Kansas Legion post combines Be the One with VA program for rural veterans.
Together With Veterans is a VA community-based suicide prevention program for rural veterans. A Kansas chapter, Together With Veterans AND Morris County, has been in existence for a little over four years with a common goal to bring awareness to the stigma of mental health. And local Fredrick Phillips American Legion Post 121 of Council Grove has brought the Be the One message into partnership with the program, amplifying it further.
Doug Hensley reports: “We were very deliberate in selecting our steering committee, and that's paid huge dividends. We're composed of five veterans or currently serving members, and five civilians. That includes a licensed mental health clinician, a pastor, the United School District (USD) 417 mental health liaison, a teacher, a currently serving E-7 AGR in the Kansas Army National Guard, a local sheriff's deputy, two military retirees and Jane Rickenbrode, who works locally but is very involved in the community.
“Since 2021, we've conducted training for over 600 people, the largest of those being 155 students and 10 adults at Chase County Junior/Senior High School on Jan. 23, 2025. As luck would have it, a snafu in the electronics led us to find that delivering our message without video and slides was much more effective.
“With the assistance of our two local newspapers, the Council Grove Republican and The Prairie Post of White City, all the articles we write are placed on the front page. Additionally, we asked for their assistance in working to get a solid number of veterans in the county. They did so by asking to honor veterans over Veterans Day and placing their names in the paper. From that, we were able to ascertain that there are approximately 1,079 veterans and those currently serving in Morris County. A county with a population of 5,307 – so roughly 22%. If you extrapolate that out, it would be reasonable to assume that 22% of our students are related to a veteran, thus the reason we wanted into our schools.
“We originally were only going to be in Morris County, but all that changed last October when White City, which is in a cooperative with Hope in Dickinson County, asked if we would include them. Of course we did. Then we realized we would bypass Herington and Centre and if we were going there, why not Chase County and North Lyon County? Our sphere of influence moved from 900 to 2,200 students overnight.
“Not only do we offer the VA S.A.V.E. training, but we also place a strong push on resiliency and bullying, which are both prevalent in our schools. Additionally, I have been to Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and am looking to attend the Train-the-Trainer so I can teach it.
“We feel that our message is resonating with our local populace. With the attack on the stigma, we've fielded over 80 calls from concerned citizens, not just about veterans but about people of all ages. We can tell you, for a fact and by name, four adults – three of them veterans – and two teenagers still walking the face of the earth because someone cared enough to call and we got them help. We don't provide services, but we know those who do.
“We're currently in the latter stages of an MOU with Crosswinds Counseling and Wellness out of Emporia, our local providers, as well as being housed in an office in Council Grove where we received a $5,000 Foundation for Rural Services grant for a Virtual Living Room, with two licensed clinicians. We've had more than 90 veterans and family members utilize our Virtual Living Room – some for telehealth appointments, but the majority have been Post 121 Commander Rebecca Elias and I assisting with claims and appeals. This includes helping an elderly veteran spouse whose husband passed away 15 years ago get a claim approved since he died from a service-connected disability. Our licensed clinicians also have access to our telehealth equipment and have utilized it on multiple occasions for clients who didn't want to come to the office.
“Our post, Together With Veterans AND Morris County are working hand-in-hand and doing amazing things in our communities and for our kids.”
Post 121 Adjutant Jim Crosby calls the Legion’s involvement in Together With Veterans AND Morris County “our lockstep approach to caring for veterans. When you see one, you see the other. We truly are ‘Be the One’ when it comes to changing the way mental health is viewed in our community. Adults openly talk about it. Young people openly talk about it. Students at our high school have approached their administrators about starting a mental health club. Through awareness, we’re simply eroding away the stigma.
“Is it perfect? No. Is it a step in the right direction? I think our results speak for themselves.”
Crosby continues that the "AND" is capitalized “to be inclusive of our civilian populace. In a 10-year period from approximately 2006-2016, Morris County lost 24 people to suicide. This doesn't include three students from USD 417, recently graduated, who lived just outside Morris County but attended school within it. This is a huge number for a county with a population of 5,300 citizens.” He and his wife, Sue, are on the steering committee and listed as White Star Parents: “On July 31, 2018, we lost our adopted son, Sgt. Khamis A. Crosby, to suicide. It's what fuels us to bring this grassroots effort to our community, and other communities around us, every day.”
Doug Hensley is a member of Miami American Legion Post 156 in Paola, Kan.
- Be the One