"Run to Home Base" for U.S. veterans

Forty-eight years ago on May 27, 1966, Dr. Hugh Ferguson, entered the United States Army. Dr. Ferguson is a retired Army officer and a veteran of the Vietnam War.  Today he is Program Chair of the Mental Health Licensure programs in the Graduate School of Psychology and Counseling at Cambridge College.  He was also a former DSS social work supervisor, representing parents and children in the juvenile courts of Suffolk and Norfolk counties.

Among the courses he teaches is one titled "Clinical Interventions for Combat Stress and Trauma" which has given Dr. Ferguson additional insight into the psychiatric needs of veterans returning from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the aging veterans of past wars.

In December he signed up to run in the "Run to Home Base" a 9 KM run scheduled for July 19, 2014.  Last May he underwent surgery for a very severe narrowing of the spinal cord, that caused him to be able to only walk / run last year's course.  His recovery continues and Dr. Ferguson expects to be able to run the entire course this year. 

The "Run to Home Base' is a fundraiser and the first program of its kind in the nation hosted by The Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program which:

1.  Provides clinical care and support services to Iraq and Afghanistan service members, veterans and their families throughout New England, who are affected by deployment– or combat–related stress or traumatic brain injury (TBI).
2. Provides clinical and community education about the “invisible wounds of war,” and the challenges of military families.
3. Conducts research to improve treatment and understanding of Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) and TBI.
4. Strives to be a model partnership of academic medicine and Major League Baseball in service to our military veterans—and their families.

Please consider supporting this cause as a dollar here and there adds up quickly and there is a need for much more research into the diagnosis and treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  With the current crisis in the Veteran's Administration, it is good to know Massachusetts General Hospital is working on research and treatment for veterans.

The Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program helps Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families heal from the invisible wounds of war - post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury -- through world class clinical care, community education and research. These invisible wounds are estimated to affect one in three returning veterans, and can affect the entire family.

The Home Base Program operates one of the only private sector clinics in the nation dedicated to healing the "invisible wounds" of war for returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.  Home Base is the first program of its kind, a philanthropic partnership between an Academic Medical Center and a Major League Baseball team, dedicated to serving returning veterans and their families.

Since the fall of 2009, the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program has: provided clinical care and support for 1,000 veterans and family members from all six New England states; provided additional support for thousands of veterans and family members through free recreational activities, work in public schools, and on college campuses. In addition, Home Base has trained more than 11,000 clinicians nationwide to recognize and treat the invisible wounds in their medical practices, and the program is engaged in national research to improve the treatment and understanding of PTS and TBI.