UGA project helps veterans with mental health

Consistent findings reveal that veterans are passionate about helping other veterans and their families; however, these same veterans don’t always feel comfortable helping themselves, said University of Georgia researcher Brian Bauer, who has developed a platform that will enable vets to help each other.

Bauer was recently awarded $250,000 by Mission Daybreak, a part of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’10-year strategy to end veteran suicide through a comprehensive, public health approach.

Formerly known as the Suicide Prevention Grand Challenge, Mission Daybreak offers $20 million in non-dilutive funding, as well as non-monetary resources that include data, research, mentorship, educational webinars and partnership opportunities. Bauer’s submission is led by himself and his former mentor Alex Leow, professor of psychiatry and bioengineering at the University of Illinois Chicago.

“We started with the idea that if we’re only focusing on people who were going through a crisis and are currently at high risk, we’re going to lose the battle of suicide prevention,” said Bauer, assistant professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of psychology. “We also need to focus on assisting veterans and their family members build better lives to help prevent people from reaching high risk.”

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