Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is presented by The Mac Parkman Foundation
The mission of this show and the foundation is To serve as a source of information, resources, and communications to the community of parents, coaches/Athletic trainers, medical staff, and athletes that are affected by sports-related concussions and to raise awareness of the long-term implications of concussive and sub-concussive trauma to our children.
Broken Brains will also explore how Concussive Trauma impacts our Service Members and Veterans.
Join us every week as Bruce interviews leaders and experts in various Medical fields, as well as survivors of Concussive trauma.
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman
A New Way to Heal PTSD: Dr. Pam Arnell’s Game-Changing Therapy for Veterans
Veterans and first responders face alarming suicide rates due to repetitive brain trauma and PTSD—but what if healing didn’t require reliving the trauma? In this eye-opening episode of Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman, we sit down with Dr. Pam Arnell, Executive Director of 22-0, to explore innovative therapy methods that are changing the way we treat trauma and mental health.
🚨 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ The shocking realities of brain trauma and PTSD in veterans & first responders
✅ Why traditional therapy models often fail those suffering from trauma
✅ The 22-0 method—a groundbreaking approach to emotional management without retraumatization
✅ How we can prevent veteran suicide by offering the right kind of mental health support
✅ Why funding and awareness for innovative trauma therapies are crucial for saving lives
🎧 This episode is a must-watch for veterans, first responders, mental health advocates, and anyone seeking real solutions for PTSD.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube! Don’t forget to follow, like, share, and subscribe to stay informed on the latest research and solutions for brain health, blast mitigation, and veteran mental wellness.
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is sponsored by The Mac Parkman Foundation
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Repetitive Brain Trauma
02:35 Meet Dr. Pam Arnell: A Lifelong Commitment to Service
06:45 Transitioning to Focus on Veterans and First Responders
08:08 Understanding 22-0 and Its Mission
10:52 The Persistent Suicide Rate Among Veterans
15:39 Challenges with Traditional Therapy Models
21:07 Innovative Approaches: RTM and Emotional Management
27:09 The Effectiveness of 22-0's Protocols
33:30 Barriers to VA Recognition and Funding
37:54 How to Access 22-0's Services
Get the Head Smart App Today! Click the link below to download it now!
https://www.mpfact.com/headsmart-app/
Connect with Dr. Arnell today!
LinkedIn: Pamela (Pam) Potts-Arnell, Ed.D
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-potts-arnell-ed-d-aab36b23b/
Instagram: 22zeroorg
https://www.instagram.com/22zeroorg/
X: Pamela Arnell
Facebook: 22zero
https://www.facebook.com/22zero.org
Join Blue Fusion and Horse Soldier Bourbon for the inaugural Special Operations Army vs. Navy Tailgate Event
Celebrate with us and support veteran wellness. Your participation helps fund The Mac Parkman Foundation's Veteran Program and Team American Freedom.
Your sponsorship ensures vital education, screening, and treatment for veteran mental health, aiming to reduce the tragedy of veteran suicide.
Enjoy food, beverages, and live music by Razor’s Edge, one of the top-perform
Produced by Security Halt Media
Hey folks, welcome back to another podcast of Broken Brains with your host, bruce Parkman, sponsored by the Mack Parkman Foundation. Our podcast is focused on the issue of repetitive brain trauma in the forms of repetitive head impacts from contact sports and repetitive blast exposure for military veterans, and what these issues are doing to the brains of our children, our athletes and our veterans, contributing to basically the largest preventable cause of mental illness in this country. Contributing to basically the largest preventable cause of mental illness in this country. On this podcast we go out there and we find the leading researchers, scientists, patients, advocates, authors and journalists that are reporting on this issue to determine what you can do to be more aware of this, how this has impacted or can impact your life, your child's lives, and what we need to do as a society to make better decisions, to make sports safer, to make military service safer and, more importantly, to diagnose, identify and treat those people suffering from repetitive brain trauma.
Speaker 1:Today we have another amazing guest, dr Pam Arnell, who I happen to know very personally because I've been through some of her protocols.
Speaker 1:Dr Pam Arnell is the Executive Director for 22Zero, a nonprofit for veterans, first responders and Gold Star fans. She is also a first responder and has been in the volunteer fire department since 2008, two very full-time jobs. Her husband served 26 years and unfortunately passed away from cancer, which has been determined to be from burn pit exposure, probably in Iraq. She's been a youth service officer for Giles County, tennessee, since 2014, and she owns Arnell's Counseling Service and serves as an adjunct faculty at Columbia State Community College, teaching in the psychology program and education classes. She's been a member of the Giles County Counterfire and Rescue Squad, the member of the Pulaski Lions Club and served on the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network as the regional committee chair since 2004. And she served on the State Advisory Council for Suicide Prevention from 2004 and 2014, and has completed an analysis as part of her dissertation on the Tennessee Strategy for Suicide Prevention based on original national strategies for suicide prevention. Dr Pam Arnell, welcome to the show and thank you so much for taking some time to be with us today.
Speaker 2:Good morning and thank you for asking me to be on here. Thank you so much. No great, very humbling.
Speaker 1:No, it was great because I was just in the state of Tennessee, we were working on some school security issues. On my other side I'm, you know, I'm in a technology company that does amazing things with data and I had to really get my accent dialed in because, since I've been in North Carolina, I have not been able to not understand an American for quite a while. So I was like, what'd you say, chief? You know so pretty good, but welcome, welcome, welcome to the show. So let's talk a little bit about 22-0 to start, or all right. So you've been a volunteer firefighter. You've, you know, obviously been in the first responder space. You know military veterans. What got you into? You know counseling or what drove the recognition that we have a?
Speaker 2:problem. So actually, whenever it's kind of funny I grew up in the blue family my dad was in law enforcement and my dream was to be in law enforcement. But back then, believe it or not, they had a heights requirement. And so in Tennessee there was a heights requirement and my little five foot and a half an inch self did not meet the criteria, even though I tried explaining to them. You know, I can get in places. None of you big people can. I can get in those places, but they actually lifted that at some point in time later.
Speaker 2:So I knew I've always known that I was going to be in the helping field. You know, my mission and my passion has always been to serve and protect, even from a young young age, to be a lot like my dad, young age to be a lot like my dad. And so, in knowing that I was not going to be able to go through the academy, I actually decided to go into counseling. At one point in time I decided that I was going to have I opened Arnell's Counseling and had that for many years. I had a contract with the state of Tennessee, working with children and families that were at risk for coming into custody, and in saying that, you know, at one point in time they finally lifted the HOTS requirement but the sheriff's department in my county had a reserve deputy program that they initiated and I was one of the very first ones in that program. It was under Kyle Hilton at the time but ultimately I spent five years as a reserve deputy and did that up until I became the youth service officer in Giles County.
Speaker 2:That position was really more of a judicial field. I was my boss at that time. Was the was the judge? So I did that and how I got connected with 22-0, I had not heard of 22-0, but my past fire chief and past assistant fire chief were aware of 22-0 and had asked for me to take the training. Chief were aware of 22-0 and had asked for me to take the training. I told them and I have said this many times, you know I didn't have time for that because the YSO position required a lot of my time. I mean 24-7, weekends, holidays, vacation.
Speaker 2:I'd be on vacation and you know I'm getting called by law enforcement. So ultimately I said to appease my past fire chief and past assistant fire chief, I would take the training just to go through the process and have that training for, you know, the fire department and the members here in the county.
Speaker 1:So at that time you were, I mean. So. I mean you've been heavily involved with first responders and as a counselor of course you were probably dealing with. You know quite a lot of you know tragedy, but on more of the family side, right the social work side, what got you to transition over to veterans? You know first responders and focus on them, exclusively veterans, you know first responders and focus on them exclusively.
Speaker 2:So even when I had the counseling business, I always took care of the first responders, including the LEOs in my county, and that was just because one. I know what we went through with my dad. But then also at that point in time, you know I knew what I had seen, what I experienced as a reserve deputy but also within the you know, the fire department. It's just always been a passion for me for first responders and within the armed forces, being involved with the armed force. You know military family my husband served 26 years and he and I met right after he got out of Desert Storm. So I know and live through the military family pace with him and you know, even after he passed away, it's been the military family and the first responder family that have taken care of me to make sure that you know I have everything that I need.
Speaker 1:Well, that's amazing. And then now, how did you get involved with 22-0? Tell us what 22-0 does, because I happen to think that the 22-0, the 22 has to deal with the number of veterans that we hypothetically lose every day in this country.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 2:22-0 was developed by veterans, other leaders April would be seven years ago and it's got the trauma resiliency protocol, the emotions management process, the trauma resiliency protocol, the emotions management process and, ultimately, the leaders that established 22-0 created some processes that were, you know, part of the RTM, part of the neurological linguistic programming, and has basically evolved through, you know, the leaders or the leadership.
Speaker 2:And so 22, on average, it's reported that 22 a day die by suicide, which would be within our armed forces.
Speaker 2:We do know that number is going to be a lot higher and the reason that's going to be higher is because not all deaths are reported as suicide. So while there, unfortunately, is that 22, and again, we know that it's going to be a lot higher it's still an issue and looking at today, in 2025, you know we're still having those high numbers and it's what's happening and what's been going on to try and prevent that has not worked. And so when you look at those individuals within the armed forces who won't go to the VA, or they did go to the VA, their appointments are canceled or rescheduled or whatever that scenario looks like, the issue is, in 2025, we still have even one that dies a day by suicide is too many, and so we as a country have got to do better for our armed forces. And it's not just, you know, within the armed forces, it's within the first responder field as well. We have a high rate of firefighters and law enforcement who die by suicide, and we need to address that.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just becoming aware of that through a lot of the journeys that I'm taking with veterans, or you know on beat on, you know next to veterans. Why has the suicide rate not changed? I mean, the VA spent, I think, last year, $700 million or some crazy amount of money, on suicide. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this and I want to hear what your perspective is. I mean, you deal with suicidal vets or vets that are considering suicide quite often, and I would just want to get what's your take on that. Why do we still have such a high suicide rate? What are the factors here that people need to know about.
Speaker 2:So, based on experience with you know, family members I've got a lot of family who served in the military and you know my husband served In listening to stories a lot of it's going to be they don't want talk therapy. They will not go to the VA for many reasons. If they do go to the VA, it's because they know that they feel that there's not another option. There's a lot that are falling through the cracks because they won't go to the VA. So when you're looking at, especially within the armed forces, they don't want to talk about that content. And then, on top of that, a lot of them don't want to be put on medication. And so when you explain to them, when they reach out, either you know by word of mouth or by the 800 number, or just in talking with the armed forces, you know they word of mouth or by the 800 number, or just in talking with the armed forces, you know they'll tell me Pam, I don't want to talk about it. Well, with 22-0, you're not going to talk about it. We don't allow you to talk about the content that protects you, that protects my coaches as well, because there is something called vicarious trauma and you know vicarious trauma means it didn't directly happen to you, but by hearing and being told that trauma can become vicarious trauma. A lot of therapists, mental health professionals, have perceived vicarious trauma because those that are working in the mental health world, you know they're hearing that trauma.
Speaker 2:When you kind of go back and look at how the VA looks at just only having you know the talk therapy. They don't look at the innovative holistic platforms that are out there that are beneficial and healing for the armed forces and for you know, the first responders. And when they don't recognize that then they don't change. And when you don't change then nothing changes. And so unless there's a change, those numbers, unfortunately, are not going to go down because the VA will not. You know, if you don't have certain criteria within applying for grants with the VA, they have it set that they want it to be a certain focus. Well, what they're not hearing is they're not hearing what the armed force members and their families are saying and that becomes an issue. You have to be able to hear and listen and know what's being said and that's not happening.
Speaker 1:And that's a shame. And we do know that the suicide rate is probably higher because, as you said, there's other aspects of alcoholism and drug overdoses that aren't really classified as suicides. Same problem we have on the repetitive head impact side. But dialing into, you know, the whole VA issue. You know, when it comes to therapy, I've talked to so many veterans that have told me that, you know, they just never want to see a VA psychologist, psychiatrist, ever, ever again. And you know, and of course they don't want to be on the drugs. And I just recently, you know, left an ayahuasca retreat where I was there to help veterans and I was talking to veterans that had 17 different pills, 17. And I was talking to veterans that had 17 different pills, 17. Like they said, the VA had given them so many pills that they had buckets of pills and they had to get off them for two weeks. They wouldn't even tell the VA that they got off their medication so they could have another chance at recovering you know their sanity recovering their mental stability. You know everything right and so you know. But they expressly focused on the therapy side. So you're on the therapy side.
Speaker 1:So, number one, you know what is wrong with the therapy that these veterans are getting, in your opinion, or why are they upset? I mean, they tell me that you know they don't come. They're not military veterans. They don't understand right. Then you know, they seem to just want to keep billing and I just keep going back and nothing changes. I don't know if you have anything to add to that. And then let's go into your protocols, because I've experienced these Okay, and they are very profound and they do help, do help. And so let's talk about first you know why is the therapy models or protocols that are being prescribed not working or not acceptable? And then, what are you doing differently in how you address trauma there?
Speaker 2:Sure. So you know, one of the things that I have heard and I've seen within the mental my board members call me the unicorn, so I'm going to kind of preface it to that While I do have the clinical background, I also have the involvement with all the years of being in the military family and then also being a first responder. When you look at someone going to the VA or any mental health professional, it's very important to establish rapport and in establishing that rapport it's, you know, difficult on the mental health side because if they've not experienced family or friends that are, you know, very close to them within the armed forces or within the first responder, it's hard to establish that rapport and you have to have that trust. So if you don't have the trust it's going to be harder and the rapport it's going to be harder for them to open up. The other piece to that is they don't want to talk about the trauma, they don't want to have to live it over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:And then when you look at unfortunately, with the turnover rate with the VA, when you look at you have maybe made a connection and was able to build rapport with the mental health professional and you go in for an appointment, guess what? That mental health professional is no longer there. You get a new therapist and then you just have to start that cycle back over. That's a big deterrent is into why they stop going, or they don't want to go to the VA because there is such a high turnover rate as far as 22 zero, so 22 zero Huh.
Speaker 1:No, no, no and but they're not allowed to follow that therapist out of the network. Is that what we're saying? Like that therapist might get another job or work with somebody else, but they, now that they have that connection, the VA will not cover them when they want to go to see that, that they want to continue the relationship with therapists and once again, the veterans out of pocket if they want to continue that assistance that's helping them Right.
Speaker 2:Well, and kind of backing up to that. Another piece is you know they have an appointment and then they've not been informed that the appointment has canceled. So they show up for their appointment to find out at the VA that they do not have an appointment and it was not canceled. Just a lot of barriers In regards to 22-0, so you know, I was not at the formation of 22-0.
Speaker 2:I came in after I had gone through the training and made it very clear that it was very important to get the academia side. Unfortunately, you know, you just have to have the academia piece, the research piece, and after I went through the training, what I did is I went back and said you know, because I felt an immediate shift, I had two calls with the sheriff's department, I had three calls with the fire department and I ended up being put on Ambien just so that I could sleep. And when I went through the training, part of that training is you actually have to go through the process. And that was a very defining moment for me because I could immediately feel that shift and I never talked about the content moment for me, because I could immediately feel that shift and I never talked about the content and I recognized the value of the process, again built on, you know, RTM, built on the neurological linguistic programming. So it's not really.
Speaker 1:What is RTM for our audience? Rtm.
Speaker 2:RTM is reconciliation of traumatic memories.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, all right.
Speaker 2:And so when you look at pre-scores and post-scores and I'll go into that in just a little bit but having that immediate shift and having that, you know, that night I went to sleep and that was the last time I took Ambien went to sleep and that was the last time I took Ambien.
Speaker 1:So what was different between what you went through, as you're the process that you focus on now, and what was going on before? What shifted? Because I want the audience to understand that there are alternative therapies like this that are working, that we talk to the people that have been through these therapies and we have huge amounts of people saying this helped me, but I can't get it through these therapies. And we have huge amounts of people saying this helped me, but I can't get it through the VA. So what is the difference? And I know you have two different protocols, so talk to us about those protocols and you know what's different. You know why are they more effective?
Speaker 1:Not only because you know they don't have to talk about trauma, but you know, through the process, the impact on their brain, their psyche, their ego, whatever it is. You know why are you seeing? You know I mean I was referred to you, you know, by a close friend of ours that had been through your process and raves about the impact you had on his life. He was suicidal, you know he had, you know he was, you know a lot of combat exposure. And so, just like our first responders, who go through the same stress level as military different job, different path so why are you having such great impacts? Or?
Speaker 2:significant impacts on these hurt human beings. Well, we see trauma as being more neurological. I do not recognize trauma as a disorder. One of the things you know, when I went through the process or before I went through the process hearing certain sounds, certain tones, especially you know we have our little pager that we still use with the fire department but certain sounds, certain smells would make me trigger and go back to those events. I wouldn't sleep. If I did sleep, I would sleep for maybe two or three hours and then I was up because of the nightmares when I went through the training.
Speaker 2:Part of that training, like I said, is you're going through the process. The process, you know, is basically getting someone in a safe place before a safe place after disconnecting those events, disconnecting the trauma and then eventually disconnecting those negative emotions related to the events. When I went through the process, I didn't have to one, talk about the content. Two, I didn't really have to spend a lot of time thinking about it, meaning, once you have that emotional reaction to it, then we'll do some things called break states to bring you out of that trigger. That was significant for me, and not just within that realm, but then, looking at the negative emotions, I had a lot of guilt, I had a lot of survivor guilt in relation to one particular incident that I worked with at the fire department. That I worked with at the fire department. So, looking at those aspects from the process of 22-0, compared to traditional talk therapy, it was very significant, it had a big impact and I'll just share.
Speaker 2:So you know, the training was done virtually and when we took a break, and after you and after I had gone through the process, I went into the room and my husband said aren't you in class? I said yes, because I was relaxed. I mean he recognized that immediate shift as well. I was happy, I was joyful, I felt at peace and prior to that I was not. And he said, pam, I thought you were in class and I said I've been in class. I've been in that room all day long. He said have you been drinking Jack and Coke?
Speaker 2:And I looked at him and I said what he said you look like you've had three or four drinks of Jack and Coke, and so for him to recognize that no, I did not have Jack and Coke class, but for him to recognize that immediate reaction was huge. He said you're relaxed and you just seem peaceful. He said that's how you are when you drink Jack and Coke.
Speaker 2:And I'm going well, I promise you wow so for him to see that that to me that was significant. And then, you know, I just, I just said I'm really tired, I really have to go lay down, and he looked at me. He said it's daylight. I said dude, just shut up. You know, just hush. I've got to go lay down and I can't really. I couldn't explain to him because I didn't know why I was so tired at the time. I just knew that I had to go lay down. I slept all night long and when we went in class the next day I said what did y'all do to me? My husband accused me of drinking Jack and Coke. I felt peaceful and I slept and I didn't wake up at all and I went to sleep without ambien. So, having those changes, it is very, very significant, very different.
Speaker 2:I knew then, you know, I knew at that point there was definitely a much better way for people to be healed from trauma than traditional talk therapy, which is why I said let me work on the research piece of it, an independent research piece. So there had been some studies that had been done, you know, in-house, with 22-0, but for the academia piece you have to have that independent research. And I reached out to different universities. Arizona State University reached back out to me and I had a meeting with them and said this is what I'm looking at.
Speaker 2:You know, research can be very expensive Twenty two zeros, nonprofit and would you be willing to do it? They originally were going to just do one study and it was on our first responders study and it was on our first responders and ultimately there's been additional studies that have been done and that are being done this year. So the first study has already been published and the second study, for our armed forces, has been submitted for peer review about 10 weeks ago. And the third study, where they asked me to co-author with them, was submitted for peer review two weeks ago.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you just so you know, the military healthcare conference in Orlando in August is looking at the papers right now, so that might be something. Yeah, I'll send this. That largest military healthcare convention in the world really is pretty amazing. But let's talk about the other side. I mean, we talk about therapy. Gain forever. Right, and that's the big problem with a lot of therapeutic models is that you know they don't seem to get you back in the cop car or back in the job. They're there to find some other stuff that you got to work on. We all have things to work on right. We are all flawed. So talk about the, the um. You know basically the amount of times that people need to see you before they consider themselves ready to either you know they've resolved their trauma or they're ready to get back into life. So tell us about that aspect of your protocol. Sure.
Speaker 2:So on average it's two to four sessions. Some may need two sessions, some may need three, some may need four. Everything we do is fully remote for our mission clients. And let me clarify our mission clients is going to be armed forces, any branch, anytime served, deployed or not, first responders, which we do include 911 dispatchers and corrections, emt, paramedics, leos and firefighters. Spouses and minor children living in the home and Gold Star families are covered at no cost. So the other piece to that is we do not report to the VA. So for those of you that are concerned about your rating, you've earned that rating, keep it and unless you tell somebody you've been through our process, they're not going to know. But the average number of sessions is going to be two to four and it's done fully remote with our peer coaches that are made up of armed forces first responders, some spouses.
Speaker 1:Wow. And so here's another issue out there. I mean, do you care about their discharge status when they find no.
Speaker 2:I do not, if you put on a uniform and you have served and protected us in whatever form that looks meaning, be it within the armed forces, first responder, you can be retired as a first responder. You don't have to actively be a first responder, you can be retired. And your trauma does not have to come from you know work. It does not have to come from deployment, because some come in as and they've not been deployed. Trauma's trauma does not matter. All we want you to do is to have the healing, and so the average sessions would be two to four. Clear everything, get it.
Speaker 2:Whatever that big event is, go all the way back through up to childhood. And so those that are active duty you know we get a lot of active duty members right now, such as first responders and troops Once you get through that event, reach out to us, and many of them have. So they've gone through the process. Then they are at work and they've encountered a new event. Contact us. Same thing. We're going to run you through the process and get you out of that trauma.
Speaker 1:And that's important for a lot of our folks to know is that you know. You know there's. What I'm learning is that you know who we are has been basically formed from our childhood, right, who we are. And so there are aspects of trauma and there's a lot of protocols out there whether it's stelae, ganglion blocks or your protocols that look at both aspects of your life what was your childhood like and what was your work like and they do separate those treatments into dealing with those particular aspects of trauma and a lot of like.
Speaker 1:There's been studies going like 90% of special operations guys have had terrible childhoods or some crazy number, right, it's just part of what we came from that maybe drove us into, you know, being a special operator, whatever it is. So I mean that's very important for our guests to know is that you know you don't have to I mean our audience that you know you don't have to be there. You don't have to have been in combat and killed a bunch of people to need this type of help. And this is being offered. This is a service and I think it's amazingly, you know, powerful and if you could dial into a little bit more about you know, why do they not have what is you know? Obviously they don't have to discuss the trauma, but if you can explain, you know just a little bit about how that happens. Like you know, they, they, they focus on something that they don't. Your job is to not relive it, but to help them.
Speaker 2:So what's going to happen is, you know we're going to get you. So for the trauma piece, we're going to get you in a safe place before the event, a safe place after the event. Then we're going to run the certain processes on you. You're doing the work, we're just guiding you and basically, and again, fully remote.
Speaker 2:So you know, that's, I guess, one thing that we can say with COVID shows that a lot of this you know positive areas with doing things remotely, but when we get you in a safe event or safe place prior to that event, after that event, and then we're just going to get you to really just disconnect, you're going to ultimately run through those steps a few times. Once we get done, we're going to go through and get the emotions management process, which is going to be the negative emotions related to those events. That can be anything from fear, terror, helplessness, guilt, survivor, guilt, anger, rage, whatever that looks like, because everyone's going to have different negative emotions related to those events. And then we're going to disconnect those negative events in a safe place as well. So it's a lot of visualization, it's a lot of disconnecting and again, you're not talking about the content and having you in a safe place before and after those events.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, reliving it, and it was kind of funny at that. You mentioned this earlier, but I was at that ayahuasca retreat and I went up to the people that were listening to these horrible stories that are facilitators and I said do you do anything to take care of yourself? Because you know this is something that you're starting to absorb, this negative. You know, energy, and I had my swinger turned off. I don't know what happened, but and you got to take care of yourself. So that's so important.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about another issue here and before we close out, and that is you know we as a foundation are pushing hard for modalities like yours to be recognized by the VA or insurance and be covered. You know you are a nonprofit, but you know these. You know it takes money to give free services, right, I mean, there's just no doubt about it. I run a nonprofit myself. So what are the obstacles? Right now, we've got a suicide rate that has not budged and you know some reports indicate it might be increasing. Okay, we already know that the standard protocols from the VA drugs and therapy do not work, and you would think that they are looking. You know they. You know they. I guess there's some NDMA and psilocybin studies going right now, but they're talking decades, you know, before they can be prescribed. And we don't have decades. We have children. You know, I call them children. I'm old, dying right now, right now, and I talk to these kids and they're snorting heroin. Their broken marriage has lost their kids, lost themselves, and they are suffering in mass and there's no time to wait and we're talking about a therapy. You're not going to go into your office and get broken or get harmed or become ill, like from the wrong drug or whatever it is. You're going to come there and you're going to get help. So what has been your experience with the VA so far? And you know what are the obstacles.
Speaker 1:I want the audience to hear about this so that they understand what are battles that we are. Now it's time and deaths. Ok, we have no time left. We've used up all the time. We can't research this stuff anymore. We already know there's a problem. We already know that there's things like this that are helping veterans to get through life and achieve what they deserve, which is peace of know, peace of mind, after serving their country. And you know they got to go find you. We'll close with that. But you know, talk us, tell us about, you know the fights you've had with the VA and what they told you, why your protocol can't be. You know which is obviously as a cess rate cannot be accepted for cover, which is obviously as a success rate cannot be accepted for COVID.
Speaker 2:So 220 has actually applied for grants with the VA, two grants actually and both of those never made it through the first round because they said it was not evidence-based. Well, okay, so anyone in the mental health world and academia world knows that evidence-based takes a while to get that research piece. Hence, going back to almost two and a half years ago when I said this is very valuable that we get this evidence-based piece and start it. It takes time. That's going to be a barrier because they feel that until it has completely had all the research that it's being recognized nationally, then they're not listening.
Speaker 1:That's horse fluff, all right, let me ask you one question Out of all the patients you've seen, what percentage do you feel or tell you that they have received some benefit from your modality?
Speaker 2:Can you say that you were breaking up a little bit?
Speaker 1:Of all the patients you've seen, I'd just say, in a week or since you've started this, what percentage, roughly, has said this has helped me out? This has positively impacted myself Every single one. This has positively impacted myself Every single one. Well, when you deal with psychiatrists that prescribe medications and have a 25% expectation that that medication might work and that medication has a black box for it, or that medication is going to lead to side effects, is going to lead to more medication, why is not a protocol where the patients 100% of them say this helped me? Is that not evidence-based? I mean, they went through this, they took it, they came out. They said, yeah, this helped me. That's evidence, that's data and I don't know they're so up their nose.
Speaker 1:I mean, everybody's FDA's just horrible about, you know, looking at modalities that can't harm you. I can understand if we're talking about a drug that's going to, you know, kill you right or harm you right. That's one thing. We are talking about therapy and we already talked we just talked about bad therapy. There's more bad therapy going on in this country than there's good therapy, and that's a problem. We're also grossly understaffed with therapists. Yet we have a model here where every person, as you've seen, has said this has helped me, yet the VA will not. You know, this is my issue and that's what I wanted to raise for you, so thank you very much. So how do people find, how do people find Dr Pam 22-0 and how do they, you know, sorry, ask for help.
Speaker 2:You can go to the website 22zeroorg, go up to the top right-hand side where it says contact us. Once you fill that out, it automatically comes to me and it automatically comes to Tricia, which is our amazing social worker. In addition to that, you can call the 1-800 number. So if you're looking on the website and you see the 800 number, call it. What you'll be surprised about is, when you call that 800 number, you're not going to get a robot. You're not going to get a robot. You're not going to get a human being.
Speaker 1:You're going to get, you're going to get me, wow.
Speaker 2:And so typically when individuals do call in, those are the ones who are really on that forefront of being very much in crisis or are in crisis. And because I do have that clinical background, you know that's my area. So when you call you're going to get me now. If I am in a meeting or if I'm working with a mission client, leave a number, I'll call you right back and it won't be two days, three days, it'll be after I'm done with whatever that you know meeting or whatever I'm doing. So you can reach out that way. You can also email gethealed at 220.org. You can go that way and give us your name number and we're going to reach out to you. You can also contact me directly. My email is drarnel D-R-A-R-N. As in Nancy E-L-L at 220.org.
Speaker 1:Well, dr Pam, I cannot thank you enough for coming on this show and talking about what you're doing for our veterans and first responders. They need this help so bad. I mean the mental health side of these jobs. The mental illness rates, the suicide rates are as disturbing as those of the military, especially those that are dealing with children. Human trafficking, high stress occupations, and you know just it's. We owe you Right. We owe you as first responders in the military and we need to start writing these checks. There's no doubt. I mean we can write checks for all kinds of other crazy stuff in this country. We can start writing checks for things that happen. So, dr Pam, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for helping me the other day. That was great. I loved going through the process and, for those of you that do have a reason to reach out to Dr Pam, I do believe that you will have a great experience for sure and you will leave a much better healed human being on your path back to health. As we close out, thank you to the Mack Parkman Foundation, our sponsor. Our podcast series will continue. Stay tuned. We have a town hall for veterans coming up that we will probably live stream in March, our second annual conference on repetitive brain trauma. We're going to announce the dates this week in September. Anybody that wants to attend would like to speak. We'll be taking papers and that'll be held here in Tampa in early September. Can't wait to see you all.
Speaker 1:Don't forget our Head Smart app on the Apple Play or Google Play stores. Please get that. That's a free app for you parents out there to understand about concussions, subconcussive trauma and to ask the right questions when your kid has been injured or to prevent injury by making smarter decisions on contact sports. And don't forget our book Youth Contact Sports and Broken Brains. It's absolutely for free. You don't have to buy it on Amazon. Go to our book. Youth Contact Sports and Broken Brains is absolutely for free. You don't have to buy it on Amazon. Go to our website, hit, download the PDF and become informed, please. Dr Arnell, thank you so much to our audience. Thank you so much for the downloads. Really appreciate it. We look forward to bringing on other exciting guests on our series to go ahead and educate you about the risks of repetitive brain trauma. So God bless you all. May you be in peace, protect your brains and stay tuned. Take care, thank you.