By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe today touted a national program designed to provide mental health care for soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Give an Hour program, which already has partnered with more than 5,000 health care providers across the country, offers free counseling and other services to soldiers and their families.

Beebe described the program as “the next step” for war veterans who come home and need someone to talk to about their experiences.

“We have an obligation, we owe an obligation to the men and women in uniform who protect us and go in harms way and go into combat situations to ensure that when they do return that we as Arkansans do all we possibly can to support them,” Beebe said during a news conference at the state Capitol.

Barbara Van Dahlen, founder of the Maryland-based nonprofit, said during the news conference the program “works with state associations of the major national mental health organizations to recruit more providers to our network, which will help ensure that help is available where and when it is needed.”

She said the program offers services to soldiers and families suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental health issues.

Van Dahlen said Arkansas is the fifth state to partner with Give an Hour. The others are Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas. The partnership came about after Van Dahlen gave a presentation last year to the Yellow Ribbon Task Force, which was created to address issues faced by veterans returning home from war.

“I believe it is critical our civilian population step up to do our part,” she said, adding the U.S. Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration offer similar services but more are needed.

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On the Net:
www.giveanhour.org