Michelle Obama and Jill Biden have helped organize Joining Forces week nationally, honoring veterans for their service and working to ensure those returning from the battlefield have the economic and health care they deserve. For the week of Nov. 12, UT is highlighting the research and services available on campus to those who have served our nation.

Who/what: Dr. Marijo Tamburrino, professor of psychiatry and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, will discuss some of the preliminary findings she and her colleagues have discovered in a long-term survey of risk and resiliency and post-traumatic stress disorder among Ohio Army National Guard service members who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, veterans will join Dr. Tamburrino to share their experiences with PTSD.

Where/when: 10:30 a.m. in Collier Building Room 1210 on Health Science Campus.

The schedule for the remainder of the week is:

• Wednesday, Nov. 14 — Leaders from The University of Toledo and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will give a tour of the UT Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center at 11 a.m. on the lower level of the Collier Building. The UT and Wright-Patterson partnership will highlight the use of science and research to study the biomarkers for health concerns such as fatigue and stress, improving human performance, strengthening casualty care and more.
• Thursday, Nov. 15 — “Joining Forces in Teaching for Better Care of Veterans,” a panel discussion along with a question-and-answer session featuring Tamburrino, Dr. Thomas Sodeman, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, and second-year medical student and U.S. Army veteran Robert Roether, is scheduled from noon to 12:30 p.m. in Collier Building Room 1230. The panel discussion will focus on how UT’s College of Medicine and Life Sciences is exploring a change in curriculum to enhance the education of students in relation to veterans. Learn how training future physicians to ask a few simple questions could help better meet the physical and emotional needs of veterans and their families.
• Friday, Nov. 16 — The University of Toledo’s Military Service Center, the main point of contact for students, staff and faculty veterans or those who are still serving, will hold an open house from 1-2:30 p.m. in Rocket Hall Room1529. Stop by to meet the staff, including VA certifying official Cheryl Karnikowski; representatives from the Toledo VET Center, one of eight centers in Ohio that provides a broad range of counseling, outreach and referral services to eligible veterans in order to help them make a satisfying post-war readjustment to civilian life; and Brittany Powers, a social worker from the Department of Veterans Affairs, who regularly meets with student veterans to talk about resources, including VA health care and the new Toledo CommunityBased Outpatient Clinic located on the Health Science Campus.

For more information on the national Joining Forces initiative visit www.whitehouse.gov/joiningforces.

Media Coverage
13 ABC, WTOL 11 and WNWO (Nov. 19, 2012)

Tags: College of Medicine and Life Sciences