The Brook Hospitals Partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters for “Mentoring Military Children”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – (June 1, 2010) – Mentoring youth has been the focus of Big Brothers Big Sisters since its inception more than 100 years ago. The Brook Hospitals, Psychiatric Solutions, Inc. (PSI) facilities, recently announced they will join their mission to provide support to military families.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters program will respond to the needs of children in military families with its “Mentoring Military Children” initiative. The program matches children who have a parent deployed or in the process of deployment. It is open to the children of active duty Military, Reservist and National Guard Soldiers. Once the child is matched, Big Brothers Big Sisters provides mentor support with special events, outings and activities.

Since 2001, nearly 900,000 troops with children have been deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon estimates that currently 234,000 children have a mother or father deployed.

“Children with mothers and fathers in the military often suffer from increased levels of fear and anxiety or may experience behavioral problems,” said Paul Andrews, chief executive officer of The Brook Hospital – Dupont and The Brook Hospital - KMI. “With high levels of military deployment and repeat tours of duty, partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters allows our staff to assist families and their children in the Fort Knox area who need help coping with the stress and complications that multiple deployments might cause.”

Most recently, The Brook Hospitals sponsored a breakfast to kick off the “Mentoring Military Children” initiative. The event was held at the Leaders Club at Fort Knox.

“The Big Brothers Big Sisters mission falls right in line with our mission: to provide military families with the help and support they need as they bravely serve our country,” said Andrews. “As they proudly serve us, we want to serve them.”

In addition to their support of the “Mentoring Military Children” initiative, The Brook Hospital – Dupont is also designated as a PSI Patriot Support Center, an expanded program that provides behavioral health services to military members and their families at PSI facilities around the country.

For more information about the “Mentoring Military Children” initiative, call (270) 769-5225 or send an e-mail to bob.belknap@bbbs.org.

For more information about PSI Patriot Support, please visit www.PSIPatriotSupport.com

About The Brook Hospitals
The Brook Hospital – Dupont and The Brook Hospital – KMI provides the highest quality mental health and addiction services through a secure and supportive environment that encourages individuals to enter recovery and return to successful living. The Brook offers a full continuum of inpatient, partial and outpatient services for children ages 3 to 12, as well as for adults. Specialized treatment services are provided by a multidisciplinary team of highly trained physicians, psychologists, social workers, addiction counselors, nurses and activity therapists. For more information, please visit www.thebrookdupontmediapsi.com or www.thebrookkmimediapsi.com

About Psychiatric Solutions, Inc. (PSI)
Psychiatric Solutions, Inc. offers an extensive continuum of behavioral health programs to critically ill children, adolescents and adults and is the largest operator of owned or leased freestanding psychiatric inpatient facilities with more than 11,000 beds in 32 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. PSI also manages freestanding psychiatric inpatient facilities for government agencies and psychiatric inpatient units within medical/surgical hospitals owned by others. For more information, please visit www.psychiatricsolutionsmedia.com

Kristin J. Robinson
(o) 615-780-3319
(c) 310-422-0308
kristinr@psychiatricsolutionsmedia.com

Cheryl Bak
(o) 615-780-3351
(c) 301-461-2257
cheryl.bak@dvl.com

209 Seventh Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37219

This release was published on openPR.