out kind of scenario. Right.

[00:07:47] Karen Hetherington: Absolutely. And you know, those needs evolve over time. You may not need one thing now, but you may need it later. And because we have these long relationships with our. Service members, family, [00:08:00] veterans, and families. You know, we’re checking in, we’re seeing how you’re doing. Periodically, we’re listening. If, you know, your needs are changing, we’re gonna try to address those.

[00:08:10] So that’s, that’s an one of the benefits of having this continuous relationships with our family.

[00:08:17] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And, and sometimes you don’t know what you’re gonna need until you need it. And so, you know, that follow up and that, that follow through with the, the the individuals that you guys work with is important too, because someone might be in the hospital not realizing that. Well, maybe I didn’t even think that my house doesn’t have a ramp for my wheelchair to get up up into the house.

[00:08:36] And you get home and it’s like, well, crap, how do I get into the house? Right? And, and you know, so, you know, that follow up to kind of, you know, uncover some of those things that maybe just weren’t thinking about in, in the you know, in, in that immediate time period when you first interact with that person.

[00:08:53] You know, I think that’s important too because the, those unforeseen circumstances kind of come up and or, or even things change [00:09:00] too. Medical conditions can change and, and maybe something that you didn’t need before, you do need now because of something that took place. Right. So. I want to, I wanna kind of just switch gears a little bit on, in, in terms of, you know, kind of, you know, what you guys do.

[00:09:14] But, but I wanna talk a little bit about the process of, of how you guys work with, with people and you know, how can someone get in touch with you and, and start, receiving some sort of assistance if, if that’s what they need or, or maybe they know somebody who, who needs assistance. And you know, a lot of times we’re, we’re too proud to ask for help or, or whatever.

[00:09:34] We let our, let our ego get in the way and, you know, how can we, how can we help those, those types of folks? And, and how, how can someone kinda get the ball rolling to start you know, getting, getting some assistance.

[00:09:44] Karen Hetherington: So people come to us in a variety of ways. If you’re coming, if you’re being medevaced into a hospital, we’re going to. Meet you there. We have representatives at all the major military hospitals. We have people at some of the Polytrauma VAs, [00:10:00] so if you, if you’re coming in to a hospital, we are likely going to meet you there, start supporting you there, start helping your family out.

[00:10:08] With a lot of the challenges of long-term hospitalization, that family member may lose their job. Lose their income, they’re gonna struggle to pay their mortgage or their utilities bill. And those are the kinds of things we try to help out with so that they can stay there and support their service member.

[00:10:28] And then we’re supporting that service member as they’re going through their rehab and through their med board. And transitioning out of the military transitioning outta the military is difficult to begin with. But then you add injury on top of it and it’s even more challenging. So that’s one pathway.

[00:10:45] The other, you know, some, some people don’t really realize until maybe years after service that they’re struggling with PTSD or TBI. And those people will either come to us through maybe their, their VA social worker [00:11:00] they come to us on our contact form on [email protected]. They will talk to an intake.

[00:11:08] Manager and they’ll discuss, you know, their particular situation and then they’ll be assigned a case manager and that case manager will follow them for the duration, for the length of the time that, you know, that person works for the fund. So they can come to us in various different ways.

[00:11:26] Scott DeLuzio: And it’s great that there, there are different ways to you know, start. Working with, with the fund because I, I know sometimes when you’re, you’re in the middle of it and, and that whatever that incident was that that lands you in the hospital your, your primary goal is focusing on getting better and it’s not, not thinking of you know, I got, I got a mortgage, I have rent, I have all the, these other things that, that are going on.

[00:11:50] Like, yeah, you, you do kinda have to worry about those things, but a lot of times that’s not where your, your mind is. It’s, it’s on maybe the pain or it’s maybe on this. New way of life that you [00:12:00] have to now deal with that you have this maybe a permanent injury that, that you now have to kind of wrap your head around how do I, how do I adapt to this and cope with that that change in lifestyle.

[00:12:12] And, and so that’s kind of where your mind tends to go. But but the reality is you do have other things. You do have other responsibilities, like, like a mortgage or, or other utility bills or, or things like that that you, you kinda have to take care of. If you don’t like, then you, you end up in a even worse situation.

[00:12:29] So, having that, that peace of mind, knowing that. There’s somebody there who’s gonna kind of help us get through that time period until we get back on our feet and, and can start to, you know, make, make a, you know, make those adjustments in our lifestyle, make, you know, career changes and all that kind of stuff.

[00:12:47] You know, I, I know for, like you, you mentioned transitioning outta the military is difficult and I think that’s. That’s true for anybody regardless of, you know, a physical or, or mental injuries or, or whatever might be going on. [00:13:00] Even if you, you come out of the military perfectly healthy it is a difficult transition sometimes.

[00:13:05] And so, coming out with you know, some, some injuries or some other, you know, physical ailments that, that might be going on makes it that much harder. I, I think, and, and especially for the, the people who it, it, it’s almost like overnight. They, they’re, they’re like, they’re out. They weren’t expecting it.

[00:13:23] You know, a lot of times you see, see your, your your end date coming you know, coming up because you know that it’s coming. But sometimes with injuries, that decision is made for you and, and you may not have been prepared for it, you know, whether it’s you know, with career potentials or, you know, other things like that.

[00:13:41] So, so having someone in your corner to help out, I think is, is really, a great peace of mind, I think, right?

[00:13:47] Karen Hetherington: Yeah, no, I mean that’s, that’s, that’s what’s the toughest is when you are suddenly told you have to get out of the military. You are planning to make a career of it, but you’ve got a career ending [00:14:00] injury and just that loss of your life goal and your purpose. Is huge and we’re, you know, we are there. We want to help you find a new purpose.

[00:14:11] We want to help you find what your life after the military’s going to look like. We have a great team of veteran mentors who can help you with your resume, help you with interview skills, help you look for a job, give you resources. We can connect you to our apprenticeship program, our entrepreneurship program.

[00:14:33] We are here to try to help you find out what that new purpose is for you and, and also help you with one-on-one help with your questions about transitioning outta the military. It’s a lot of information to absorb at once and having someone you can go to and just ask your specific questions to, that’s huge.

[00:14:55] And that is something we do provide to our, our fund family members.

[00:14:59] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, [00:15:00] because a lot of times people get out of the military and they feel like they’re, they’re all on their own now. And, and, and some cases that may be true, especially if they’re not. Seeking out the, the assistance and the support from organizations like the fund or, or others that are out there. ’cause there, there definitely is support.

[00:15:18] No, I don’t think anybody getting outta the military is truly a hundred percent on their own. But oftentimes feels that way especially when you don’t have a chain of command to report to. Nobody’s telling you what to do, what to wear, where to be, what time to be there what clothes to wear, you know, any of that.

[00:15:34] No one’s telling you any of those things anymore. And, and so now. It starts to feel a bit overwhelming that now you have to make all of those decisions on your own. But having somebody in your corner to kind of help guide you through, like you said you know, entrepreneurship you know. People who are in the military, maybe they’ve, they’ve never run a business before.

[00:15:56] And, and that’s very common too. But they might be great at running a [00:16:00] business you know, with some of the leadership skills that they’ve, they’ve developed and, and some of the other things that they may have to offer that might be a great option for them. But. Without having someone to kind of coach ’em and guide them in that right direction, it may be just be something that had never even occurred to them.

[00:16:14] And so, you know, having those types of programs available are, are absolutely wonderful because you, you, you open up your mind to a different world of careers than you might have ever thought of. Just by, maybe even just a simple conversation with a few people, right.

[00:16:33] Karen Hetherington: Absolutely, absolutely net networking. Talking to a few people, you never know what’s gonna come out of that. And another common. Area people decide to go back to school when they get out. That’s another common thing. But then they may run into difficulties using their benefits or they may have difficulties, you know, in the middle of going to school with getting payments to the school or, or whatever it is.

[00:16:58] And we, we do have [00:17:00] education staff who can help you navigate those educational benefits. Kind of make that path smooth for you so that you can, you know, get your degree and move on.

[00:17:09] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, so. Sometimes I, I, I’ve equated all the benefits that are available to people when, when we’re we’re told about what these benefits are. It’s, it’s very often feeling like you’re drinking from a fire hose. It’s, you’re getting so much information all at once, and maybe you will want to use some of those benefits down the road.

[00:17:30] Maybe you don’t need them right now. And so when you’re getting that information, you kind of just. Put it outta your mind. It’s like, well, okay, I’m not going back to school right this moment, so I’m gonna put that outta my mind. And then a couple years later, when you, you decide, you know what, yeah, actually I do wanna go back to school.

[00:17:43] ’cause turns out this career that I decided to go down, I, I need a, you know, a, a degree in something for, for this career. But you’ve, at that point, you’ve forgotten about all those education benefits that are available to you

[00:17:55] Karen Hetherington: Right, right.

[00:17:56] Scott DeLuzio: and then. Then you’re, you’re sitting there thinking, okay, well how am I gonna pay for this?

[00:17:59] [00:18:00] And, and now what do I do? And, and, and how do I do all that? But you know, again, having someone in your corner who can, who can help guide you and, and provide you information on those resources. Based on your unique situation, and let’s face it, everybody’s situation’s going to be unique. Whether it’s, you know, the, the unique nature of the injuries that you have or the benefits that are available to you what you’ve maybe already used in, in terms of benefits or, or what have you.

[00:18:26] Everyone’s gonna have something you know, fairly unique and, and so to, it kind of puts a little bit of understanding of, of what goes on with, you know, the VA and all the, the benefit programs that are available. Because there’s so many unique individuals out there with unique issues and everything like that, it’s kind of hard for them to just say, Hey, this is what’s available to you specifically.

[00:18:47] And so. Oftentimes you, you feel like you’re reading through stuff that maybe doesn’t necessarily apply to you. And, and then it’s like, okay, well I’m just wasting my time. But if you have somebody who knows what the programs are and who’s, who’s [00:19:00] eligible, what, what benefits are available it, it’s really so much easier to, to kind of help guide you in the right direction.

[00:19:05] And you guys have helped tens of thousands of, of service members and, and their families. Which is impressive. I, I don’t know what the exact number is now. I know it’s, it’s gone up since I last looked, but you know, there’s, there’s tons and tons of people out there who, who’ve gotten support from you guys.

[00:19:21] And, and in all sorts of different ways. Some, I’m sure we’re just scratching the surface as, as far as some of the the types of benefits that you guys offer, right.

[00:19:30] Karen Hetherington: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve assisted 38,000 service members, veterans and military families. And it’s maybe 2, 3, 4 times that number. When you take into account all of the the fam, the, the, the support around that service member, the spouse, the parent, the children it, it’s, we’ve, we’ve definitely impacted, hun, you know, hundreds of thousands of people. With the work we’ve done over the past 21 years we, we help service members, [00:20:00] we help veterans, but. You know, perhaps a lesser known thing that we do is we do help military families. If you’re active duty and you have a spouse or a child with a life-threatening illness or a life-changing injury, we’ll help your spouse or your child.

[00:20:17] You don’t necessarily have to be the service member of the or the veteran. So we do help family members with these types of injuries as well.

[00:20:27] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and, and I think that’s. Almost as equally as important as, as the other stuff that we talked about too, because you know, just think about a, a service member who, who’s currently serving and their, maybe their spouse or their, their child has some illness or an accident or something in, its, its life changing situation.

[00:20:49] Right. And obviously. Family for everybody. I, I think should come first. And so their mind is going to be on family, on, on what’s going on at [00:21:00] home. And they’re gonna be coming into work because they need to do their job because they need to continue earning that paycheck to pay for whatever these issues are that that might be going on at home.

[00:21:10] But their mind’s not gonna be there a a hundred percent. Their mind’s gonna be at what’s going on with the folks at home that, that they obviously care about. And. If we can ease the burden on, on their mind a little bit and, and just kind of lift a little bit of that weight off of their shoulders it’s gonna make them more effective of a service member.

[00:21:30] Avoid potentially having an accident themselves while they’re serving and then kind of making matters worse because that, you know, their family is kind of relying on them not only for a, you know, a paycheck, but to, to be there for. For them, you know, when, when they get home and to, to kind of help out with, with things around the, the house.

[00:21:49] And you know, if they end up having some sort of accident that that causes them to no longer be able to help out in that capacity. That just makes it the home life that much, that much more [00:22:00] difficult. But also makes, as far as the military force is concerned, it makes it that much less effective if your mind is not on, you know, the, the job that you have.

[00:22:08] And so, and, and last thing we wanna do is, is have people get injuries or, or cause somebody else to get injured because of a, a mistake. You know, something that they didn’t check that they were supposed to check and their just because their mind is, is someplace else. So, so this, this type of peace of mind is, is, goes.

[00:22:24] So much more than just that service level. The, the, the service member, the veteran, you know, go, going down to the, the families. It, it’s so invaluable. You know, and, and like you said, there’s, there’s that ripple effect of not just the, the service members or veterans that you, you guys have, have helped, but the, the families and the, you know, the, the surrounding groups of people who have been.

[00:22:46] Affected by the, the support that you guys offer is, is really tremendous. And, and you know, who knows if you can actually measure the numbers of people who are actually benefiting from all of this because you know, there [00:23:00] again, there might be parents or you know, other family members who are.

[00:23:05] Helped out because you guys are, are providing that support because maybe they don’t have as much of a a burden of, of helping that, that service member or, or the, you know, the veteran or, or whoever you know, on, on their end. And that makes their life easier so that they can do other things in, in support and, and.

[00:23:23] I think it is just all around a, you know, a great great program. You know, obviously hundreds of thousands of people getting, getting impacted in a positive way is, is always a, a great thing. But another thing I, I wanted to mention too, and I know we’re, we’re coming up on, you know, kind of end of the year when this, this episode is, is coming out and a lot of people are thinking of, you know.

[00:23:44] Tax deductions and donations to nonprofits and charities and stuff like that. One thing that I, I found pretty impressive about the, the fund is just how low the overhead is in, in with the fund. And, and you know, how you guys are able to maintain the level of service that [00:24:00] you, you offer with, you know, minimal overhead.

[00:24:02] And so, so people who are making a donation know that their money is going to where they want it to go to, right?

[00:24:10] Karen Hetherington: Yes, we we don’t spend money on. Big galas or fundraisers. We don’t spend money on advertising. We keep our costs low. Most of our staff works from home. We, we do everything we can to make sure that the majority, you know, the ma, almost all of our money goes directly to programming that benefits service members, veterans and families.

[00:24:37] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And that, that’s, that’s the impressive thing. ’cause I, I’ve seen other organizations, I’m not gonna name any, you know, by, by name here, but other, other organizations with, tons of advertising materials, and you could tell that they spent a lot of money on some of these things. And you know, whether it’s stuff that comes through the mail or billboards on the side of the highway or, you know, all this stuff, that stuff’s not cheap.

[00:24:58] And, you know, so the money [00:25:00] that gets donated to some of those organizations you know, a lot of times is not going to the, the service that, um. That you’re expecting it to go to, to, to the service member, the veteran, their families, whoever. It, it may be that they’re, they’re supposedly helping.

[00:25:15] But in, in your case, in with, with the fund you know, how you guys operate kind of, kind of lean as far as you know, your, your budget goes on on that, that side. But but it is still able to be effective and, and accomplish your, your mission of, of helping support these, these. Service members of veterans or families.

[00:25:33] And so I, I think that’s, that’s a huge plus in my, my mind anyways, is that you’re, you’re able to do the things that you say that you’re going to do without that huge overhead. And I, I think that’s, that’s just a, a great a great thing. For, for the listeners though, who maybe. I know we gave a lot of examples here, but you know, maybe you’re having a little, little trouble wrapping their head around the, you know, the significance of what it is that you guys do.

[00:25:57] Are there there any success stories that you might be able to share, [00:26:00] even if it’s, you know, kind of anonymous or, or, or, or whatnot? You know, just to kind of let folks know just how significant it is in, in one individual’s life. Like what, what is it that you guys are able to do and what kind of impact do you, do you provide to them?

[00:26:14] Karen Hetherington: So, I mean, there, there are so many examples, but

[00:26:18] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, it’s hard to pick just one, I’m sure. But

[00:26:20] Karen Hetherington: try to keep it short. I’ll give an example since Abbey Gate is still fresh on people’s minds I received a call earlier this year from an Abbey Gate Marine about another Abbey Gate Marine who was having suicidal ideations, who was struggling with addiction, and it was clear that the need to go for inpatient treatment was urgent.

[00:26:43] And this. Particular Marine had not been connected to us. We didn’t know anything about him, and we jumped in. We got him, you know, connected, got him connected to one of our nurses so that she could. [00:27:00] Look at his insurance, look at the programs that would best suit him, quickly turn that around and get him into treatment.

[00:27:08] We, we got him flights, we got him into treatment very quickly, and that is a scenario that we go through all the time. Our ca that’s a very familiar scenario with our case managers and that’s something that we have the ability to get someone into inpatient treatment very quickly.

[00:27:26] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:27:26] Karen Hetherington: It could be intensive outpatient, but getting you into treatment of some kind is something that we’re all trained in how to do.

[00:27:34] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and I think that is crucial, especially in a scenario like the one that you just described, because time really is of the essence there. Like you, you really can’t. Wait and say, you know what, we’ll, we’ll get to this in in six months because six months might be too late. A a a month might be too late.

[00:27:52] You know, a week might be too late. And so being able to turn this over quickly and get someone you know, into the, the kind of treatment that they need [00:28:00] is, is crucial. And that, that, you know, is going to obviously have a huge impact on that that individual’s life because. You’re, you’re intervening when they, they need it the most and, and likely when they’ve probably felt the most alone.

[00:28:14] Then here come these, these people who, like you said, they had no relationship with you guys whatsoever prior to this. And then. Kind of come through and it’s like, well, people actually give a damn, and, and they’re, they’re actually willing to come out and, and help me. Like, and so sometimes you might, someone might be sitting there like, why me?

[00:28:33] Like, why not somebody else? Why not me? Or, or, or why me? And, and it’s like, well, because you, you matter. You know, like you, you’re, you’re, you’re important too. And, and we we’re, you know, you guys are, are there for, for people just like him. And, and that’s, that’s incredible. And you know, again, I, I think the, the relationship building that you guys do, that you, you talked about earlier where, where you get to know the individual and know what their needs are and their specific set of circumstances [00:29:00] is. Is really important because then that helps you, you personalize the, the approach that you guys take and, and the assistance that’s offered. You know, in, in, in this case, getting the person to the right type of treatment in the right location. Maybe, maybe they’re, you know, where they live. There’s, there’s nothing really great in their area for the type of treatment that they need.

[00:29:20] So

[00:29:21] Karen Hetherington: Or they dunno who to access it. You know that’s a common problem.

[00:29:25] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Knowing, knowing what’s available and, and knowing where it is and, and how to get to it and all that stuff is, is important too. And, and so having the, the resources that you guys have to be able to connect people to the right resources, you know, you’re not necessarily providing the, the service yourself, but you’re getting the person connected to the right.

[00:29:47] Right location you know, transportation and all the things that, that are needed. It’s like, Hey, if you need help with that, we, we can, we can handle that. We can take care of you and, and get you to where you need to be so that you you get the, the treatment that’s [00:30:00] that’s right for you. But again, I, I, it’s really important and I, I feel like I’m kind of pounding on this here, but that, that personalized approach I think is really, really important to, to really hone in on what that individual needs, right.

[00:30:12] Karen Hetherington: Ab, absolutely. And you know, to give you a phy, a physical injury example you know, one thing I don’t think people always realize when it comes to something like amputation. Or even spinal cord injuries is those injuries change over time or, or even a severe TBI. They can get, they can wax and wane, they can get better, they can get worse things.

[00:30:36] If you’re fitted for a prosthetic in 2013, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to fit you in 2016 when you’ve gained weight or you’ve lost weight, or suddenly you’re having nerve pain problems. Or there’s there. It’s a lifelong need for continuous medical care. And I, I’ll give the example of someone who had [00:31:00] multiple limb amputations, who was injured earlier on 2013, had always prided himself on getting up on his prosthetics pretty soon after injury.

[00:31:13] Had always been very mobile, you know, very proud of the fact he didn’t use a wheelchair. Then maybe seven years into injury, maybe even not even that long, started having nerve pain problems and wasn’t able to wear his prosthetics. He had very high up amputation, so the, the, the prosthetics rely on suction and the suction on the side.

[00:31:36] He had a hard time getting a. Fit on those sockets. So he heard about this new procedure called osseointegration, where you surgically have a port put into your amputated limb and then you can clip prosthetics onto that, to that limb on, you know, on the exterior. Just you don’t have to rely on suction. It gives you a much better.

[00:31:58] Fit it, it doesn’t fall [00:32:00] off. You can be much more active. Well, he had been talking to his va. He had been talking to, you know, a, a military medical center not too far from him, and nobody knew anything about it. They didn’t know how to connect him, and he had been trying to find, you know, get connected to this program for a long time.

[00:32:20] I hadn’t mentioned it for a while, but when he did mention it to the fund, we were like, oh yeah, we, we can connect you to the program coordinators of that program at Walter Reed. And within a week he was up at Walter Reed for consultations. Within three weeks he’d had the first stage of the surgery. Now he is back to running around on his prosthetics 24 7.

[00:32:44] So.

[00:32:45] Scott DeLuzio: And that’s, that’s really incredible too, because the way you were describing the person who is, you know, proud of the fact that he’s able to, you know, get up on his, on his feet and, and not need a wheelchair and, and all that kinda stuff. And that is something that, that seems important to [00:33:00] him. And then when you get to a position where it’s like, well, I, I can’t wear these prosthetics and how else are you gonna,

[00:33:05] Karen Hetherington: back in a wheelchair

[00:33:06] Scott DeLuzio: you’re back in the wheelchair.

[00:33:07] Karen Hetherington: hugely depressing.

[00:33:08] Scott DeLuzio: Right. Right. And it, and it. You know, from, from my own perspective, right? And, and I know that I’m, I’m, we’re not talking the same level of injuries or anything like that, that, that you just described, but I’ve had some back pain and I’ve, I, I got some, some treatment and the back pain has, for the most part kind of subsided.

[00:33:28] And I, I’ve, I’ve gotten to a place where, where it’s pretty good without pain medication or anything, thing like that anymore. Like I, I’m, I’m in a pretty good place except. Couple weeks ago, I, I was, I kind of overdid it a little bit and my, my back pain came back and it was, you know, shooting down the leg and it was, it was just really terrible.

[00:33:48] Right before that, I was feeling strong, I was feeling confident, like I, I was feeling, feeling pretty good. Pretty much the moment that that pain came back, I felt as weak as I could be, and I, I was, I was like. [00:34:00] I, this is it. This is my life. I, I’m just gonna continue with this pain. And, and, you know, so I eventually got back to, to a place where, where it, the pain went away, but it was like that I immediately went back to a, a place of just like, weakness is, is what I, I felt like that, that’s the best word I can use to describe it, is I just felt weak when, when that pain came back and, I can only imagine how someone like, like who you just described, who was feeling independent, feeling confident, feeling proud of himself for being able to do all these things without a wheelchair, and then now looking at that wheelchair is like, that’s my only way around. That’s gotta be the depressing feeling.

[00:34:37] And, and so, having, having you guys come in and be able to help make that that change real rather quickly, you know, within three weeks. You’re able to get in. I mean, a lot of times you can’t even get a doctor’s appointment that quick.

[00:34:51] Karen Hetherington: Yeah, I mean, we wanna connect people to the treatment that they, that they need and, and recognizing that they have [00:35:00] lifelong needs, whether it be invisible or physical injuries. And we want to be able to give you the resources to get the treatment you need, as well as help with the logistics of getting you to that treatment.

[00:35:12] So we’re very proud of the work that we do.

[00:35:14] Scott DeLuzio: And you should be. Yeah. Because again, it’s helping so many people. And, and, and the needs have, have evolved like you said. But you know, the services that you guys offer has evolved over time too to kind of meet. The needs of those individuals and, and you know, went from, you know, one van, you know, way back when and all the way to all these other services that you, you’ve been talking about, the this that, that you guys are offering.

[00:35:38] And I, I think you know, it’s, it’s because you’re, you’re paying attention that you’re listening to the, the people that you’re, you’re there to support and, and you’re understanding that those needs are not static. That it’s not a one size fits all solution where you know, the thing that. Yeah. You know, even talking about prosthetics 20 years ago, prosthetics were way different than they are now.

[00:35:58] The, the [00:36:00] technology has advanced so much that if you are stuck doing the type of prosthetics that were available 20 years ago and you’re still doing those today, people are gonna be like, oh, you know, thanks, but no thanks, you know, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll find some, someone else who can offer something a little bit more modern.

[00:36:14] And so, you know, you guys keep up with, with those types of things and, and the stuff that’s available out there. And. You really do make a huge impact in, in the lives of all these service members, veterans, military families, and, and all the people kind of connected to them. And I think that’s a, that’s really a great thing.

[00:36:30] Going, looking ahead, looking forward, what are some of the, the things that Semper Fi and America’s Fund is focusing on to, to help out supporting veterans? Are there any kind of programs or initiatives that are, that are coming up that, that we should know about?

[00:36:43] Karen Hetherington: Well, definitely our goals are to keep. Meeting the needs of our catastrophically wounded they, and educating the general public about the lifelong nature of those needs. We want to be here to provide the [00:37:00] adaptive sporting equipment they need or the. You know, help them with the getting a vehicle to be adapted so they can drive it.

[00:37:08] Doing home modifications so you can’t get out of chores. You’re able to, you know, you can cook and do your own dishes. You know, we want you to, we want to make sure that their needs are met for the long term. That’s one of our goals. The other goal is to be there for those with invisible injuries. I mean.

[00:37:28] Over the course of time, we have seen people in their recovery. It’s not linear. You have setbacks. And that’s true whether it’s physical or mental. And that is not only hard on the service member, but it’s hard on the family to experience these setbacks. And we’ve seen, you know, you can have, you can be going doing great for a number of years and then suddenly have a setback in your mental health or.

[00:37:56] 10, 15 years later, you’re developing new TBI [00:38:00] symptoms. These are things that we see, so we wanna be there for them to provide SOL solutions and you know, resources for giving them the support they need. We, we actually do have a lot of holistic support. We, we don’t provide pharma pharmacological solutions, but we have a lot of holistic support for TBI and PTSD.

[00:38:24] You have an entire neuro fitness program that is available to everybody, and that retrains the brain in how to process trauma as well as educates people on what helps with your brain health, whether that be nutrition or sleep or heart rate variability, or any of the other factors that go into keeping your brain as healthy as possible.

[00:38:48] So those are the, the types of programs that we’re rolling out long term to help with. With those evolving needs over the years with PTSD and TBI.

[00:38:58] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that, that’s excellent. [00:39:00] That, that, all of those, those things are available. And, and I, and, and you mentioned, you know, these things are available to everybody. And, and that’s so, so for, for the listeners who are out there who were like, oh, you know, this all sounds good, but you know, that’s, it’s probably not available to me.

[00:39:14] Like, no, that, that’s not true. Like you just said, it’s a, it’s available. Right. And like you, you can, you can reach out and, and find out and you know, I know the name of the, the organization, Semper Fi and America’s Fund. You know, Semper Fi is, you know, obviously tied into the Marine Corps. You know, but. as far as, you know, other branches of the military you know, are they, they able to get access to the, the support and services that you guys offer as well?

[00:39:38] Karen Hetherington: Absolutely simplify is a nod to our origins, how we started out, you know, marine spouses at Camp Pendleton, but since 2012, we have assisted all services. In 2018, we started assisting Vietnam veterans. And here we’re looking at Vietnam veterans who are in [00:40:00] their seventies and eighties, and you still see the lifelong needs from their injuries.

[00:40:05] So, we are open to, you know, to post nine 11, pre nine 11 and all services.

[00:40:14] Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Yeah, and, and like you said, it’s, it’s available to everybody. So yeah. If you have some connection to the military, likely you know, it’s, it’s you know, something that you’re, you’re able to. Take advantage of those services and and get the support and help you need to get back on your feet and, and get back to a, you know, quote unquote normal way of life and, and normal lifestyle.

[00:40:35] Do the things that you ordinarily would do and including like, like you said, a little bit tongue in cheek, but, you know, get back to doing those chores around the house and helping out and you know, but, but also, you know, things that are a little bit more fun you know, adaptive sports and, and things like that where, you know, yeah, sure.

[00:40:49] If you’ve you know, have. You know, physical injury, you may not be able to do some of those sports the way you used to be able to do them, but doesn’t mean that you can’t do them [00:41:00] still. You know, I’ve seen

[00:41:01] Karen Hetherington: look a little different, but you’re gonna still be able to do it.

[00:41:04] Scott DeLuzio: I’ve seen amputees out there playing golf and you know, it’s, it, it looks a little bit different than, than it maybe used to look, but.

[00:41:12] They’re still out there en enjoying the day, having fun. You know, no, nobody’s gonna shoot a perfect round anyway, so, you know, don’t, don’t worry about that. You know, so, so I think, you know, again, all, all the initiatives that you guys have and all the, the thing, the programs that you offer and, and the individuals that are able to get the support, I, I think is just really incredible work that you guys do.

[00:41:33] It’s definitely an incredible organization. For the, the listeners who maybe are interested in making a donation or getting involved in some way, shape or form where can they go to find out more information and, and to make that donation?

[00:41:46] Karen Hetherington: Go to the fun.org and there’s a donate button on our website and it can, it describes the various different ways you can donate online. By the CFC campaign, by check. It gi it give, it lays all that out [00:42:00] on our website. And this is a great time of year to donate because all of from now until the end of the year, all of your donations will be matched by the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation.

[00:42:11] So your donation will have double the.

[00:42:14] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:42:15] Karen Hetherington: the needs. The needs are are there. The needs are ongoing and we hope to be able to be there, to always be there for our severely wounded ill and injured.

[00:42:25] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. And, and again. Having whatever you know, any amount is, is definitely helpful. But whatever amount that someone is able to donate during, during this time period it’ll be doubled. And so whatever impact that you ordinarily would have is, is just gonna get amplified and, and it’ll, it’ll be able to help more folks who, who need that support.

[00:42:46] And help you guys continue your mission of, of being there for, for individuals. You know, like you said, with that life lifetime of care. Not, not just a, a one-off you know, here you go, here, here’s your, here’s your support, and then you’re on your [00:43:00] way and, you know, good luck to you. It’s.

[00:43:02] It’s a lifetime you know, commitment that you guys have. And, and I, I think that’s, that’s really incredible and what I think makes you guys really special. And so, you know, I, I do want to thank you Karen, for not only for coming on the show and sharing all this stuff, but, but especially everything that you guys do I wanna thank you and, and everybody who, who works with the fund to really help support the, the service members and the veterans and the, and the whole military community.

[00:43:26] I, I think it’s incredible work that you guys do. So thank you.

[00:43:29] Karen Hetherington: Well, thank you Scott. We appreciate the opportunity to be able to come on and, and share a little bit about what we do and we just appreciate you, you having us on. It’s a real honor. Thank you.

[00:43:40] Scott DeLuzio: You bet. Thanks again.