At a mental health summit which opens Tuesday in Pierre, the North Dakota American Legion hopes to share its new program, "Courage Carries On," with South Dakota mental health providers and veterans' groups.
Reading the local Sioux Falls paper this morning (on-line, it's quite rare that I actually read the paper copy) I saw this interesting article and thought it was an important one to talk about. A Veterans group is going to start using Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets to try and reach other Veterans that might be struggling with mental health issues.
One of the saddest realities of war is that it does a lot of emotional and psychological damage to the brave men and women who are fighting those wars. What I consider to be even worse is that for the most part, we've ignored those soldiers struggles when they get back home. Luckily there are some groups, like the one talked about in the Argus Leader, who are reaching out to help.
This is one of the best parts of Social Media. With sites like Twitter and Facebook, you can reach out to people who you might never have met before and be able to have conversations with them. This is especially important if you live in a remote location where there are not a lot of people. When that happens, you can feel isolated and feel that no one else can relate to you. But with the power of the internet and the proper use of social media, you can connect with people.
That really is what communication is all about - connecting with people. Whether you are speaking in front of a group, talking one-on-one with someone or using social media like Twitter and Facebook - all of it is about connecting with one another.
I'm glad to see this Veterans group using social media. I hope they are successful. While some people use Twitter and Facebook as a means to expand their business or to show how many "friends" they have - it is a group like this that can show us what social media can truly accomplish.
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