In Honolulu, a local veteran is kicking off a podcast called “1 Mile 1 Veteran” to help prevent suicides in the veteran community.
The host and founder, Danny Mayberry served in the Navy for 11 years with several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. After returning to Hawaii, he said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and wants to help veterans with their path to healing.
“These conversations around mental health need to be normalized. We need to get rid of the stigma that seeking help is a sign of weakness. Everything you do in life, you do as a team in a community. We all want to build each other up and that’s what the veteran community wants to do,” said Mayberry.
Suicide among veterans has steadily gone up nationally over the past two decades. According to a report by the Department of Veterans Affairs, suicide accounted for 217 deaths in Hawaii in 2019 and 17 of them were veterans.
However, some officials believe that number is actually higher.
“We have to take everyone into consideration. There are those that are actively serving, those with prior service, those in the reserves and even family members of veterans. A lot of those people have attempted and/or contemplated suicide. That number is significantly higher actually,” said Alim Shabazz, Coast Guard auxiliary member.
The “1 Mile 1 Veteran” podcast kicked off Labor Day and will stream on Spotify, Google Podcast and Apple Podcast.
Host and founder, Danny Mayberry said he wants to help veterans with all forms of health – mental, physical, spiritual relational, and professional, and find ways to fight negative thoughts like stress and anxiety.
Read more at KITV.com.
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