As you may know, last year Congress deemed June 27th as national PTSD Awareness Day.
Because VVA focuses on similar goals as the VA’s National Center for PTSD: to help our Veterans, we are asking you to work with us on a PTSD awareness effort. Throughout the entire month of June, the National Center is working to spread the word and increase PTSD awareness (see below for details). If you know of other VSO’s that would be interested in assisting, please feel free to forward!
Here is what we are proposing:
Join efforts with us
If you join us and help increase PTSD awareness, for the last week of June, we will add your logo and/or link to our Website feature, listing you as a resource for increasing our understanding of PTSD; helping returning service men and women or others affected by trauma.
Help us increase PTSD awareness
Each week we will have a different feature on the homepage of our Website www.ptsd.va.gov. The final week we will post information about other groups who are also working to increase PTSD awareness.
All you need to do
· reply to me or to ncptsd@va.gov that you are willing to help increase PTSD awareness
· send us your group name and url
· send a one sentence description, as well as a web ready logo, if applicable.
We hope you will join us for this important effort.
Sincerely,
Laurie Slone, PhD
Associate Director for Information and Communication
VA National Center for PTSD 116D
215 N. Main St.: White River Junction, VT 05009
802-296-5132 Laurie.Slone@va.gov
www.ptsd.va.gov vaww.ptsd.va.gov
Here is what the VA’s National Center for PTSD is planning for the month of June 2011:
Each week we will have a different feature on the homepage of our Website, as well as special postings on FB and Twitter
· week 1 Increasing provider awareness
· week 2 Increasing public awareness
· week 3 Family and PTSD: Sharing stories on Facebook
· week 4 Together Increasing awareness: Other organizations working to increase awareness
We will also be posting:
· 10 Things you can do to increase PTSD awareness
· A NEW Logos and Widgets page (includes a ‘PTSD Information badge’ for VA Medical Centers and others to post on their sites; linking to www.ptsd.va.gov)
· A list of groups helping increase PTSD awareness
Other Activities:
· Emailing out 2 special PTSD Monthly Updates: one targeted specifically to VA staff and providers, emphasizing the PTSD Consultation program, vaww.ptsd.va.gov, and a new VA page on our PTSD Website (coming soon)
· Special screen saver posts on all VA computers, Hey VA announcements
· PTSD Awareness Day image on all VA MC website rotating banners
· Press releases and talking points to VA Public Affairs officials
· Electronically distributing PTSD Awareness Day flyers to VA Medical Centers and CBOCS, as well as information about the new VA PTSD Consultation Program for VA Providers.
· Working with others at VA and trauma organizations to increase PTSD awareness by
o Increasing subscriptions to the PTSD Monthly Update (currently 8300 subscribers: goal 10,000)
o Materials you can Print:
o PTSD Awareness Day flyers(PDF) to print and post
o What is PTSD cards: 3-fold business card sized cards to carry or distribute
o What is PTSD brochures: Explaining what PTSD is and how to get effective treatment
o Post a PTSD Information Widget on your site, linking to www.ptsd.va.gov and can even include our latest "Tweet"