VA recognizes Portland Street Response's efforts to support veterans

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The award recognized Portland Street Response for providing compassionate, trauma-informed responses to Veterans experiencing mental and behavioral health crises in the Portland community.

Specifically, the award focused on how Portland Street Response supports Veterans in the following ways:

• Multidisciplinary teams use de-escalation, immediate stabilization, safety planning, and connection to appropriate services to help Veterans access support before a crisis escalates, advancing the National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide by promoting early intervention, strengthening protective factors, and connecting individuals to ongoing care.
• Through follow-up and collaboration with the VA, community behavioral health providers, first responders, and other local partners, Portland Street Response helps Veterans remain connected to treatment, housing, peer support, and other resources after the immediate crisis has passed.
• By complementing VA services and strengthening the community's coordinated crisis-response network, Portland Street Response helps create a more accessible, humane, and effective pathway to safety, recovery, and suicide prevention for Veterans.

"When we talk about Veterans experiencing homelessness, it can be easy to focus on numbers. But every number is a person who served our country-and every person has a story," said Steve from the Portland Street Response Aftercare Program. "Our team has had the privilege of working with Veterans who have spent years on the streets, Veterans struggling with addiction and mental health, and Veterans who simply hit a difficult point in their lives and needed someone to help them find a way forward. Our approach is simple: build trust, connect Veterans to the VA and the services they have earned, help remove the barriers in front of them, and don't give up on them."

Learn more about Portland Street Response

Learn more about the Portland VA