Phoenix House provides a range of substance abuse treatment and support services for active duty personnel, veterans, and their families. From Afghanistan and Iraq to Vietnam and all other military postings, Phoenix House builds on 40 years of experience, to offer assessments, outpatient and residential treatment options, and supplementary services such as vocational counseling. Clients receive trauma-informed individual, group, and family counseling, as well as entitlement assistance. We also provide referrals to veteran service organizations, housing assistance, and recovery management services in the community. Staff members are specially trained to address the full array of issues that servicemen and women often face, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and readjustment issues.
Phoenix House is continually looking to expand the availability of services for the military community by filling service-delivery gaps in the communities in which we operate – through collaborating with other providers, building relationships with key government agencies, accessing available funding opportunities, and implementing new programs through private fund-raising. Please contact us if you think we can help.
Our current programs include:
The Phoenix House Military Services Program at Brentwood offers residential and outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment services. Family therapy and couples counseling are offered, both as part of clients’ treatment and in recognition of the impact an individual’s deployment has on the entire family. Because the Brentwood Military Services Program strives to be as supportive as possible, services address not only clinical needs, but basic ones such as accessing VA benefits, and program participants have access to onsite medical and dental care. For veterans who are having a difficult time finding a career path, vocational training and educational counseling are available. There is a business center with a state-of-the-art computer lab, and also a relaxing lounge area renovated specifically for Military Services Program participants. In response to the high need on Long Island, we have made plans to create a program for veterans in the soon to be constructed Edward D. Miller Center in Hauppauge.
Services offered at the Phoenix House Jack Aron Center, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, include outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment for military personnel, veterans, and their family members. Modeled after the Military Services Program at Brentwood, the Military Community Services Program at the Jack Aron Center was designed to address the unique needs of current and former military personnel.
Phoenix House RISE (Recovery in an Independent, Sober Environment) Men’s Program in Bellows Falls, Vermont offers sober living for men in early recovery from substance abuse, with specialized programming for veterans.
In his opinion piece The Antithesis of Charity: Investing in Our Future by Keeping Our Promise to Veterans, Eli Williamson, Co-Founder and President of Leave No Veteran Behind and a veteran of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, discusses how “keeping our promise to our returning veterans and investing in them so that they can positively impact our nation’s future is not charitable…it is simply the smart thing to do.”
Veterans from the Phoenix House Brentwood Campus’ Military Community Services Program attended a memorial to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This year’s Veterans Day marks a particularly bittersweet milestone—President Obama’s recent announcement of the impending withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. It’s easy to accept the positive implications of this announcement, but we need to remember that coming home is often the greatest battle. Many veterans turn to substance abuse as a coping mechanism when returning home, and unfortunately, most of them are unaware of how or where to get help.
Mitch Rosenthal, MD, founder of Phoenix House and Edward D. Miller, a member of the Board of Directors, visit the Military Community Services Program at the Phoenix House Brentwood Campus.
