Serving Those Who’ve Served: Supporting Veterans

Every year, almost 200,000 people transition from active-duty service to life as a civilian (source). Veterans, active duty military, and their families frequently move and are unfamiliar with the resources available in their area.

This transition is complex and challenging, as veterans (and their families) have to adjust to new jobs, living situations, healthcare, finances, social networks, and more, and often don’t know where to turn for help. Findhelp is here to help you navigate serving those who’ve served.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), “transitions for veterans can be especially difficult due to shifting from the unique collective culture of military service to shaping a more individualized role in how they live, work, and interact with others”. Studies indicate that 44 to 72% experience high levels of stress during the transition period (SAMHSA).

Ensuring Veterans Get the Help They Need, When They Need it

Findhelp products and services provide many avenues for navigators to support veterans and for veterans to support themselves and their families. A few of these are highlighted below.

No Gatekeeping

There are many programs specifically intended for veterans or active duty service members, but capacity is often low. This is the benefit of the Findhelp network: we list all free and reduced-cost programs, so folks have access to a wide range of available services. Furthermore, any of our users – navigators, customer staff, people looking for help, community-based organizations, the general public – are able to suggest new programs and changes to existing programs. This inclusive participation means that our network is up-to-date, accurate, and ready, whenever needs arise.

Filtering to Find Relevant Services

For active duty service members, their knowledge of available support is typically limited to “on post” resources. Using our built-in filters, they can easily identify relevant programs geared toward supporting them, in the communities surrounding their base.

Empowered Self-Navigation

Veterans are a resilient group that have to deal with many challenges post-service, including long benefits claim processing times: the January 2024 average wait-time for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to respond to an initial disability-related claim is 159.8 days.

Furthermore, State Departments of Veteran Affairs have limited staff and resources, leading to delays in receiving care. For these reasons and more, the ability for veterans and active duty service members to self-navigate on the Findhelp platform and connect themselves to resources is crucial.

To guide folks to the most relevant programs for their unique situation, Findhelp customers can configure their navigation categories and subcategories to directly address the unique needs of veterans and active duty service members.

How Findhelp Supports Veterans Nationwide Through Customer Partnerships

We partner with customers nationwide who have a goal of serving those who’ve served, whether it’s their focus population or just one of many groups they serve. Our products and services make it easy for you to connect veterans and active duty service members with on- and off-base resources that can help them. Read on to learn see the success of a few of these partnerships.

A national provider of social care solutions for Medicare Advantage and Managed Medicaid health plans, BeneLynk launched the nation’s first Veterans Services offering for Medicare Advantage plans.

In 2019, BeneLynk launched their social care platform (powered by Findhelp) for their call center navigators to connect and refer veterans and others to needed social services.
James Tongate, Vice President of Government Relations at BeneLynk, joined the organization to help his fellow veterans obtain the health benefits and employment opportunities that are available to them after leaving the service. He’s seen how issues like food insecurity and mental health issues caused by isolation were worsened by the pandemic, with many elderly veterans impacted but unaware of the programs available to them in their communities.
“Our nation and the private sector had made strides with veteran and military spouse employment opportunities through the years, but the pandemic has reversed a lot of that progress — setting veterans back to March 2013 employment numbers,” Tongate notes.

The Idaho Veterans Network (IVN) assists veterans through peer-to-peer service and support, direct financial aid, online community support, and other connections to local resources and services.

In January 2023, IVN launched the Idaho Veteran’s Guide platform (powered by Findhelp) to facilitate stronger coordination between helping professionals, veterans, and the greater Idaho community.
Navigation professionals throughout Idaho can use the Idaho Veteran’s Guide platform to connect veterans to social service programs.
IVN makes this process even easier by using Findhelp’s Featured Program functionality to highlight trusted veteran’s resources in their network, and using Favorites Folders to group recommended programs in one place for easy navigation.

The Reveille Foundation supports underserved populations with holistic case management that creates individual plans for success that brings the community of resources together to execute these plans. Housing, training, and employment are critical elements to this success.

Reveille Foundation launched the VetNet platform (powered by Findhelp) in 2022 to ensure the process of connecting veterans with community programs is easy, clear, and seamless by providing community organizations with the tools they need.
They partnered with Findhelp to design their site’s logo and branding to create a sense of camaraderie and shared experience, so that veterans feel safe and comfortable using the platform.
Reveille Foundation’s Success Coaches, who act as navigators for those in need, access VetNet through a direct link within their Salesforce system of record.

Service to the Armed Forces

American Red Cross volunteers and staff work to deliver vital services – from providing relief and support to those in crisis, to helping people be prepared to respond in emergencies.

The Hero Care Network, staffed by Red Cross volunteers, springs into action when a service member faces an emergency and needs help in a hurry.
Hero Care is just one important part of the Red Cross’ Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) function, which offers a wide range of services and programs to service members, active and retired, and their families. Nationwide, the Hero Care Network handles about 150,000 cases a year.
The Red Cross’ SAF and Military & Veteran Caregiver Network departments serve veterans, active duty military, and their families via the Hero Care Network platform (powered by Findhelp), which also supports anonymous community self-navigation and workflows for case managers.
Since launching in 2018, users have made over 162,025 searches and 16,635 connections on the American Red Cross Findhelp network.

Getting Help: a Real Veteran Success Story

Below is a real example of a customer success story, where a veteran self-navigated on the Idaho Veterans Network’s Findhelp platform and quickly received the help they were looking for. This is just one example of how our platform can be used to help support veterans; our customers have flexibility to configure their workflows to best fit the capacity of their organizations and the needs of the populations they serve.

Support Veterans with Findhelp

Schedule a demo with us to see how we can partner with your organization to help veterans and active duty service members adjust to civilian life and support their families.