Recovery care program offers helping hand

  • Published
  • By Michelle Helms-Raper
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  You've got your life planned and everything is moving along, right on schedule. Then you get thrown a curve. The medical test results come back positive. You, or your spouse, are in an accident and hospitalized for months.

All of a sudden you're dealing with something that changes your life forever, struggling to cope with a situation you never even considered.

No matter the injury or illness, Air Force leaders recognize the road to recovery doesn't stop at the hospital doors. The Recovery Care Program is the latest resource available to Airmen and their families to help them heal after a life-altering experience. The program works with the Air Force Wounded Warrior and Survivor Care Programs, providing nonmedical support to individuals and families as they work to not only overcome physical and emotional trauma, but to navigate their way through the information they need to rebuild their lives.

"There are a lot of great people working at various agencies who will assist wounded, ill and injured Airmen and their families," said John Beckett, Pentagon Air Force Warrior and Survivor Care Program manager. "It is the recovery care coordinator who is the prime contact to bring all of this support together and follow through."

Follow through is what makes this program different. The Recovery Care Program recognizes that physical recovery is just one part of helping the family overcome trauma. In addition to medical needs, there are life's practicalities: housing, transportation, paying bills if the member is unable to go back to work. That process could take years.

"This commitment that we're making to our clients, it's a long-term commitment," said Annette Slaydon, Arizona's Recovery Care Coordinator and who lives in Avondale. "As soon as someone integrates back into civilian life it's not, 'OK, see ya.' It's not what the program is intended for. It's really to ensure that our servicemembers are getting the best of everything possible and getting all their needs met."

It includes everything from Air Force Aid assistance to marital and family counseling, housing, travel, financial benefits and veterans benefits.

"Any and all benefits that they're entitled to, I want to make sure they're set up with," Mrs. Slaydon said.

"The recovery care coordinator is designed to be an ultimate resource for seriously wounded, ill or injured servicemembers," said Patricia Thurgood, 56th Force Support Squadron Airman and Family Readiness Flight consultant. "The RCC will play a key role in streamlining the process and will work closely with the Airman and Family Readiness Center to ensure the right level of support and entitlements are delivered to recovering Airmen and eligible family members."

There are thousands of programs and resources available to those recovering from life-altering experiences. Just trying to find help can be overwhelming.

Mrs. Slaydon is based at Luke Air Force Base. She knows firsthand how overwhelming it can be. Her husband, retired Tech. Sgt. Matthew Slaydon, former 56th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal technician, suffered life threatening injuries nearly two years ago when he was investigating an improvised explosive device while deployed.

The Slaydons spent the next year and a half at Brooke Army Medical Center and the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio for his rehabilitation and other medical treatments. During that time Mrs. Slaydon says there was always someone offering to help, giving her a business card, telling her to call if she needed anything. And while the offers of help were appreciated, there were so many - the offers themselves became another source of stress during an already traumatic time. She says at one point she had five gallon-size plastic bags full of business cards from people offering their services.

"This program is really intended to help get rid of that confusion and have me be the person who can find those resources for them," Mrs. Slaydon said. "They don't need to be out there digging through their business cards at 7 o'clock at night going 'Gosh, I know somebody talked to me about this ... but I have 50 business cards.' That's my whole purpose - get the people to those resources and make sure those resources are indeed helping them out."

Mrs. Slaydon has more than 20 years experience helping others as a paralegal in Phoenix. But she wasn't hired for this position because of what she did, or even what she experienced with her husband's injuries. Like the other recovery care coordinators in 15 locations in the U.S. and Hawaii who are working around the world, she was chosen because of who she is.

"Our RCCs must have a heart for people and the willingness and capability to work issues at all levels," said Stephen Page, Air Force Recovery Care Program manager. "Annette wasn't chosen because of Matt but for her determination, compassion and ceaseless love to those men and women and families who are willing to carry the colors of our nation into combat."

Possessing zeal for this work is a requirement and was echoed by Mr. Beckett.

"It is important that RCCs do not look at this as just a job," Mr. Beckett said. "But rather as a vocation for which they have a deep passion. "

Mrs. Slaydon says she's excited to be a part of this new program and is determined to make it successful.

"I want to be the person that they know, 'I can call Annette and she's going to help me get taken care of,'" Mrs. Slaydon said. "We want our family members and our recovering servicemembers to worry about one thing and one thing only, and that's getting better."