Bill to Fund Veteran Support | Video

Jessica Roose | 1/31/2013

A non-profit organization from Fargo is among the many groups asking the legislature for funding. They say with the money, they will be able to help veterans after they return from war with a holistic and alternative approach.

They go to war to serve the country. But when some of the soldiers get back they can suffer from several issues, including Post Traumatic Stress.

"I deployed to Iraq on a 15 month mission that included a year in country and ended in 2005. By that fall I was crashing hard, I was drinking a lot, at home, alone," said SSG Amy Wieser Willson.

Willson saw a doctor and was prescribed a slew of medications, but things continued to get worse.

"People increasingly realize that pharmaceuticals aren`t the answer, or at least not the only answer," said Representative Randy Boehning (R) from Fargo.

Which is why he is sponsoring a bill that would give nearly $1.5 million to help fund an organization that offers a more holistic approach to treating PTSD and other neurological disorders.

"These therapies help a lot of veterans. About 40 percent of those who go through treatment are cured. But there are many more suffering veterans who are not helped," he said.

HeartSprings Community Healing Center offers a variety of treatment options ranging from counseling to yoga.

"These are therapies that we can use with people to say if you can`t sleep at night we can help you with that. If you`re having problems with recurring nightmares we can help you with that. But you don`t necessarily need a diagnosis from us to treat that," said founder Jan Nelson.

Willson says it was the treatment she received there that has put her on the path to recovery. "Jan`s training in mind body medicine and the group that she provided that connected me with other women veterans, began to teach us a lot of the skills we needed to connect our minds and souls all back together. Because it`s all interconnected and all needs to heal together."

Willson says she has since been able to get off all the medication she had been on and is now teaching yoga at the center.

The bill received a do pass recommendation from the committee and will now go to the House floor for consideration.

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