How to support military families beyond Veterans Day

Welcome back on this Monday morning. It is 7.53. Veterans Day. It's time to honor those who have served. But for many veteran families, challenges tied to medical care, life after service, and mental health can continue long after November 11th. Ken Fisher with Fisher House Foundation joins me this morning. Good morning to you. Good morning, Brandon. Well, so Veterans Day is only one day. Your work, however, goes throughout the whole year, right? Yes, it does, because so does theirs. So, you know... Everybody serves. It's not just the man or woman wearing the uniform, but their family as well. Fisher House was designed to honor that service and sacrifice. So you got the Fisher House Foundation. It's a network, really, I guess, of more than 100 homes, including here in North Texas. What do you do there? How does that work? Well, we provide lodging for families of our wounded, sick or injured to stay in at no charge for as long as the hospital stay dictates. So families can stay together at their most stressful time. We also remove the financial burden by having no charge associated with staying in a Fisher House. We also have a travel program where you can donate unused frequent flyer miles to us and we in turn can buy tickets for family members to go back and forth because life doesn't stop when a loved one's in the hospital and we've got other programs we've got scholarship programs a hotel program as well in case the Fisher House is not there so there's a lot of different ways but i didn't wear the uniform and i think the most important thing to remember on Veterans Day is you don't have to have worn the uniform to make a difference in these men and women's lives Well, speaking of making a difference, I mean, you mentioned these veterans need help throughout the year. Is it difficult to get people to have that kind of support or maybe top of mind thought all year round rather than just on Veterans Day? Well, I think, you know, when you're talking about the man or woman who serve, you know, if they come home with post-traumatic stress, there are gaps in mental health care, and I think that leads to other issues. You know, when they transition from military to civilian life, you know, there are problems associated with that. They have to basically come up with a new identity. They went from serving... Being part of a team, deploying and so forth, now they're nine-to-fivers. They've got to go out and find a job. They've got to go out and get a house. They've got to make sure that they can financially carry all of the burdens associated with being a nine-to-fiver. So the problems start there, but it's post-traumatic stress that I think is the big issue right now because of the stigma that's associated with coming forward for anybody who has got mental health challenges. And the things you just rattled off, are those some of the other things that Fisher House Foundation provides more than just the home? That's right. Fisher House is involved in keeping the family together, whether the wounds are seen or unseen. And I think it's very important to remember that these men and women are suffering in silence. So many of them have not come forward. And it's up to us to keep this conversation going, make it easier for these men and women to come forward and seek the treatment that is available. So if people want to help or they want to do something, are you looking for volunteers or more so donations? Well, you can go to our website, which is fisherhouse.org. You can donate. You can donate frequent flyer miles. You can volunteer at one of the many houses we have in Texas. But the most important thing is to get involved. Veterans Day is something that we should be celebrating. All year round because the service and the sacrifice that these men and women have given to this nation is also all year round, 24-7. So we can't just stop on 364 days and have one day to honor their service and sacrifice. It's up to us to keep these conversations going, learn about veterans, learn about their issues and challenges, and make a difference in their lives. Yeah, and you mentioned it's not just about the PTSD when you've got a veteran that has an injury or needs to be in a hospital and to have that family very close to them. That's really an important element here. Well, it's about that. It makes the family better caregivers because now they don't have to worry about a long hotel stay where they probably can't afford it. And it makes the patient a better patient because now they don't have to worry about where their family is staying, how they're going to get home, because so many are within walking distance of the hospital. So it's important to remember that Fisher House is designed to keep families together. That's our main point. So you said you didn't serve. How did you get involved in this? Well, it was begun by my late uncle, Zach Fisher, in 1990, when it was brought to his attention that there was this basic yet underappreciated need, where families had no affordable place to stay when their loved one was in the hospital. We're developers in New York City. He had access to an architect. He's a builder. He said, I can build a house. And instead of sitting back and pointing out the problems, he decided to be part of the solution. And that's something that we need more of. And Fisher House is a public-private partnership. Which operates with the government basically donating the land to us temporarily, rebuilding the Fisher House, and then donating it back to whichever branch of the government it's gonna serve. They, in turn, can operate, staff, and maintain it in perpetuity, and we can keep going and blessing on the ex-community. Right, right. All right, so we have a link to the Fisher House Foundation on our website, fox4news.com. Ken Fisher, Fisher House Foundation, thank you so much for your time this morning. Thank you very much for having me.