CLEAR VIEW HV 04-23-2023 GUESTS: ANTHONY KAVOROUS DAVID ISSAC, MHA VETERANS PROGRAMS - NEW PROGRAMS & UPCOMING EVENTS

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
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(00:23):
FG Insurance dot com for more info. Hey, it's Uncle Mike, and
joining me this week in the studiois old friend Anthony Cavaris, who was
the executive director of the Duchess CountyVeta Vette Program run by Well part of
MHA. And joining him as somebodynew Dave Isaacs, who is the Fox
Suicide Prevention Program. I guess you'vegot a better name for it. Yes,

(00:45):
the staffs are in Parker Gordon,Fox Suicide Prevention Program, and I'm
a veteran peer mentor program specialist.Okay, he did better than I did
before we get started. I liketo listeners to add just a little background
on the voice behind the microphone,So I'm gonna have you start first day
just a little bit about your backgroundand how you got involved with the program.
I grew up as an Army Bratton, went into the Army of myself,

(01:07):
spent about half my career on activeduty, half in the National Guard.
I have a college classmate and lifelongfriend in Rockland County who is a
former Veteran Service Agency officer works withthe Joseph P. Dwyer program that Anthony
heads for us in Duchess And thelonger he was involved with that, the

(01:30):
more he and I talked, heencouraged me to get involved with veteran service
work and then eventually moved me outhere from Seattle to join be closer to
him, so that, you know, we could enjoy that but also get
into this community and this type ofwork. And I can tell you I

(01:51):
wouldn't not when you make a decision, a big decision, like oh yeah,
I do it again, this isI would jump to do this again.
It was a great decision. AndI'm so happy to be here.
And we'll talk a little bit moreabout the program itself. But Antony,
I know all about you if butthe listeners may not. So why did
you give a little bit of yourbackground? Sure? I did thirty four

(02:12):
and a half years with the AirForce as a security forces member, and
you know, kind of was gettinga little too old to keep rolling around
on the ground with weapons and stuff. So I decided to make a change
and I retrained myself into human servicessocial services for veterans, started working with

(02:36):
Hudson River Housing at first with theirhousing program, and then moved right into
the housing program at MHA MHA Duchessand from there I became the director of
all the different veteran programs that wehave. So I'm actually the director of
Veterans Programs for MHA Duchess, whichincludes the VET to Vet, the Hero,

(03:00):
the VET TAP which is the employmentand the staff's Argent Fox program.
So all of them combine is theMHA Veterans Programs and it's it's great.
I love it. We have grownso fast and so big, and it's
made Duchess County really one of thepremier counties for veteran services anywhere. Anthony.

(03:24):
It's interesting because you and I haveserved on a couple other with the
Hudson Valley Veterans Alliance. We've beenon other organizations together, right, And
it's it's neat that Adam Roach whowas your predecessor as the director, and
you how you've built pretty good coalitionof organizations here in the Hudson Valley.
Because when you have a veteran incrisis and needs help, some of the

(03:46):
agencies are restricted based on where theirfunding comes from, if it's if it's
a government fund, there's certain things. But you and Adam especially have been
able to put together a good groupwhere if one of you can't help them,
you ask amount of another organization andwe find help for the veteran Duchess
County. Your right is a modelor should be a model for the rest

(04:06):
of the country because no veterans slipspseudocrats here. We find a way somewhere
down the line to help them.You've been very successful, you know,
veta Vette. We're going to talkabout the suicide prevention program, but Vetavette
hasn't lost anybody in its existence yet, which is incredible, really right.
That's why I'm excited about the Foxprogram because you know, veta Vette was

(04:28):
originally the Dwyer. You know,program was originally meant to reduce the suicide
rate among veterans, and it doesit in an interesting way by doing groups
and peer mentoring, individual peer mentoringand activities and you know, events and
stuff, and it brings the veteransout where the staff Sergeant Fox program fits

(04:50):
really well with what we're doing becausethey use like the Columbia Protocol as a
screener where they ask several questions andthen if you qualify than you're eligible for
that. And we work quite wellthe two programs together, and they do
some amazing stuff, you know,yoga and guided meditation and art therapy and

(05:11):
you know we we do our paintNight too, which is art therapy also,
but they do some even more interestingthings. It's it's great as long
as they're on the Fox program.David, why don't you tell us a
little bit more about the program andyou know where you see it going.
Thanks. The program's named for formerstaffs. Are Army staffs are in Parker

(05:32):
Gordon Fox. He was an inventTruman joined the Army about eighteen nineteen served
about six years. At the timewhen he took his life when he was
twenty five, he was a sniperinstructor at Fort Benning and had just been
known as somebody who was a servant. Lots of friends remembered him as the

(05:55):
guy that they would always go toand they could find love and support and
friendship. His legacy is to tryto keep people from becoming another certain fox
in a statistic Yes, and it'samazing, you know, Anthony. We
talk about it all the time sooften if you don't recognize the signs,

(06:15):
you'd never know that there was aproblem. You'd never know that that I
mean a threat. Any time anysoldier comes back from combat or any kind
of a service, that threat isalways there. PTS is a real disease
that's serious and needs to be addressed. It needs to be treated like a
broken armor and appendicitist. It needsto be treated, and if it's not

(06:36):
treated, it will manifest and itwill end up in suicide. So this
program is tailored towards identifying and thenhelping. Yes, And it's non clinical.
It's not like going to a counselorto a therapist psychologist. We just
want to get people out and engaged, and we do it through social interaction
through equine therapy, music therapy,yoga, different types of things that'll get

(07:01):
people out engaged with others so thatthey don't sit and suffer in isolation.
Isolation is the is the worst thingthat can happen. I mean, that's
that's really what leads to the endof isolation, Anthony. So in that
respect when he was just talking aboutit, it is similar to what VET
to VET does, right. Wetry to bring them out of isolation.

(07:24):
And the big difference really is thatfirst part. We're the screener where we
ask so that we're not missing anybody, right. So how often have we
come across people who said they neverheard of us? Right? And it's
amazing to me because we're on theradio, we're everywhere, we go to
all these events, but still peoplehaven't heard of us. So this just

(07:47):
gives us that much more ammunition togo out there. It's a very heavy
outreach program. So they go outthere and they do the screener. They'll
it's a tight your net to tryto find people so that we don't have
someone slip through the crash. Oneof the things that many of your listeners

(08:07):
may be saying is, I'm nota veteran. This is a great program.
I'm not a veteran. You knowa veteran. Somebody in your family,
friends, someone around you is aveteran. And whether you think there's
an issue or not. We wouldlove to meet them. We would love
to come alongside them and get therebefore there really is a need. And

(08:31):
I was just gonna go to that. It's further than that, David.
If you're a family member, you'rea friend, the guy you get your
coffee from on the corner. Ifyou notice a difference, if you notice
something off, you can call Vetthe Vet and say, hey, listen,
my brother, my uncle, mygrandfather, whoever. It is all
of a sudden the last couple ofweeks just asn't acting right, and Vet

(08:54):
the VET will reach out and makecontact this program as well and try to
evaluate what's going on. If it'snothing, it's nothing, it's not a
big deal. But if it's somethingand you let that opportunity go by,
it's going to end badly. Yes, and everyone at the staffs are in
Fox program and in our office isa veteran, So we have that shared

(09:16):
experience, and we don't want toshow up with a clipboard in forms and
say hey, let's get We justwant to have a conversation and start a
relationship. Sure, and Anthony,we've talked about it every time you and
I have ever talked the peer topeer mentoring is the only thing that works,
right. I mean, I amknown in the veteran community, I'm

(09:37):
respected, but I'm not a veteranand they're not gonna I mean, I
had it happened to me with Ihad a World War two guy in the
honor flight tell me one time Iwas we were talking about it, and
he says, listen, when Icame home, I could tell my wife
how cold the water was. Thatguy was in the water with me.
That's the difference. And that stuckwith me for since. He told me

(09:58):
that it's been in my head andI understand end it. That is a
fantastic analogy. Yes, exactly,Yeah, I mean And when he said
that, another one was one ofthe soldiers who had been in Iraq,
and he said, you want tounderstand it. He looked at me.
He says, go walking around thestreets of Poughkeepsie for twenty four hours and
pretend everybody you run into wants tokill you, has that desire to kill

(10:20):
you. Then he said, bringthem on base, give him a loaded
firearm and try to train them.And tell me you're not gonna You're not
gonna experience anxiety and PTS. Thatstuck with me too, made me understand
it. Was he talking about Afghanistanabout oh similar. Yeah, he said,
we're bringing him on base, we'rehanding him a loaded firearms and we
don't know they're going to turn aroundand shootice. He said, because you

(10:41):
know, you don't know what you'redealing with, and that's happened. Yeah,
that was pretty accurate. But thatstory I tell because a lot of
people like me listening who never hadthat and I never had that experience,
but I understand it a little betterwhen it's explained that way because PTS,
let's face it, you know,it's a real disease and it takes you
know, they used the number oftwenty two a day. It's actually higher
than that. That's from a longtime ago. And even all that,

(11:05):
you know, Anthony, you andVet, the Vet and everybody's done,
that number has gone up. Nothere we've been fortunate, but across the
country it's gone up. Last Iheard it was up around twenty eight to
days. We're losing. So we'relosing that battle and we need we need
to bring that down to zero iswhat we need to bring it down too.
And that's what the Fox program isall about yes. And I'd like
to go back to something that yousaid about the veteran experience and veteran relationship.

(11:31):
Even the World War two veteran andthat Iraq veteran have a shared experience
and they can communicate and talk toeach other in a way that someone else
might not understand. And that's oneof the things too. You know,
you're a nonprofit and you always needfunding, you always need donations, but
you need volunteers. You need veteranvolunteers. Yes, And Anthony will say

(11:52):
it. I know you've told mebefore. An Adam has told me that
it helped them immensely to get involvedin the program. Else. You know,
Adam tells a story it turned himaround when he got involved with the
program, and eventually he became adirector of the program. But now he's
a director of and the same withAnthony. You were when you got out.
You know, thirty four and ahalf years was a long time of

(12:13):
doing something one way, right,and you, like all soldiers, when
you get out, you're all ofa sudden one day you're not a soldier
anymore. You're a civilian. Right, So, transitioning from military life to
civilian life was interesting for me because, like you said, I did so
many years. But what I foundout was you build a battle rhythm.

(12:33):
And as I was doing that andI was learning all the things I needed
to know about transitioning into civilian life, other people were also getting closer retirement
and starting to ask me questions.And as I was helping them, I
thought, you know what I likedoing that. I think that's what I
want to do, and that's howI basically got started. But the numbers

(12:56):
you mentioned, the numbers of thesuicide, I'm really not sure what they
are because that's such a fluid numberand it almost doesn't mean anything because of
the way that suicides are counted,right, Like, we know that so
many suicides are not counted, andthe number does go up and down,
like during COVID, for instance,the numbers were much higher. I think
they dropped. And it seems likewe're winning the battle. But we just

(13:22):
have to stay on guard and keeppushing it forward, you know. And
the point of the whole conversation isis everybody listening has to realize that that
reality is possible. You know,a soldier who is is struggling with any
kind of issues. It's left byhimself and isolated. Eventually is going to
give up. And when they giveup, that's what happens. Yes,

(13:45):
And that isolation is I personally knowthat well. When lockdowns and working remotely
and all that was happening early inthe COVID beginnings, I was isolated,
work from home, I had meetingson the computer, was still engaged and

(14:07):
absolutely hated it. I felt likeI was all by myself, even though
I was communicating with people, andonce we were able to get back out,
it was a whole lot better.But that isolation is incredibly oppressive.
Yeah, the zoom meeting, Anthony, I was part of the Duchess County
task force doing it, and fora long time you kept doing the and

(14:28):
I wouldn't know him because to me, a half hour meeting ended up taking
an hour and a half. True, because somebody's cat would wander by the
screen and everybody would have a laughabout it, and it didn't seem to
be to me. I felt likeeverybody was multitasking, doing other things while
they were on the zoom meeting,instead of when you're in the room,
you're looking at each other and you'reengaged and your meeting goes a lot quicker

(14:50):
and it's much more purposeful. Iactually haven't thought about that, but I
know that. I mean, thatis absolutely perfect. That's exactly what we
were doing for two years. Yeah. Yeah. And it's bad enough when
you're at a face to face meetingand someone's just reading off of a you
know, teleprompt or something. Butto be in your house and just listening,

(15:11):
like some presenters would just like justkeep talking for fifteen minutes and no
one's listening after five. Yeah,that's what. But you remember our first
group after we were able to openup, Oh my, everybody was so
happy that they were able to comein and meet face to face again.
We accomplished a lot we did inthat short time. All the stuff that

(15:35):
we hadn't accomplished for the year wedid in one meeting, almost because we
were all engaged again, you know, so quickly before we move on to
other programs, we just had afantastic open house at a brand new building
that I know Anthony wants to glowabout. It's the new VET one stop
thirteen thirty five, Route forty four, Pleasant Valley, New York. We
had a great open house just pastFriday. I was there. We were

(15:56):
all there and it was great tosee the public come out and check out
this facility which you have really turnedinto a show place. Really thank you.
We're quite proud of it. Andif you have not seen it and
you weren't at the open house,we're open like you can come by and
see it anytime. Stop by theVeterans New Start that we have there,

(16:18):
Come and visit the VSA which doesthe you know claims. If you have
a claim, come visit us andjust find out about our groups and our
activities that we have. Talk ifyou have someone that needs to talk to
the staff Sergeant Fox program we havethat if there's a housing issue, employment
issue. I mean, it's literallya veteran one stop so please come by
and grab our brochures and ask usany questions. And the beauty of it,

(16:41):
Anthony is it's more essentrally located thanany veteran facility we've had to disappoint
in Hudson Valley. It's on atransportation route, so if you don't have
a vehicle, which a lot ofveterans don't, you can get there right
across the street from the bus stop. Yeah, and you know, the
County vs A office is over there, and the amount of foot traffic that
he's getting has increased quite a bit. And he's been bringing like the vets

(17:06):
that have not talked to us yet, right from his office to ours.
If we have a vet that neverput in a claim, that has complained
about some issue, we'll bring himright over to his office. So it's
it's great, it's really good.And it's more there though, Anthony,
you've got the store that you're you'reopening up to help veterans explain out a
little bit. So we haven't quitesettled on a name right now. We're

(17:29):
using Veteran New Start, and basicallywe have clothes. We have dishes,
cups, books, blankets, socks, toilet trees, everything, and then
any veteran that has a need willtake him back there and they can take
something. For the lower income veterans, we're going to do a voucher system

(17:49):
where we're going to give him avoucher every month so they can come back
repeatedly and get things that they need. We also have the food pantry right
next to it, and we havethe two telehealth VA offices, so again
like literally everything you need is rightthere. Besides Adam Lenny from the VA

(18:10):
stops in once a month. Ithink he told me once a month.
Yeah. We're also talking to theVA whole health people and we're trying to
figure out how many times if theycould come once a month or more and
do their stuff too, so becausethey do kind of a lot of what
we do with the yoga and everything, but they might bring themselves over and

(18:30):
kind of supplement. So it's great. I'm speaking with Anthony Cavaris and Dave
Isaacs from the MHA Duchess Vet toVette program and the MHA Veterans programs.
I guess it's a better way toput it, Anthony. It's MHA Duchess
dot Org is the website, Yes, to find out more about If you
go on that site, there's there'sthere's icons for veterans programs. Yeah,

(18:51):
so you go to the programs andthen you just scroll down to you see
the veterans programs when you get theretoo. I would like to um,
I encourage everybody if you go tothe veterans page. We have some videos
that we did at Thirteen Hands andone is just our equine therapy that we
brought some veterans to and the otherwas the weekend for warriors that we did
there. These are great little videosthat we have if you really want to

(19:14):
see some of the stuff that wedo, that's kind of one way to
do it. Yeah. Coming upin about a week week and a half,
we've got the open house at thirteenHands. That's right there is yep.
You know, do you have thedate on that or no? May
sixth, sixth? Yeah, Isaw that. Equine therapy is another one
of those therapies. It has evolveda lot in the last couple of years

(19:36):
and it really works and for theveterans, it's invaluable. You can explain
a couple of times you've been there, how the change you've seen the veterans
almost immediately. Yeah. Well,and the thing with thirteen Hands, you
know, it's beautiful right there.Right have you been You've been up there?
Yep, it's beautiful. It's onehundred and twenty five acres. It
has these panoramic views of the mountainside. It's it's such a clean equine

(19:59):
rescue and the amount of horses andthe different types of horses that they have
is just incredible. I mean,they have draft horses to thoroughbreds, to
mini horses to dwarf minies, todonkeys and mules. And they even have
three zebras there. They have somegoats, like it's literally like going to
a little shangri la zoo, youknow, and zebras. That's pretty cool

(20:22):
they do. They rescued them froma place in Texas that was using them
to hunt them and to and forfood. Like wow, which is kind
of weird to me, like whythey're related. Kind of they look a
little bit like a like a muleor a donkey, like and why would
you hunt? It just seems butlike that therapy really works. Yes,

(20:45):
so basis you're gonna have an openhouse there, Yes, during the day.
I assume, yeah, they are. We support them because they support
us, so they allow us totake our vets there and do our equine
therapy and uh, and so wesupport them in their efforts to rescue as
many of these animals. You know, every one of those horses was headed
to the kill ben and they rescuedthem. So it's amazing, it is

(21:07):
amazing. Sure, we only havea few minutes left, Auntie, just
touch on a couple of yellow programs. I mean, it really is a
veterans one stop when you go tothis building. Housing. So let's do
the housing. So hero is thehousing program, right, and that is
because we no longer have the SupportiveServices for Veterans Families grant in Duchess County,

(21:33):
right, So there is one,the West Coop has it, but
we wanted representation right here in Duchessfor those homeless veterans or veterans that were
at risk of becoming homeless. Sowe have two people. They're fantastic.
They'll try to find emergency shelter foryou. And that doesn't mean the shelters

(21:56):
that I mean if it means hotelor some other form of housing, safe
place stay until we can find permanenthousing solution and then we work with the
other bigger programs to make that happen. And so that's such a big job
and a very difficult job too,especially with all rents going up and stuff

(22:18):
like that. Then we have anemployment program, the vet TAP program.
So the VETAP program helps any veteranwho's looking for a job in Duchess County.
We help them build resumes, wehelp them with practicing for interviews,
we help them if they even needclothes, will help them that way.
We also there's some funds available forcertification. You know, if you need

(22:44):
to get certified, you need atest or something like that. We've made
deals with some security people to dothe security class, security card classes,
that kind of thing CDLs. Wetry to help people with UM So it's
like everything you need to try toget employment. And you know, we
have a deal with the Chamber ofCommerce of Duchess where they send us like
job posting seventy two hours before theysend it anywhere else. So that's a

(23:07):
great little program that we have withthem because that's a lot of employers out
there that would prefer to hire aveteran. Well, you know, if
you hire a veteran there is atax in setive. But beyond the tax
incentive, they know that the veteranhas got a whole different skill set and
a whole different way they've been trained, which they show up on time.
Yes, you know that make adifference soft skills and character that no school

(23:30):
really teaches, Yeah, for sure. So we have that and of course
we have the Veta VETT program,which is the Veteran to veteran peer mentoring
program. Right, so and theway that works is we have groups.
We have several different groups that wegot going on. We have a group
that meets every other Wednesday. Wehave a female veteran group once a month,

(23:52):
and then we have some specialized groupsthat meet here and there where I'm
just initiating a family group now,so the veteran can actually bring his spouse
or kids or something and do agroup with that, because it's important to
get the family involved. But thenbeyond that we offer individual peers to a
veteran. That pier basically becomes kindof like a battle buddy. Hey,

(24:15):
you want to have coffee today,talk about whatever you want to talk about,
that kind of thing. And thenwe have all our events, so
like the Sunset picnic, you know, Christmas, probably movie night, paint
Night, which is everybody loves paintnight. We went fishing yesterday, they
went fishing yesterday. Yeah. Wehave some shooting events, fishing events,
bowling, you know, and ifyou ever want to see what want to

(24:37):
make a believer out of about whatwe're talking about. When we do the
sunset picnics, we'll have seventy eightyone hundred veterans sometimes show home with their
families. When they sit down together, they're strangers. And within an hour
they're moving tables or sitting down andit comes time to break up. The
food's all gone, and we wantto go home, and it's another hour

(24:57):
or two before we lost Still yet, I gotta give to famous announcement,
you don't have to go home,but you can't stay here. We've had
anywhere between like one hundred and eightyfive people show up to that to over
three hundred. Yeah. So um, and that's veterans and their families because
when we do those big events,we encourage people to bring their family with

(25:18):
them. And uh. And thenlast but not least, besides the equine
stuff that we do, we havethe new staff Sergeant Fox program which has
really taken off running. Um.They have a ton of clients already and
it's such a great supplement to whatthe Vet to Vet does and uh,
and it's a standalone too beside that, but the two programs working together is

(25:40):
like amazing. And you know,they they do all kinds of stuff.
It's introduced VET to vet to doingsome softer stuff like chera, yoga and
guided meditation and some art therapy stuffalso, right, Yes, music,
a lot of non traditional type oftherapies. Music therapy was one yesterday,

(26:00):
not yesterday, but or last week. We had our first session with someone
who led us through breathwork and incorporatinglots of different things. That first of
all, that medicine hasn't embraced necessarilyand is starting to. But that veterans

(26:22):
typically never touch because it's too likeyou said, soft, a little touchy
feely. But when people come in, they open up and they get engaged
and they realize, hey, thisstuff really works. Yeah, obviously they
go the Fox programmers because you're tryingto identify people that may not even know
they have a problem. Some veteransaren't even as bad as shape as they
are. Yeah, their families realizeit, and they don't where their families

(26:45):
can come to. I think though, you know that only shay. If
you see something, say something that'sreal. If you see something that you
think is out of line, saysomething to somebody and let the professionals evaluate
it and decide whether it is orit is. Yes, and I personally
am here because someone cared enough todo that. My family saw it.
For a while, I wouldn't admitit. And then finally realized I need

(27:10):
help and I'm here because somebody caredenough to do that. Well, that's
that's fantastic. Did that happen?And that's the whole point of the program.
Yes, and those it's over thatscreener that they give right off the
bat, that Columbia screener, like, that's that's where we're catching it.
You know, people are very honest, I believe it or not for the

(27:30):
most part. You know, alot of times we were worried that people
aren't going to be honest on thatscreener. But it's and they are there.
They it's it's done on the tabletand they answer the questions. And
everyone on our team has done hadthat conversation enough times that we're not in
a white lab coat with a clipboardgoing down and have this this, this,

(27:52):
this. It's in conversation we candiscover whether somebody really is and it's
with another veteran yes, and aveteran like yourself who went through it.
You've experienced it, yes, andyou're you're there to say it really works.
Otherwise I wouldn't be here. Yes, that is true. So that

(28:15):
makes it makes a believer out ofme and I'm not even a veteran,
So Anthony and Dave, thanks somuch. Or it's the fastest thirty minutes
in radio. We're out of timealready. Anthony, you know you're always
welcome here. You can come back. We'll talk more about it, but
please if you get nothing out.First of all, it's MHA Dutchess dot
org. That's the web coman andclick out of the veteran. You can
see about all we talked about todayand more. But I really really encourage

(28:38):
you if you're out in the PleasantValley area thirteen thirty five, Route forty
four. It's really a building thatis I am blown away by what a
job they've done putting it together,and what an opportunity is if you're a
veteran, or you're a family memberof the veteran and you have any kind

(28:59):
of issues going on, I guaranteeyou if you stop in at that building,
they will find a way to helpyou. Yes, fair enough,
Thanks Anthony, Thanks Dave, we'lltalk to you. Really cute. Thank
you. I hope you enjoyed thisweek's episode of A clear View Hudson Valley,
and I want to remind you thatall the episodes are available on a
clear View. Hudson Valley Podcast availableat iHeartRadio dot com. I'm Uncle Mike,

(29:19):
and if I don't see you outand about, I'll catch you on
the radio. Have a great week, everyone,