Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

They served their country overseas in wars as long ago as Vietnam and as recent as Afghanistan. Yet for so many of today's military veterans, the scars of war, both physical and emotional, have made coming home an ongoing battle, fraught with overwhelming pain and trauma. Presently, twenty-two veterans die by suicide every day, nearly one an hour, a human toll greater than deaths from combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. To respond to this crisis, the National Veterans Crisis Line in upstate New York is the only call center devoted to helping at-risk veterans and their families. It's open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and receives more than 20,000 calls a month.

Produced with the cooperation of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 2015 Academy Award® winner Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 bears intimate witness to the devoted counselors and responders who answer those calls. With compassion, understanding and life-saving urgency, they must locate and talk down suicidal veterans as they wait for police and emergency medical workers to arrive and intervene.

Join New America NYC and Words After War for a screening of Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 followed by a discussion with Ellen Goosenberg Kent, the film's director, and key veterans, advocates, and writers on the challenges facing so many of our veterans. We'll take a look at programs, resources and those dedicated helpers who work to keep our service men and women out of harm's way after they've left the battlefield.

Introductions:

Beth Dembitzer
Curator, Social Cinema@New America
@bethdembitzer

Brandon Willitts
Co-founder and Executive Director, Words After War
@BrandonWillitts

Participants: 

Ellen Goosenberg Kent
Director, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Scott Thompson
Director, Veterans Mental Health Coalition
Assistant Director, National Traumatic Brain Injury and Emotional Wellness Alliance

Phoebe Gavin
Iraq War veteran
Curator, Upworthy
@ohsoordinary

Phil Zabriskie
Author, The Kill Switch
@KillSwitchStory

Matt Gallagher
Former U.S Army captain and Iraq War veteran
Author, Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in A Savage Little War
Co-editor and contributor, Fire & Forget: Short Stories from the Long War
@MattGallagher83