PENNSYLVANIA, USA — It's a free bus that will help change lives.
Three local nonprofits are hoping to be chosen to get a free bus that Bailey Coach of York County is donating --free of charge -- to help the nonprofit do its important work in the community.
For The Love Of A Veteran is one of the organizations hoping to be chosen.
The York County based organization help veterans deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.
They do so by taking veterans for a new PTSD treatment called Stellate Ganglion Block or SGB. “It’s basically an injection in the nerve block in the neck called stellate ganglion block and it basically resets the fight or flight. It's tremendous,” says Founder and CEO Christine Waltz.
The nonprofit has a partnership with OSS Health in York County along with a center in Annapolis Maryland and others around the nation that provide the treatment which eliminates the need for extended PTSD medications or therapy.
“It takes away the frustration, the anger that so many of the veterans have from experiencing the trauma and it helps with sleep, the dreams, and all those kind of things.”
The benefits of SGB can last from several months to several years and because it's not a medication per se, as Waltz says the injection can be given as often as needed.
“For a veteran that is suffering with PTSD, just even a couple of months with quietness in there and calmness is phenomenal.”
Waltz would love her organization to be the one to win the 47-passenger motorcoach that Bailey Coach is donating to a local nonprofit. She says the bus would be used as a mobile SGB treatment center where doctors would be able to access more veterans more easily.
“What that would really do would be to cut back on the veterans' wait time, or cut back on getting scheduled. We could schedule the veterans for the mobile treatment center and the doctor could be there and just all come in and get it done.”
Waltz says that type of mobile opportunity would ease anxiety and worry among some veterans about getting PTSD treatment. With Pennsylvania being home to more than 700 thousand veterans- Waltz says need for the SGB treatment is huge for veterans of all conflicts. “If you would have heard one of the veterans we had speaking- he went on how this saved his life. Another one of the veterans was thinking about committing suicide the day before he got the injection. It's saving lives. This bus is going to save lives.
For the Love of a Veteran is one of three local nonprofits vying for the Bailey Coach.
The public will decide the winner through online voting which will open Friday Nov. 5 and will continue until Nov. 17.
The winner will be announced on Nov. 22nd.
To vote for For the Love of a Veteran, Inc., you can text the keyword "VET" to 717-843-0043.