An app designed to provide Native American veterans with mental health care in a culturally tailored way that received a funding boost from the Department of Veterans Affairs is set to formally launch after an event this weekend with the Navajo Nation.
Starting Memorial Day on Monday, interested veterans will be able to register for virtual talking circles — discussion ceremonies deeply rooted in indigenous North American culture — through the Hero’s Story web-based app developed by a company called Televeda, which won a VA grant competition last year that sought innovative ideas for veterans suicide prevention.
“Topics like historical trauma, etc., are felt at a community level and so the healing also happens together through stories, fire, food,” Televeda co-founder Mayank Mishra told Military.com in a recent interview. “Even though it’s a small population in one sense, it’s the ones who are the most underserved and have a lot of complex issues that we’re hoping to just move the needle in the right direction.”
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Native Americans historically have joined the military at one of the highest rates of any ethnic group in the U.S., but indigenous veterans also have one of the highest suicide rates.
In 2021, the suicide rate for Native American veterans was 46.3 per 100,000, the highest of any ethnic or racial group, according…
