Jasper’s Veteran aims to stop veteran suicide with new resources

JASPER, Ind. (WFIE) – According to the Veterans Affairs Bureau, an average of 17 veterans commit suicide every day.

Veterans are more than 50 percent more likely to die by suicide than their civilian counterparts.

In Dubois County, one man is trying something new to stop the crisis.

Boone Taylor is a veteran of Jasper’s Operation Mind, Body and Soul Corporation, a group working to revolutionize mental health care for veterans.

“Sometimes you just need that support, you need that person to support you,” Taylor said. “As we say in the army, we’ve got your six.”

Taylor says the organization was created as a way to connect veterans with other veterans and provide them with the mental health resources they need to recover.

While the American Legions and VFW provide community around the world, Taylor says they’re not always the best place for people struggling.

“When they’re on medication for certain medications, we don’t want them to be under the influence of alcohol at the same time, because that can kind of put them in a suicidal state,” he said.

Instead, Taylor claims that Operation Mind, Body and Soul Corp. helps veterans focus on living a clean life and highlights their mental health.

Vietnam veteran John Bieker says spending time at the organization’s headquarters at the Jasper River Center has helped him build a community of friends who understand what he went through.

“You can’t talk to a civilian because he won’t understand something, your family won’t understand,” Bieker said.

He says that for years after returning from combat, he struggled to find a place where he could find himself again.

“We went through hell for a long time,” Bieker said. “We kind of fell into a trap.”

Other veterans, like Jack Pars, say the organization has provided them with a space to exercise and have fun with their peers.

Their new space is equipped with a kickboxing room and exercise area.

“We just give them a place where they can get away from whoever they need, play cards, throw darts and exercise,” Taylor said.

It’s a model Taylor says they hope to replicate elsewhere. While the details he can share now are limited, he says the Indiana Governor’s Challenge Council is working on a program to spread the idea across the state.

“We need to go in a different direction and do something different than what has been done in the past,” Taylor said.

Taylor says they have been contacted by four veterans struggling with mental health issues in the last month.

He says that thanks to their organization, all these people are alive and receiving help.