$500,000 grant to help create “Veteran One Stop Center” in Northeast El Paso

The first of its kind, “Veteran One Stop Center” will be created in Northeast El Paso to help expand mental health services for veterans.

Emergence Health Network and its Military Veterans Peer Network Program received a $500,000 grant from the Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans’ Assistance for the development of the center.

Emergence Health Network estimates out of an estimated 47,911 veterans, close to 10,000 of them will need mental health services in 2016.

“Those numbers are expected to grow, yet we recognize there are gaps in mental health services in our community. That’s why EHN is very excited about this opportunity. This grant from the Texas Veterans Commission is going to allow EHN to make a significant difference in services provided to our veterans and their families,” said Kristi Daugherty, CEO Emergence Health Network. “The newly created Veterans One Stop Center will accelerate access to mental health care and support services.”

A study commissioned by U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s, veterans in El Paso take more than two months to seek mental health care and as many as a third go without treatment completely.

“As a veteran myself, it’s very frustrating because we went up and made the ultimate sacrifice, but we offered our life for our country and when we’re not getting services that we were promised, then there’s issues with that. And when we see organizations like emergence and people like dwayne who’s a veteran himself come and get us the help we need, we’re very grateful,” Darrell Mond, President of the El Paso Veterans & Riders Association said.

The Veterans One Stop Center will be located on 9565 Diana Drive in Northeast El Paso, near Ft. Bliss. Clinical services provided by a licensed mental health professional will include clinical counseling, individual sessions, group sessions, veteran family member counseling, Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) services and certified peer specialists.

The center is already home to agencies that help with services like job placement, benefits assistance, the wounded warrior program and the veterans food pantry so veterans can most of their services will be in one centralized location.

“The One Stop Center is also large enough to house numerous agencies committed to serving veterans such as the Texas Veterans Commission for job placement assistance, The Veterans Administration for help with veteran’s benefits assistance, Veterans Food Pantry, Wounded Warrior Program, UTEP Military Student Success Center and many more,” Daugherty added.

An open house and ribbon-cutting of the new center will be held on Wednesday, August 17th at 10:30 A.M.