Health coverage has been expanded for active and retired members of the military and their families in the North Country in need of mental health and addiction prevention, treatment and recovery services at Citizen Advocates.

Citizen Advocates operates integrated outpatient clinics for mental health and addiction in Massena, Ogdensburg, Malone, Saranac Lake, and will open a Behavioral Health Campus in Watertown in early 2023.

Citizen Advocates now accepts the following insurance plans covering uniformed service members (active duty & retired) and their families, National Guard/Reserve members and their families, survivors, former spouses, Medal of Honor recipients and their families, and others registered in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System.

The new plans are TRICARE, CHAMPVA, VA Community Care Network and TRICARE for Life.

“The men and women of our armed forces have volunteered to defend our country, and given the nature of their work, often do so at great cost to their physical and mental well-being,” said James Button, President & CEO of Citizen Advocates. “It’s our duty to eliminate the barriers they face when seeking the care they need, especially if it means avoiding the cost and inconvenience of traveling outside of our community to the limited locations where their health coverage is accepted.”

Designated as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, the treatment is tailored to individuals who need access to a range of services, including crisis care, outpatient treatment, peer support, career counseling, transportation and more. If an individual seeking treatment is a veteran, they will be offered the opportunity to connect with a member of the care team who is also a veteran – this could be a therapist, peer or other health professional.

“The staff in our clinics receive specialized training so they can work with veterans,” said Jennifer Rowledge, Director of Behavioral Health, Seaway Valley. “Not only that, we employ a wide range of evidence based practices and specialized treatments that veterans are seeking for conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

One of the more effective treatments for PTSD is Eye Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy. Commonly referred to as EMDR, it is a type of therapy that uses visual, auditory or tactile stimulation in a left-to-right rhythm across the two sides of the body.

The treatment has been available at Citizen Advocates since 2003, and helps patients identify feelings, thoughts or images that are associated with a traumatic memory; desensitize those ideas; and then reprocess how the ideas relate to the memory.

To learn more about the services available to veterans at Citizen Advocates, or to contact a clinic, visit https://citizenadvocates.net/about-us/.