'I have a bottle of vodka and a .45 and I don’t know what to do'

The call came late one night, from one of the men with whom Matt Hall once served in the military.

"I have a bottle of vodka and a .45 and I don’t know what to do," the man, who was suicidal, told Hall.

Hall, director of veteran affairs for the city of Indianapolis, didn’t know what to do either or where to refer the caller for help.

Many other service members, including many in the Indiana National Guard, may find themselves at a similar loss for resources to handle their substance abuse problems.

Tuesday, Fairbanks Hospital, Community Health Network and the Indiana National Guard announced a new program that aims to help Guard soldiers who are struggling with such issues.

While some of these individuals may enjoy veterans insurance that allows them to go to a local VA hospital for care, others are not eligible for such benefits.

For these individuals, who may have no insurance at all, finding help to handle substance use disorders can prove challenging. Even those who do have insurance may balk at seeking help, afraid that the care providers will not understand their background in the military.

Under the so-called “Mission: Recovery” collaboration, most of Fairbanks Hospital’s more than two dozen therapists received extensive training in military culture to help enable them to work with service members. All of the hospital’s staff underwent eight hours of training.

“The real difference is just a true understanding of their unique challenges, barriers to recovery and being culturally competent,” said Robin Parsons, Fairbanks’ chief clinical officer.

The training ranges from basic vocabulary — such as what does deployment mean — to a greater familiarity with the realities of life in the military. For instance, people who have served may have suffered back injuries after carrying heavy rucksacks that require them to take opiates to handle the pain. Others may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Indiana National Guard state behavioral health officer Major Scott Edwards hailed the program, one of the few of its kind in the nation.

The program “is really geared toward the specific needs of service members,” he said. “We need places where we can send our people and know they will get the care they need.”

As part of the program, Fairbanks will offer $120,000 a year in charity care for Guard members who lack insurance. Without knowing what type of services, people seeking charity care might need, it’s difficult to know how many people Fairbanks may help, Parsons said.

However, she estimates about three to four service members a month could receive charity care through the new program.

Nor is it clear at this point how many people might want to avail themselves of the program.

Each month about 10 percent of the 13,500 or so members of the Indiana National Guard undergo random monthly drug testing. From 300 to 500 of these tests come back positive for drugs, said Major Derek Sutton with the Indiana National Guard. Marijuana tops the list of drugs found during such screenings, followed by opiates.

Soldiers who test positive can wind up discharged but the Guard does give them opportunities to enter recovery. This new collaboration will provide another opportunity.

Alcoholism is another problem that some Guard members may face.

Some service members might also prefer to go outside the veterans system for care, afraid that seeking help within the system might interfere with a promotion, Hall said. Until now, their options to do so may have been limited.

“This is a game-changer,” he said. “This is a totally different concept.”

From 2009 to 2010, Hall, now a reservist, was deployed in Kabul as part of the Indiana National Guard with about 170 others. In the years since that time, there have been five suicides from those who served with him.

As for that soldier who called him on the brink of suicide? Hall did connect him to help and the man is doing well now, he said.

Call IndyStar staff reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.