Blog

By Nikki Weigand, MSW 

Director of Advocacy and Public Policy, NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania 

On November 6, NAMI Keystone PA was invited to participate in the annual Veterans Breakfast Club event held at Rivers Casino. The event is a staple in the veteran community and continues to grow year after year. Being an Army veteran, I was beyond thrilled to be able to attend this year’s event alongside Jen Lukondi our Education and Support Specialist and Proud Army Mom. In addition to invaluable mental health resources for the veteran community, and of course swag, we also offered a friendly smile and a listening ear. One of my favorite parts of these events is always the incredible stories you hear whether it be time in service, talking about grandkids, or even how they have overcome their own mental health struggles. Those last ones are my favorite because that’s why I’m here at NAMI, my own struggle. When I transitioned from the Army in 2011, I was lost to say the least. I was fresh off of a deployment to Iraq and was struggling with substance use, struggling to find a job, struggling to get out of bed in the morning, and struggling to find purpose. 

That first year out of the Army, I came to some tough realizations, the first was that I was struggling, the second and most important was that I needed help. I hesitated on the help thinking I was the only one facing struggles. What I did find, though, was a whole community of veterans just like myself who felt we were alone and that nobody understood what we went through. It was then that I finally started to heal. This healing led to a return to school for social work and landed me a job working with veterans, which led to the opportunity to attend graduate school, which led to an opportunity to intern at one of the premier peer and family run organizations in the Pittsburgh area, NAMI. Here I found my new tribe. While my sole focus isn’t on veterans’ mental health, the opportunities I have been afforded have been life changing. I often share my story in the community to various audiences - students, teachers, law enforcement, and other veterans. And the feedback is always the same. I’ve given them hope that things can and will get better. All that to say, my favorite part about doing NAMI events in the community is providing that hope, especially to my fellow veterans. 

By Jen Lukondi 

Education and Support Specialist, NAMI Keystone Pennsylvania 

The Veterans Breakfast Club event was a great opportunity to hear from veterans of all stripes about their experiences and to provide them with information.  It was especially gratifying to hear many of them acknowledge how important mental health is, because it hasn't always been so openly discussed.  

My ex-husband was deployed to Iraq during the Gulf War in 1990, going into lockdown the same day our first son was born.  They had taught us how to set up a phone chain in what at that time was called the Officer's Wives Club.  They also taught us how to pour tea at our club meetings — the most senior officer's wife does the honors.  What they did not teach us was anything about what might happen while our loved ones were deployed, or what might happen when they returned.  We were given no information on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, Military Sexual Trauma (MST), or Traumatic Briain Injury (TBI).  Luckily, everyone in our unit came back physically intact; however, there were invisible injuries that resulted in self-harm and other concerning behaviors among our unit members. Many years and a divorce later, I began volunteering with NAMI as a Family-to-Family facilitator specifically to address this knowledge gap in military families.  When a program customized for military family members called Homefront became available, I trained to teach that program as well.  The son that was born at the start of the Gulf War is now in the Army and has deployed to Iraq with his reserve unit.  I'm so glad that more attention is given to mental health in the armed forces and that programs like Homefront exist for family members.  And I was glad to meet so many veterans who agree on the importance of mental health services for our service members and their families. 

 Learn more about NAMI Homefront.