Citizen Advocates expands insurance coverage for active, retired military members [Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.]

Watertown Daily Times (NY)

Aug. 9—MALONE — Citizen Advocates on Monday announced the expansion of health insurance coverage for active and retired members of the military and their families in need of mental health and addiction prevention, treatment and recovery services.

The Malone-based health company's clinics and recovery centers across the north country are now accepting TRICARE, CHAMPVA, VA Community Care Network and TRICARE for Life plans covering service members and their families, and others registered in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System.

"The men and women of our armed forces have volunteered to defend our country, and given the nature of their work, often do so at great cost to their physical and mental well-being," James D. Button, president and CEO of Citizen Advocates, said in a news release. "It's our duty to eliminate the barriers they face when seeking the care they need, especially if it means avoiding the cost and inconvenience of traveling outside of our community to the limited locations where their health coverage is accepted."

Citizen Advocates has behavioral health clinics in Malone, Saranac Lake, Massena and Ogdensburg, and a crisis and recovery center in Malone. A behavioral health campus is slated for completion early next year in Watertown, in the former Great American grocery store building on State Street. Advocate Hostel Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Citizen Advocates, purchased the building for $625,000 in January, according to Jefferson County records.

Designated as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic under standards set by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Citizen Advocates sites use treatment tailored to people who need access to a range of services, including crisis care, outpatient treatment, peer support, career counseling and transportation. When veterans seek treatment, they are offered the opportunity to connect with a member of the care team who is also a veteran — this could be a therapist, peer or other health professional.

"The staff in our clinics receive specialized training so they can work with veterans," said Jennifer Rowledge, director of behavioral health, Seaway Valley. She added that staff use "a wide range of evidence-based practices and specialized treatments that veterans are seeking for conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder."

One of the more effective treatments for PTSD is eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing therapy, EMDR. The therapy uses visual, auditory or tactile stimulation in a left-to-right rhythm across the two sides of the body. The treatment has been available at Citizen Advocates since 2003, and helps patients identify feelings, thoughts or images that are associated with a traumatic memory, desensitize those ideas and then reprocess how the ideas relate to the memory.