November is Warrior Care Month
November 05, 2008

The Secretary of Defense Robert F. Gates announced that November is Warrior Care Month today. Warrior Care Month is a DoD wide effort aimed at increasing awareness of programs and resources available to wounded, ill, and injured service members, their families, and those who care about them.

“I am pleased we have made significant strides to improve treatment for our service members. But frankly, much work remains to be done. We need to make it easier for our troops and their families to take advantage of all the assistance now available to them,” said Gates.

The department offers myriad resources to service members and their families, from prevention to injury-specific treatments, to ensure military well-being.

In addition, each military service has instituted programs to provide personalized medical and non-medical assistance to wounded, ill and injured service members and their families. These include:

• U.S. Army Warrior Care and Transition Program and the Army Wounded Warrior Program (AW2)
• U.S. Navy Safe Harbor
• U.S. Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment
• U.S. Air Force Wounded Warrior

To simplify access to care the department has created http://www.WarriorCare.mil to serve as a portal to all warrior care resources. This site describes available resources and links users to the correct sources for additional information. Through it, service members, their families, and those who care about them can easily identify and access care.

Throughout November numerous events and educational activities will focus on educating the military community about the different aspects of the continuum of care provided to service members during the recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration process.