UCLA Operation Mend awarded $15.7M to expand services for veterans
By Amanda Wilcox
June 2, 2015 8:34 p.m.
The Wounded Warrior Project announced a $15.7 million grant Tuesday for UCLA Health’s Operation Mend, a treatment program for wounded veterans and their families.
Melanie Gideon, director of Operation Mend, said the money will be granted in installments of $5 million per year over the next three years. She said $15 million will be used to launch three-week-long intensive mental health treatment programs for veterans in the post-9/11 era starting in fall. The programs will focus on service members with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
She added that the remaining $700,000 will be spent on information technology infrastructure aimed to allow medical professionals to monitor data and analyze results from different treatments.
The new mental health program will operate under the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, according to a press release from the Operation Mend website.
Founded in 2007, Operation Mend provides medical care such as reconstructive plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery and mental health care to veterans, Gideon said.
Gideon added she thinks the Wounded Warrior Program, a national program that provides health care to wounded veterans and their families, approved the grant to increase veterans’ access to health care services because allocating funds to different programs for veteran health care, like Operation Mend, is important.
“One program can’t address the entire veteran community’s health care needs,” Gideon said.
Dr. Thomas Strouse, professor of clinical psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and vice chair for clinical affairs in the psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences department, said in a statement that he believes the program will dramatically enhance the services that UCLA Health and Operation Mend can provide to veterans and active duty service members and their families.
Rep. Ted Lieu, who represents California’s 33rd congressional district, said in a statement that he commends UCLA and Operation Mend for their current work with veterans and believes the additional funding will help Operation Mend develop a state-of-the-art treatment program.
Gideon said Operation Mend will begin receiving funds on June 10.
Compiled by Bonnie Ni and Amanda Wilcox, Bruin contributors.
