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Program Aims to Prepare Service Members for Military Stressors > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News

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Life in the military is no bed of roses, but the services are putting in place an innovative program designed to give service members new tools to handle the stress of military life.

The program aims to help service members be physically and mentally ready to handle the challenges of military service. 

The company and the program are known universally as O2X, which stands for Optimize to the X, with X being the goal. The company was founded by special operations veterans, first responders and elite athletes, said Adam La Reau, a co-founder and managing partner of O2X. 

“We implement human performance programs, performance optimization programs into the tactical community,” said La Reau, who was a Navy SEAL. “We tackle occupational challenges within these tactical communities, things like sleep disruption, mental health, physical aspects, injuries — essentially, the things that impact the readiness, resilience, and sometimes even the retention of these units … or DOD as a whole.” 

In the Navy, the emphasis on human performance came from a study following the 2017 crashes of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain. The crashes killed 17 sailors. The study found the crews were overtaxed, fatigued and stressed. 

The service turned to O2X to look at these human factors and develop a program to address some of these specific problems within the surface warfare community. “We bring on-site specialists that come with a program and a methodology,” La Reau said in an interview. “We do skills-based training and education. The education is … pretty critical for people to be self-aware about their own individual performance.” 

The company has tested the program with crews aboard the USS Manchester, a littoral combat ship based in San Diego. They’re getting ready to expand the program to work with the crews of the destroyer USS Preble (DDG-88) and the littoral combat ships USS Mobile and USS Gabby Giffords beginning this month. 

The company is based in Scituate, Massachusetts, and works with DOD components and fire and police departments around the nation.  

The program treats service members like elite athletes. Elite athletes receive training not just to perform a physical feat, but to have the mental toughness and resilience to perform under pressure, La Reau said. Elite athletes follow a training regimen to ensure they have the right foods, the right amount of sleep, the right exercise regimen and the determination and willingness to follow the regimen. “The question we always ask is how do we give people the skill sets in order to persevere through challenges and emerge not only successful, but stronger,” he said. 

The company tailors each program to the situation. They’re quite aware that what may work for an officer at a police department would not help a sailor aboard a destroyer. La Reau said the company has hundreds of specialists to teach personnel and to serve as “reach-back” assets for those deployed. 

The program requires buy-in from the commanders and a commitment to ensure there is every effort to let service members participate no matter where they are. “The program has to be portable,” LaReau said. “It has to adapt to the changing situations people find themselves in, whether they are deployed, on a ship at sea, or in a shipyard undergoing maintenance.” 

The company has another contract with the Massachusetts National Guard, and that also illustrates the need for an adaptable program. Guardsmen, of course, are from all over the state and have civilian jobs in addition to their military duties. O2X tailored the program for the 5,500 members of the Guard and had the staff to “scale” the effort. 

To really capitalize on the program,, it needs to be part of every training event starting at entry level training and progressing through the ranks of both enlisted and officer ranks, La Reau said. 

“We need to look at human performance as a program, not as a choose your own adventure,” he said. “You have to understand performance and all the factors that can affect you. Sustainment training needs to continue for the duration of your career. Truthfully, science changes, things adapt, people find better ways, and our operating environment will continue to adapt and change.”

“But the one factor is going to be the same … is that individual,” he continued. “We need to continue to adapt our program and continue to adapt it to meet the needs of the next conflict.”

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USA Veteran News

Nonprofit aims to help veterans requiring kidney transplants

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No veteran should die waiting for a kidney transplant. However, as of the July 4th weekend, there were 1,781 veterans across the United States on a waiting list. Sharyn Kreitzer is on a mission to eradicate the wait.

Three years ago, Kreitzer founded the nonprofit Donor Outreach for Veterans, or DOVE. Her mission is to locate living kidney donors for higher risk patients.

“When we tap into the communities, and all contribute to this life-saving mission — we can solve the organ shortage,” said Kreitzer.

The nonprofit is a very targeted niche in the vast transplant community network and targets only those seeking living-donor kidneys and only veteran recipients.

“It’s gratifying to support a deserving and special group of men and women who have sacrificed all for their country,” said Kreitzer.

Kreitzer, who worked for 25 years in the highly specialized transplant field, says that veterans have a higher rate of renal failure and an even worse rate of transplant availability. Worse, the current demand for living donors exceeds the supply.

The wait for a kidney

As a result, many veterans experiencing kidney failure have a 5 to 8 year wait in front of them, and many won’t survive waiting for a deceased donor. Adding to that, the transplant rate for veterans at Veterans Affairs hospitals is significantly lower than the comparative transplant rates at non-VA hospitals.

A living-donor kidney transplant is when a kidney from a living donor is removed and placed into a recipient whose kidneys no longer function properly. Only one donated kidney is needed to replace two failed kidneys, which makes living donor kidney transplant an alternative to deceased donor kidney transplant, per the Mayo Clinic.

Also, living donor kidney transplant is the preferred treatment for kidney failure and has a higher success rate than deceased donor transplant.

DOVE: Donor Outreach for Veterans

The crux is finding the living donors willing to help save a veteran’s life, then connecting them to the individual veteran and to the hospital, VA, or otherwise sanctioned facility that is ready to perform the transplant. Kreitzer feels the pool of living kidney donors remaining untapped.

So far, DOVE has been a success. Kreitzer has conducted over 500 donor intakes since January 2020. Many donors never served in the military but either come from military families or want to give back to veterans. Kreitzer likes to personally talk to each applicant herself and is hands-on throughout the process.

“I took a leap of faith and left a 20-year career in a hospital setting to launch DOVE,” says Kreitzer.

Kreitzer’s background in the VA’s transplant orbit is what planted the idea. In 2015, while working as an administrator at the Bronx VA, Kreitzer helped launch the seventh VA kidney transplant program. It was then that she learned of the crisis facing veterans with renal failure.

“I was dismayed when I saw the Veterans Administration did not have robust living donor programs,” said Kreitzer.

Expanding care for veterans

The VA recently expanded its live donor care and support, ruling that effective July 1, 2022, eligible veterans living beyond their particular VA Transplant Center radius can now seek care outside the VA system.

The VA had previously acknowledged that the distance to a transplant center may adversely impact access to transplant services and transplant outcomes. The recent change hopes to address that concern.

Travel for the initial and lengthy diagnosis, transplant candidacy screening, approval, and the actual transplant surgery and recovery, require enormous funds and practical support.

From 2020 to 2022, six known VA transplant centers performed living-donor kidney transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Kreitzer says she is excited to work with the VA and veterans to assist in finding donors.

DOVE: living kidney donation for veterans

DOVE and Kreitzer act as the veterans’ advocate. The organization functions as a matchmaker between donor and recipient.

She acknowledges that the veteran and military community is vast and is hoping to galvanize this potential in seeking both donors and funding.

The ability to personalize the gift of a donation to benefit a veteran opens a new of pool of donors who otherwise might have never considered it, says Kreitzer.

The general public, military family members and the veteran community are all potential donors. With command permission, even active-duty military can participate. The living donor cut-off date is variable but generally caps around 70 years old.

Living donors save lives

“I, too, am planning to be a kidney donor,” said Kreitzer.

She’s completed her medical evaluation, and the surgery is scheduled for August. She says she is somewhat scared but is confidently relying on emotional support and advice from prior donors.

The recovery process from being a donor is approximately six weeks to get on your feet if your job or life is active or physical or two weeks for those at a desk job or remote workers, says Kreitzer.

“I never served, but this feels like a way I can give back to those who have,” said Kreitzer.

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