Services & Programs » Behavioral Health

Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Peer Support for Veterans and Families

Veteran Crisis Line

Kansas is a military-friendly state. Kansans appreciate service members, veterans, and families and their sacrifices to serve our country and our state. Suppose you are a service member, veteran, or family member. In that case, you may need help with post-traumatic stress, family stress, reintegration issues, substance abuse issues, depression, and suicidal or harming thoughts. Help is available.

No matter what county you live in, work in, or are stationed in, you can find help with behavioral problems and substance use problems and find other service members/veteran peers who can help you locate and navigate treatment options to get the treatment you deserve.

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Kansas Veterans Services Directory

Visit the previous link to display a database of service providers in Kansas, searchable by county or type of services needed.

LiveConnected KS

LiveConnected KS is a service of KDADS. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Kansas has nearly 194,000 veterans, or 9% of the total population, and thousands more serve in the Kansas National Guard, Reserves, and Active Duty. LiveConnected KS was developed as part of the strategy recommended by the Kansas team participating in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Governor’s Challenge to Prevent Suicide among Service Members, Veterans, and their Families.

Ongoing support of LiveConnected KS is provided by the SMVF Subcommittee of the Governor’s Behavioral Health Services Planning Council. The SMVF subcommittee works towards a vision of an expanded and identifiable network of service providers and community supports to adequately meet the behavioral health care needs of veterans, service members, and their families, as well as ongoing engagement of SMVF in eliminating barriers to treatment in creating flexible treatment and recovery options.

For more information about training and resources available, please visit the LiveConnected KS website.

Additional Resources

Providing Services to Veterans

Because Kansas has a nine percent veteran population (24 percent of those ages 17 to 60 years), and that population is slated to grow with the downsizing of the active military, Reserves, and the National Guard. With the reduction of stigma in seeking Behavioral Health treatment and the need for service members, veterans, and families, it is important that providers are prepared to work with our service members and families.

One way to do this is to ensure providers are trained in military cultural responsiveness. If you are not a veteran or family member, competency and a basic understanding of language and experience are critical for engagement and retention in treatment and for providing proper referrals for support services. If that is not possible, it is important to ensure that providers are connected to another agency you can refer military members and families to if the need arises.

There are many avenues of training available for developing competency and basic knowledge for serving the military population. The Governor Behavioral Health Service Planning Council’s Subcommittee on Veteran issues has recommended several listed below.

It is also vital as a service provider or stakeholder providing services to identify if persons seeking services are military members or families. This can be done by simply asking upon intake of a new client, “Have you ever served in the military, or has an immediate family member served? If so, what are the dates/years of service?”