President of the Board, Frank Robinson, was born and raised in Perryville, MO. He attended Southeast Missouri University and after graduating joined the military. Frank was injured during his first tour in Vietnam and returned to the United States. When he arrived back, he was connected to the Missouri construction industry and established Robinson Construction. At 37 years old, he and his wife Joan adopted Andrew Robinson.

 

When Andy was 11 years old, he got involved with multiple kinds of drugs that he found while attending school. Between the ages of 11 and 32, Andy was frequently involved with the justice system. By the time Andy hit 30, he had been to prison once.  In between sentences, the Robinson Family tried connecting Andy to multiple treatment facilities practicing a variety of treatment methods and nothing was working for him.

 

When Andy was let out of prison the second time, he realized that it was time to start making a change. Knowing that many treatment options were not working out for him, Andy and Frank reached out to Andy’s old friend at ARCA’s Recovery House to get him connected to services.

 

It was not until Frank found the linkage with ARCA and Recovery House that Andy was truly able to find his way out of addiction. The transitional, supportive living model saved Andy’s life, and both are forever grateful to the model. Frank saw the connection of a life-saving treatment model for addiction and realized that he could combine his passion for his Veteran community and his desire to give back to the veteran community with his personal story of helping his son. In 2021, Frank Robinson approached Suneal and Percy Menzies to begin planning ways on how to replicate ARCA’s Recovery House successes and hyper-focus them into a veteran-led, supportive living, behavioral health organization.

 

Knowing that this model has a strong success rate of getting men out of the cycle of addiction, Frank thought that replicating the model but tailoring all services to be veteran-specific would be an impactful way to give back to his community. In recent years, story after story has been released about the number of veterans who die from suicide or by way of overdose. Pairing the recent news stories with the “22 a day” national social media campaign is a key influencer in creating services that are tailored to the needs of veterans.

 

RecoVET was formed in early 2022 to help any veteran living with mental health or substance use diagnoses. The overarching strategic goal is to provide a haven for Veterans who need assistance with access to care in addition to housing and job employment. By providing the linkage between all aspects of the social determinants of health, RecoVET is well-positioned to be the leader of veterans behavioral health care in the St. Louis Area. RecoVET is the only transitional living support facility specifically tailored for veterans in the St. Louis Metro Area.

  

Some additional statistics that fuel our mission:

• Veterans who have an SUD are 3 to 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with depression and/or PTSD.[1],[2]

• Nearly ¾ of all veterans experiencing homelessness have a SUD.1

• Only 35% of veterans who are treated for opioid use disorder at the VA receive medication-assisted treatment.1

• Alcohol is the primary substance for veterans entering treatment centers, with men being twice as more likely to have a diagnosed AUD than females.1,2

• Veterans are the highest group to most likely misuse substances tied to multiple factors such as:

  • Multiple deployments, the added stress of being deployed from civilian life turns veterans to substances to cope

  • Combat exposure, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and other mental health diagnoses may be self-medicated through substance use when they return from deployment

  • Military-related injuries, misuse of over-the-counter pain medication, and prescribed painkillers to numb combat-related and chronic pain after service.

 

[1] National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2019, October). Substance use and military life DrugFacts.

[2] Teeters, J.B., Lancaster, C.L., Brown, D.G., & Back, S.E. (2017). Substance use disorders in military veterans: Prevalence and treatment challenges. Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation, 8, 69-77.