From the Editor
This month, we are holding
the theme Out of Reach.
A person calls and says she is not sleeping. That is the problem she has come with, and a system organized around presenting problems will give her sleep hygiene, a worksheet, maybe a referral.
Several conversations later, something else comes out. She lost her job. Rent is due and she does not know how it gets paid, and there is a question about food. The sleeping was never the problem. It was the only part of the problem she was willing to say out loud to a stranger on a first call.
Jennifer Christman, who is on our cover this month, has built her working life around that gap. Her teams at MyAdvisor reach veterans, service members, caregivers and families across all fifty states, and much of what they do is get to the actual problem rather than the one that arrived first. Trust has to come before some truths, and a person needs time before she will tell you it is money, or grief, or fear.
That is this issue. Things that exist for you and that you cannot get to. More than four million veterans live in rural communities and the right provider may be three hours away. Military spouse unemployment sits around twenty percent among civilian spouses, largely because families relocate and licenses do not travel with them. A benefit nobody explained is a benefit that does not exist in any way that matters.
What I would ask of you this month is small and slightly uncomfortable. If you are carrying something, notice what you say first when someone asks, and notice what you are leaving out. Then consider telling one person the second thing.
Naghilia Desravines, Editor-in-Chief
