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Veterans Advisory Committee <br />Minutes August 24, 2021 <br />Page 11 <br />Chair Doolittle: yes, please. <br />Gray: First of all, if you know someone who's having some kind of emotional or mental <br />break because of this, please send them to get mental help. There's help available at the <br />vet centers. A lot of veterans feel most comfortable there. There's also telehealth options <br />because we know mental health options for veterans on our island is very limited. Also, <br />on another note but on the same wave if you have anybody that you know of that is trying <br />to get out from Afghanistan, you can reach out to us, we are doing daily compiling of <br />lists and sending them forward through the state department to work through special <br />issues with visas and P 1, P2 visas and trying to get them evacuated. So please feel free to <br />reach out to our office. You can go on our website, Kahele.gov and you can pull up our, <br />if you type Afghanistan into the search bar, all the latest information will be pulled up <br />there and instructions for how to submit case work for it and I will send you everything I <br />need to gather as much information as I can about the person. So, if you know any other <br />veterans especially the younger ones who may have served there who may have a fellow <br />afghani that they served with send them our way, definitely. <br />Chair Doolittle: I'd like to give a big shoutout to the vet center as well. They are a <br />remarkable group of people. Felipe Salas has become a personal friend. I know he cares <br />deeply, and he does offer some good counseling. Anybody that's having difficulty with <br />this definitely needs to reach out. <br />Nahakuelua: I want to share the Crisis Line of Hawaii number. What it is, the Crisis Line <br />of Hawaii Is a mental health professional seven days a week, 24 hours a day and anyone <br />can call if they're having a crisis, crisis is usually defined as they can't function in life <br />because there's all this chaos going on in their mind, they can't process emotions fast <br />enough. They're having thoughts where their life is hard to handle so the crisis line, and <br />this is for neighbor islands, 1-800-753-6879, 1-800-753-6879. You can always google the <br />number if you didn't get it. That's pretty much for anyone and if they need someone to <br />talk to, they can call that number and sometimes I've found for veterans, non -veterans, <br />whoever, if they have a bunch of pressure in their minds, heart and minds, weight on their <br />shoulders, just letting it out. I kind of relate that to an analogy, the dam holding back all <br />this water and there's a little pressure outlet that all the water can come out, or like a <br />pressure cooker, you just have to release some of that pressure to kind of get back to your <br />life. So that's what the crisis line does. Then there's the mental health eligibility <br />determination. So pretty much if they don't have medical insurance or any kind of <br />insurance, they can try to see if they qualify through the State of Hawaii, 808-643-2643 <br />and that's Monday through Friday. How that works is a person, whether it be a veteran or <br />non -veteran. <br />Lewis: Can you say again, Isaac? <br />Nahakuelua: Mental Health Eligibly Determination through the State is 808-643-2643. <br />How that works is if someone has some kind of mental health challenge and they're <br />having a hard time coping or they need medication or something, or even food stamps or <br />