1. Suicide Epidemic addressed at the Nest
By Amanda S. Cherry
Suicide among the veteran and military communities have reached epidemic levels.
During the 2015 Eagle’s Healing Nest, Nest Fest, director Melony Butler discussed the
topic. “The crosses you see on the lawn in front of you,” Butler’s voice broke with
emotion as she described the issue. “They represent the 22 veterans who die everyday
from suicide and PTSD related issues. We are working hard to reduce that number to
zero, because one is one too many.”
The Eagle’s Healing Nest has a team of four resident staff members who have been
trained in suicide prevention and crisis intervention techniques. Todd Westerbeck
assistant director describes the training and it’s benefits. “We participated for five days
in the ASSIST suicide training. We currently have four staff members who are trained to
handled veterans in crisis. We’ve used the training here at the Nest, not only with
residents in crisis, but we take a lot of phone calls from non-residents.”
“I didn’t want to kill myself really,” says an Eagle’s Healing Nest veteran. “I just wanted
the situation to die. I didn’t see any alternatives. I was homeless, I wasn’t connected
with my family, I was drinking myself to death- slowly. I’m lucky in that I found a place
like this (the Eagle’s Healing Nest) where I could get help.”
One resident veteran describes their plan,”I was standing on the railroad tracks, it was
dark, cold and raining. I thought this is it. Then I looked down at my dog who seemed to
be saying, ‘What about me? Who’s going to take care of me when you are gone?’ That
is what truly stopped me.
That was when I decided to go into treatment. I got sober and when the program was
about to end I started having those thoughts again. Because I didn’t have anywhere to
go, no place to live. I had means, I could go to lots of places, I’m a service connected
veteran, there are resources for me. The Mission shelter said come on down, but I
couldn’t bring my dog. I said if the dog is living on the streets then so am I. That was
when I found out about the Nest and Melony said, bring your dog you’re welcome here.”
Another resident describes the situation that brought them to the Nest. “I was suicidal. I
had a plan. There was a bridge that I crossed everyday going to a part-time job. It was
pretty high above the river and I figured if the fall didn’t kill me instantly then I’d drown. I
was going through so much; my marriage was ending, my house was being foreclosed
on, a dear friend had just died, I couldn’t pay my bills. I was convinced I’d be better off
dead. As I cross this bridge everyday and there is this eagle’s nest in a tree just before
you go across the bridge. I had never seen any eagles in the nest, until the day I
decided to follow through on my plan. That day I saw two eagles soaring across the
river, near the bridge and into their nest. It made me stop and think about it... what if I
just went to the Eagle’s Healing Nest? I called Melony that day, and she said, ‘Welcome
Home.’ That was when I knew I couldn’t kill myself... I deserved a second chance. That
is what this place has given me. I’m so grateful to be alive. Suicide is a permanent fix to
a temporary problem.”
The Veterans Administration and community organizations are addressing the problems
of veteran suicides by connecting the veteran with immediate care during a crisis
through peer support and professional care based on their needs. Community
organizations such as #22kill.com, Stop Soldier Suicide.org, and Facebook events like
Buddy Check 22 encourage veterans to support their fellow veterans in need. The
organizations and events encourage veterans to educate themselves on suicide
prevention or to just have a conversation with a fellow veteran who might be suicidal.

2. The VA provides access to veterans and their families in crisis through the Veterans
Crisis Line 1-800- 273-8255 press 1, staffed by volunteers many of whom are veterans
themselves.
“I’ve called the crisis line,” reported a Nest resident. “They gave me resources for more
than just being suicidal. They helped me address some of the problems that were
making me consider suicide. And they checked up on me the next couple of days to
make sure I was still around. It was cool, because I didn’t want my family to know I was
suicidal and to know someone was going to check up on me who understood. It kept me
going, made me accountable.”
Jessica Behrends, the Caregiver Support coordinator for the St. Cloud VA, wants family
members to know they aren’t alone. “We’re connecting and empowering caregivers and
families to the extent the veteran will allow it.”
The VA admits that although there are numerous programs and educational training
available for family members, without the consent of the veteran being treated they can’t
involve family members in the veteran’s care. The VA provides the veteran with over 16
programs including; PTSD Relationships and Intimacy group, Women’s group, World
War II and Korean Veterans PTSD support group, PTSD Therapy group to name a few.
Family members have access to a caregivers support group the first Tuesday of every
month at the St. Cloud VA as well as access to the Veterans Crisis Line 24/7. The St.
Cloud VA also offers a monthly telephone education call through the VA Caregiver
Support Line the first Tuesday and fourth Wednesday of every month. Topics can
include suicide prevention, communication skills, and dealing with anger.
Although resources are available not all family members are aware of them simply
because the veteran is the only point of contact to the VA, and without a veteran’s
permission the VA can’t provide resources specific to their care for the family member. “I
was in that mindset of I’m his wife, I should be able to take care of this,” said Heidi
Cameron, widow of Ross Cameron who was killed in a fatal one car accident June 6th.
Cameron came with her three daughters to Nest Fest in August as a special guest of
the Minnesota Wounded Warriors program to honor and remember her husband a
veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. “When I did ask the VA for help finally, it was,
there’s no help for you, you’re just the wife.”
“He struggled,” Cameron said through tears. “Over the years we watched him become
somebody that we didn’t really know. Every year he got more difficult. It was kind of a
progression you just watch, it got worse and worse every year.”
Cameron explained the pain family members feel when the veteran succeeds in killing
themselves. “I had to go and look at my children and explain your daddy’s never coming
home. I don’t want another family to feel what I feel. I don’t want another mom or dad to
have to explain to their children why their dad isn’t coming home and you can only see a
headstone.”
She describes being hospitalized after his accident her despair so great she had to be
sedated. “I remember getting up, it was pouring rain again, I remember running with no
shoes on trying to get to the funeral home. You lose all sense of reality, I just remember
thinking he’s alive I have to go pick him up.
...I tried to pick him up out of the casket and carry him to my car. and he was cold. My
sister in law was pulling me back as I was trying to hold him. It’s been a log battle of
was this an accident or was he one of the 22?”

3. “I look around this place and I think, why didn’t we know this place existed?” Cameron
asks herself as she looked over the grounds of the Eagle’s Healing Nest. “If we had
known he would have come here. If one person, one veteran, one family of a veteran
can be saved by the loss of my husband then he didn’t die in vain.”
Cameron and her family intend to dedicate a room to her husband to help another
veteran who finds their way to the Eagle’s Healing Nest. There is a sense of
accountability among the veterans to support and care for each other at the Nest.
A veteran of the Bosnia conflict said,”Having this place to come to, to just breathe, to
just take a breath is what truly saved me. Knowing that if I killed myself now I’d be letting
down my fellow veterans here, it’s what stops me from it everyday. I’ve been given a
second chance, I’m not going to waste it. There are too many who didn’t get that
chance, so I’m doing it for them too.”
Another veteran agreed, “When you’re addicted to drugs or alcohol, living on the streets,
just struggling to survive one day at a time, you can’t breathe. Coming here gave me a
chance to get a roof over my head, good food to eat, and a chance to just take a
breath.”
Butler explains further by saying,”The veteran has to be willing to do the work
themselves. We can give them a place to stay, we can make their appointments at the
VA for them, but we can’t make them go. They have to be a partner in their own care
and if they are willing to do that, lives can be saved.”
“I feel accountable to every veteran here,” said a veteran staff member. “I was only
going to be here for three weeks. If I hadn’t come here, I would have continued to try
and die. I survived my suicide attempt by the grace of God. I didn’t have any self-worth
before coming here. Being here has given me a purpose and that is what has kept me
alive.”
Reporters note:
I would like to personally thank the brave men and women of the Eagle’s Healing Nest
for sharing their very personal stories with me concerning suicide. Your willingness to
share your experience is proof that you are offering further service to your fellow
veterans and community. I am very glad that each of you survived and thank you for
your service. For more information about suicide prevention please contact the following
organizations:
Veterans Crisis Line- 1-800- 273-8255 press 1
ASIST- http://www.sprc.org/bpr/section-III/applied-suicide-intervention-skills-training-
asist
VA Caregiver Support Line- Jessica Behrends, 320-252-1670 ext. 7283
TAPS Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors-http://www.taps.org
Eagle’s Healing Nest- 320-351-6200