The Invisible Wounds: How Camp Hope is Saving Our Local Veterans

You're watching the Isaiah Factor Uncensored. And welcome back to the second half hour of the Factor Uncensored. We're paying tribute to the veterans here in our country. And we have some very special guests joining us now from Camp Hope PTSD Foundation of America. We have with us our guests, John Farmer, Army Specialist, and Phillip Pickering. Both also an army specialist and David Malsby from the PTSD Foundation of America. So gentlemen, thank you guys for your service and thank you for both being here on the Factor Un- censored when you think about what you have given to this country and your role in securing us and keeping us safe. What do you think about veterans day? Do we have much, much more to do from your perspective? In my perspective, I think that Veteran's Day is a very important day for fallen soldiers. Also I enjoy the service that I gave to the country. And let's hear from you, sir. Well to me, Veteran's Day is obviously about the veterans that have come home, but But to me, More of Veterans Day is the ones that haven't come home. All of us, all veterans gave something, but obviously a whole lot more gave everything. And of course, we talk about the veterans here in this country and how much they've given. One of the big problems many of them face when they come back to the United States or back home, stateside, medical problems, mental health problems, addiction problems. Let's show you this. We will get David Malsby involved. Now take a look at these numbers here. 18 million veterans live in America today. 17.7 a day lose their lives or commit suicide since 2024. 11-20% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans live with PTSD in a given year. 32,000 plus veterans were homeless on a single night in January. And 62% of veterans lost to suicide in 2024 had not received VA care in that year. So those are some of the problems, David Malsby, that we're looking at. And that you guys at Camp Hope PTSD Foundation of America, you guys are Constantly working on. Yes, it's something we, as a community, have got to come together on. It's too big for the VA. It's too big for any one organization. It's all of us working together. And if everybody does what they can, then everything that needs to be done will get done. But yes, we have a lot of work to do. We're losing, those are the VA statistics, studies from the University of Alabama and Duke University that studied Eight states death certificates across five years, that's a lot of death certificates first of all. But they came back saying that we're losing up to 44 veterans a day, and that's suicide, addiction, overdose, kinda hard to tell sometimes which is which, but they're all preventable. So we're not in a fight with anybody what the number is, but what we will fight for is to try to keep every veteran. Alive that we have the opportunity to come across. Absolutely and Philip and John, you both ended up at and you voluntarily decided to go to Camp Hope. What were some of the issues Philip that you had to deal with in order for you to go there? Well, you're talking about a generation Uh... that came home to a very, very bad return. Vietnam. Vietnam. Vietnam. Most of us. I had no idea what PTSD was, and I had no idea I even had it, but the effects of it have followed me ever since 1969 when I got out of the Army. Camp Hope has helped me learn more about it and deal with it. And when you had your problems, what did that result in? What type of an addiction, if you care to tell us? Well, fortunately, They call me the unicorn at camp because I came home, God blessed me with the fact that I don't have an alcohol problem or a drug problem. I just had a problem with understanding myself. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I went through, from the time I got back from Vietnam, I was averaging a new job about every two to four years. Wow, wow. Uh, I just... I would start out good and then just over a period of time it would be like and I would end up. Usually end up quitting, but occasionally I would end up getting asked to leave. All right, we're going to take a quick break here. We'll come back and talk with you both and how you guys can help out if you want to help the veterans who find themselves at Camp Hope PTSD Foundation of America. I think we have it on the screen there. You can check out their website. We'll be back with our guests in just a moment. We're paying tribute to veterans here on the Factor Uncensored. Stay with us. And welcome back to The Factor Uncensored, it is Veterans Day and we're paying tribute to the veterans of our country and we have some here from Camp Hope, the PTSD Foundation of America, Philip Pickering and John Farmer, and of course, the director, David Malsby. And of course, Philip, let's get back to your story. You said it was difficult to find out who you were after returning from Vietnam. Do you feel like you have your footing now? You're in a good space. I'm in a better space. One thing that a lot of people don't realize that PTSD, you don't get it in, say, six months or a year. It takes time. However long it took you to get it, it's gonna take at least that long to get rid of it. And you never really truly get rid of PTSD, you just learn how to handle it. Camp Hope has been able to give me the tools and the support to learn to deal with it. All right, John, let's talk about you. How did you end up at Camp Hope and was it something you went looking for help? For me, I ended up at Camp Hope because I was court ordered. Mm-hmm. I had a crack cocaine problem and I ended up getting locked up for seven months and I was trying to get help from Camp Hope. Luckily I was able to, they flew me out and if it wasn't for my fiance, Hope, I wouldn't have been able to go to Camp Hope. She fought for me with the prosecutor so that I could come to Camp Hope. At your lowest point, what was that like for you? And what did it look like, your lowest point? Me not taking, not eating, not taking my medicine. Also, me having nightmares, outbursts, domestic violence. I was doing domestic violence. So that's why I ended up, most of my charges were for domestic violence. And is that crack cocaine use, was that tied to... PTSD as well? Yes, sir. I was self-medicating, using crack cocaine for the pain in my body from my deployment to Iraq. Also, I was using it for... My mental, I was also using it with my prescriptions, so I was abusing it. And now that you found some help at Camp Hope PTSD Foundation of America, do you feel like you're getting on the right path and that you will be able to control it? Yes sir, since I've been at Camp Hope, I've learned a lot of skills. Forgiveness, a certain communication, grief. Because I found out that my grandfather had died while I was at Camp Hope, and I wasn't able to attend the funeral. And that was due to me and my addiction. So I missed out on a lot of things that if I was not on drugs, I would take my medication right. I could have been there for my family, but I want to thank my fiance, Hope, for helping me get to... Shout her out? Yeah, I got to, man. She will get me if I don't. There you go, there you go. Well, we're glad you're on the right path, and of course, David... You guys do an incredible job and I can't sing your praises enough at Camp Hope PTSD Foundation of America. You're helping people from all over the country. For those who are interested in also helping you help others, how can they get involved? There's a lot of ways. Volunteering, if you have time, some people have time, some people have money, so some people have influence. Whatever it is, you can use to support our veterans. A lot of volunteer opportunities around our place at our campus. Sometimes it's painting walls or pulling weeds and planting new flowers and all that kind of stuff. Sometimes it's reorganizing what we call our mini Walmart. Supply, sometimes it's just writing a check. You don't have time, but you can donate. We have a lot of things we wanna do and it takes money. We get something from the electric company every single month and shockingly- That damn electric company. It's not a thank you note for taking care of our veterans. It's something completely different than that. So it costs money, it just does. But yeah, there's a lot of ways to get involved. Follow us on social media, PTSD USA, just about everywhere. And that's free, takes you half a second to retweet or share on Facebook, so helps get the word out. We can't be the best kept secret in town. And when you look at some of your success cases, David, where you've helped a long, long, long list of people out with your organization, how does that leave you feeling? You know, first of all, it's a great team effort. And you can look at Phillip right there. You can't get rid of him now. Right. And the crazy thing is that I don't want to. It's really crazy. Vietnam vets, you know, crazy guys. Thank you guys. Yeah, it's very fulfilling. Billing. But, you know, at the same time, it's one of those, it's never enough. Cuz we still get phone calls and emails and people reaching out to us after the loved one has become a statistic. And that's like the ultimate gut punch. So we know we have so much more to do. But yes, we can look around at people that we have been able to intersect with their lives and make a great trajectory life change for them going forward. And it's all at zero cost to them or their family. So that's because of the greatest community in the world. Truly loves and supports our vets. Absolutely. Guys, reach out to PTSD Foundation of America, Camp Hope. Also, follow them on social media, do what you can to help out. And John and Phillip, thank you guys for joining us here on The Factor on Census for Veterans Day, and we wanna wish you the very best. Thank you.