The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has partnered with PEACE Ranch in Traverse City, Michigan, for a therapy program that uses rescue horses to help veterans with PTSD. A licensed mental health therapist works with veterans at the ranch for eight hours each week. In light of the program’s success over the past three years, the VHA has sought to double its hours. The expansion will allow the program to help almost twice as many veterans as the current 170.

“More time for PEACE Ranch means that more veterans will successfully be able to deal with the PTSD that is confining them in their lives, and basically coming out here gives them new life,” said PEACE Ranch Executive Director Jackie Kaschel.

Horse therapy can serve as an alternative or supplementary healing method when traditional treatments and medications prove ineffective. In the January issue of the journal Social Work, researchers reported that equine-facilitated mental health programs have shown promise in treating veterans with mental health problems and reintegration issues.

There are many equine programs available to veterans throughout the United States. Nonprofit organization Wounded Warrior Project works with PATH Int’l Equine Services for Heroes to heal using horses. Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association also promotes horse-assisted psychotherapy for veterans suffering from mental health issues.

The action was taken in response to a CBS News investigation in January in which the group’s former employees described wasteful and extravagant spending on parties, meetings and conferences. Board chairman Anthony Odierno is temporarily overseeing WWP while it searches for a permanent CEO. The charity said new leadership would “help restore trust in the organization among all of the constituencies WWP serves.”

WWP collected $312.4 million in donations in 2014. However, CBS News claimed only around 60 percent of donations were directed toward veterans. Using public records, the network found the charity spent $26 million on conferences that year. WWP disputed some of the report’s allegations in a statement released on March 10.

Odierno claimed WWP actually spent about 80 percent of donations on veterans. The group also said 94 percent of the $26 million in spending “was associated with program services delivered to Wounded Warriors and their families.” Odierno is a retired Army captain who himself received WWP’s assistance when he was injured in 2004.

Odierno said the charity group was now getting its focus “solely back on serving our wounded warriors, their caregivers and their families.” WWP ordered an independent review of its operations and has vowed to rein in spending by implementing new rules.

PTS and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are two of the biggest mental health issues facing veterans today. The organization estimates that over 400,000 veterans suffer from PTS while around 320,000 are dealing with TBI.

The Wounded Warrior Project’s survey of 23,000 veterans is described as “the largest collection of data on this generation of injured veterans ever collected.” The annual survey asked wounded veterans about their combat experiences, mental and physical health and challenges in transitioning to civilian life.

The survey also revealed some truths about the lack of adequate health care for former service members. Thirty-five percent of veterans reported facing problems in accessing the mental health care they needed. The same number of veterans also said they had difficulty scheduling appointments with the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2014, the agency was involved in a scandal in which dozens of veterans died while waiting for treatment at the VA hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.

“Our annual survey shows that this generation of injured veterans continues to struggle with the invisible wounds of war, including PTSD and TBI, and the challenges are not getting better with time,” said Wounded Warrior Project CEO Steve Nardizzi.

The organization is launching its $100-million Warrior Care Network in early 2016. The program seeks to provide improved mental health care for injured veterans by connecting four medical centers across the United States.

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact an attorney about your Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, Mental Health, Sexual Assault, Hearing Loss and Tinnitus, Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability, Medical Malpractice, or Aid and Attendance claim, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com/ or call 800.693.4800

Davis arrived in the United States from Manchester, England, on July 29. He kicked off his journey on Aug. 1 from Cape Cod. So far, he has trekked through Massachusetts into Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. His goal is to reach Huntington Beach, California, by Veterans Day on Nov. 11.

The 49-year-old veterans advocate is raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project and UK-based veterans charity Combat Stress. He is accepting donations and chronicling his trek via Not Broken, Just Damaged, his Facebook page. Davis has served 24 years with the British army and worked alongside U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan for five years.

“We talk about ‘leaving no man behind,’ but our veterans ultimately get left behind after coming back home . . . I’m doing what I can to bring attention to just how bad the situation is among our veterans. There’s just not enough being done. I don’t expect the system to ever be perfect, but there’s lots of room for improvement,” Davis said.

Davis was inspired to embark on the 3,178-mile journey across 15 states after returning home from Afghanistan. He chose to do the walking tour in the United States rather than his home country because he thought the bigger population would help to gain more attention for the cause.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 10 to 18 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are likely to have PTSD. Claiming that veterans with PTSD do not receive the help they need, Davis said, “If my efforts can help keep just one veteran from ending up homeless or committing suicide, then it’s worth it.”

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact a veterans lawyer, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com/ or call 800.693.4800

Davis arrived in the United States from Manchester, England, on July 29. He kicked off his journey on Aug. 1 from Cape Cod. So far, he has trekked through Massachusetts into Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. His goal is to reach Huntington Beach, California, by Veterans Day on Nov. 11.

The 49-year-old veterans advocate is raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project and UK-based veterans charity Combat Stress. He is accepting donations and chronicling his trek via Not Broken, Just Damaged, his Facebook page. Davis has served 24 years with the British army and worked alongside U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan for five years.

“We talk about ‘leaving no man behind,’ but our veterans ultimately get left behind after coming back home . . . I’m doing what I can to bring attention to just how bad the situation is among our veterans. There’s just not enough being done. I don’t expect the system to ever be perfect, but there’s lots of room for improvement,” Davis said.

Davis was inspired to embark on the 3,178-mile journey across 15 states after returning home from Afghanistan. He chose to do the walking tour in the United States rather than his home country because he thought the bigger population would help to gain more attention for the cause.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 10 to 18 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are likely to have PTSD. Claiming that veterans with PTSD do not receive the help they need, Davis said, “If my efforts can help keep just one veteran from ending up homeless or committing suicide, then it’s worth it.”

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact a veterans lawyer, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com or call 800.693.4800

In 2005, Stockwell became the first female to lose a limb during active combat when her vehicle was struck by an IED outside of Baghdad. Her lower left leg was amputated, and although she underwent a number of surgeries and survived a number of infections, she writes on her website that her sense of gratitude and hope remained intact.

The journey that led her to become an international athletic champion and sports world icon is nothing short of inspiring. Just three years after her injury, she became the first Iraq veteran to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. After that, Stockwell changed over to triathlon, earning three national titles and three international titles.

Stockwell has been nominated for multiple ESPYs and has won a host of other awards. But according to a profile in Sports Illustrated, Stockwell is not the exception to the rule. Instead, the magazine suggested that Stockwell is at the forefront of a new generation of physically impaired veterans who have used advances in technology, along with their own resilience, to fight against the notion that they are disabled.

Along the way, Stockwell wrote, she has relied on the support of organizations such as the Wounded Warrior Project and the Achilles’ Freedom Team. Today, she is on the board of directors of the Wounded Warrior Project and the USA Triathlon Foundation.

Stockwell is pregnant with her first child, and she is expected to give birth in November. She told reporters for the U.S. Olympic Team that the timing of the baby was part of her plan for Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Although she was not sure until recently that she would be able to try out for the team, she told reporters that she had been training just in case.

Now, she says, she is ready to give it her all to achieve her dreams of Paralympic success.

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact an attorney about your Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, Mental Health, Sexual Assault, Hearing Loss and Tinnitus, Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability, Medical Malpractice, or Aid and Attendance claim, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com/ or call 800.693.4800