Reach Out For Help or Reach Out To Help
Buddy Checks
Buddy Checks help individuals living with the struggle of daily depression to get through the day-to-day. These buddy-check programs DO NOT replace mental health counseling, but allow for insurance of DAILY SUPPORT. This system would include “check-ins” on an ongoing basis with an individual who can relate and help support you through the more difficult days. Alcoholics Anonymous uses sponsors in their 12 step model, which has proven to be very successful for them.
WHY & HOW IT WORKS
The 12 Step Model of Alcoholics Anonymous is an example for the program we are trying to emulate.
"Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous use sponsors as support systems to get through the day to day."
"DAILY CONTACT with A SPONSOR for individuals experiencing depression with other individuals who have experienced similar levels of depression and are at advanced stages of recovery is critical."
"The founding members realized that what was keeping them sober was helping someone else going through the same thing. A PEER."
“There is a level of understanding and camaraderie that cannot be replicated by a family member or a loved one."
Why and How It Works?
The Veterans Rely on a Buddy Check System of Their Own.
Veterans Alone Can Only Relate to Other Veterans
“When he finally sought help for depression, PTSD and multiple addictions, it wasn’t a psychiatrist or a psychologist or a licensed counselor who broke through to him. It was his fellow veterans.”
“Friends might say they understand but they don’t,” “It means a little more when a veteran reaches out and says, ‘Hey I know what it’s like.”
“The traditional medical model — in an office with the door closed — is the last thing they want. I’m convinced that’s where peers come in. Peers are indispensable. It takes a community to heal these wounds.”
– Stanford University Study
HAVE YOU DONE YOUR BUDDY CHECK TODAY?
Charlene Deluca, M.D.
Founder & CEO of H.E.L.L.P Inc.
Having buddies would be a way to help with the transition.
These individuals come from a situation where they had group therapy every day and individual therapy as well into a much less structured situation after discharge. (And the cycle of re-admissions for the in-patient treatment of depression suggests that there is much room for improvement in the current system.)
Depression is a serious illness, however, it is very common and also treatable! There are many types of treatments and health services that can help you in your recovery and this buddy-check is one of them.
"DAILY CONTACT with A SPONSOR for individuals experiencing depression with other individuals who have experienced similar levels of depression and are at advanced stages of recovery is critical."
"The founding members realized that what was keeping them sober was helping someone else going through the same thing. A PEER."
“There is a level of understanding and camaraderie that cannot be replicated by a family member or a loved one."
"Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous use sponsors as support systems to get through the day-to-day."