One night while attending school I came
out of class and four guys were
assaulting a woman. I stopped it but in
the process I had my head crushed
with a hammer my jaw broken with a bat
and I was stabbed In the abdomen
While I was still in the military I
started to become addicted to
painkillers, so my last time in prison I
became dreadfully aware that because of
three-strike law if I ever got in
trouble again I would more than likely
die in prison. I contacted the VA and
began getting medical help again. The
whole health program has enlightened
me and open my eyes and ways I didn't think possible.
Whole Health is important to veterans because it equips and empowers them to
take charge of their health.
We've kind of lost track of the power of what you
can do to improve health and so Whole Health
helps give that back it really is the
vehicle to put the veteran drivers seat in improving their health.
Well you said the magic word whole health the
yoga classes the healthy you for chronic
conditions are all part of health it's
the whole thing man. It envolves
spirituality, it involves physical activities, emotional well-balance, it includes it all.
Those programs are things they participate in to get healthy and live better.
For a veteran who has not been involved in
this program before I encourage you to
identify, what do you desire out
of life.I encourage you to one,
spirituality, two take charge of your
emotional health, three take charge of your
physical health and when you find that
you're taking charge of each in every
area those three areas you find yourself
whole and complete.
The wheel of health is a is a short assessment where which involves areas of your life
all inclusive whether it's losing weight
weather its eating wisely, weather its activity
it involves everything we use that to
get the veterans to realize choose where
he wants to start. It didnt't seem important
to me what seemed important to me was
to go to the doctor take the medicine
and go home with the whole health
approach it's enhancing your going to
the doctor I've decided to become a peer
health coach because learning of what
the job involved helping veterans with
mental health issues and substance abuse issues
my favorite part is seeing the veteran
become healthy getting him engaged
in his health and wellness and just coming
alive in spirit and health
the first part is the pathway and that's
basically how do veterans
enter into the whole health system and
so the personalized health plan is the
vehicle the personalized health plan is
just the process of you going through an
assessment of all the different areas on
our wheel of health and thinking about
how am I doing in each area when they
were trying to start me volunteering I
went into Sherry's office and there was
a mindfulness poster there and that
poster showed a man with all the
activity going on in his mind and it
showed a dog looking looking at the same
thing the man was they were looking at
two trees two bushes and a scene. The
dog saw the two trees the two bushes in
the scenes and the man saw the noise in
his head mindfulness is being the dog
Whole Health has opened my eyes to a
whole new lifestyle that I didn't think I could achieve.