{"id":639997,"date":"2025-09-09T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=639997"},"modified":"2025-09-09T18:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:31:11","slug":"the-rural-wave-establishing-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=639997","title":{"rendered":"The Rural WAVE: establishing relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Rural WAVE (Wellness and Veteran Engagement) Initiative helps to provide a renewed sense of purpose for rural Veterans. By leveraging relationships with local Veterans Service Organizations (VSO) and non-profits, it encourages Veterans in rural areas to take part in activities like volunteering and community service to help them connect with people in their communities and enhance their overall quality of life. The project was also selected as the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/HEALTHPARTNERSHIPS\/cpc\/index.asp#current\">Community Partnership Challenge<\/a> winner.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Fugitive-Clean-up_r1-2.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Undersea Warriors clean-up event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Another Rural WAVE partner located at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/poplar-bluff-health-care\/\">John J Pershing VA Medical Center<\/a> is a local chapter called Undersea Warriors (UW) and is led by VA staff members Lotoya Halliburton, Zachary Lafferty and Issac Ballow. UW serves all Veterans and first responders recovering from <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/?s=PTSD\">PTSD<\/a>, anxiety or depression. The program connects participants with certified divers for recreational and\/or adaptive scuba diving experiences, fostering a sense of peace, belonging and purpose. Veterans are referred to the program by their counselors at the John J Pershing VA Medical Center.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Impact on rural Veterans<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cInitially, I was hesitant. The thought of breathing underwater through a tube did not sound like something I wanted to do\u2026 [Diving instructor] took us step by step through the process of breathing through the regulator, donning the mask and fins, and going for a little swim in the pool\u2026 it was such a good feeling. It\u2019s amazing to have an activity that replaces the monsters in your head and your heart with peace and wonder and tranquility. Thank you,\u201d said a Veteran participant in Undersea Warriors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been a fireman [and Veteran] for 27 years and I\u2019ve seen some things that I can\u2019t unsee. So, I\u2019m writing this letter to let you know about my experience\u2026 The diving made my mind at peace; it makes you think about your breathing and taking in the sights. My diving buddy and I liked diving so much that we signed up to do the advanced dive class. I truly believe the Undersea Warriors program will help with my PTSD and I highly recommend it to anyone who may be going through any kind of PTSD,\u201d said another Veteran participant in Undersea Warriors.<\/p>\n<p>After several years of successful partnership with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.volunteer.va.gov\/\">VA Center for Development and Civic Engagement (CDCE)<\/a>, the Office of Rural Health will transition permanent ownership of the initiative to CDCE beginning in October 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rural WAVE (Wellness and Veteran Engagement) Initiative helps to provide a renewed sense of purpose for rural Veterans. By leveraging relationships with local Veterans Service Organizations (VSO) and non-profits, it encourages Veterans in rural areas to take part in activities like volunteering and community service to help them connect with people in their communities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":639999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1767,1768],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-639997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-rural-wave-wellness-and-veteran-engagement-initiative","category-vha-office-of-rural-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=639997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640003,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639997\/revisions\/640003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/639999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=639997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=639997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=639997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}