Challenge coins keep suicide prevention within reach

MARENGO — Challenge coins have a long history in military organizations. Given by unit commanders in recognition of special achievements, the coins are displayed by veterans or kept with them to show other veterans.

Veteran and Iowa County Veterans Affairs Director Jennifer Olson hopes challenge coins can also save lives.

Olson has designed Battle Buddy Challenge Coins that bear the phone number of the veterans crisis line — 988 #1 — and the Johnson/Iowa County Mobile Crisis Unit — 1-800-332-4224.

The coins keep phone numbers accessible for times when veterans need to talk to someone, and veterans can pass them on to others who may need emotional or mental health help.

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Olson has also designed coins specific for every Iowa County school with the suicide prevention number — 988 — clearly visible.

Olson has worked in mental health her entire military career, she said. “It’s normal for veterans, when they return, to have a certain amount of brokenness.”

Olson has been with Iowa County Veterans Affairs for 10 years. In the first nine years, Olson saw no veteran suicides. In the last year, she’s had five. The most recent, a veteran she knew personally.

“I had just talked to him,” Olson said. “It hit me pretty hard.”

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Olson gives veterans her personal number and tells them to call, text or email any time, “and I will respond,” she said, whether the veteran wants to grab a cup of coffee with her or just talk over the phone.

Other veterans do the same, said Olson. It doesn’t matter in which branch of service or in which war era veterans served. They check on each other.

Veterans can talk to one another in a way they can’t talk to civilians, said Olson. “We call them battle buddies.”

Mental health services in Iowa are not adequate, said Olson. The wait time is nine months to a year, and many services have gone virtual.

Counselors change often, making it hard for veterans to know a person long enough to build the rapport needed for them to open up, Olson said.

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“We want consistency,” Olson said. Veterans don’t want to tell the same story over and over as their service providers change.

Olson had been mulling over ideas for a while and found that challenge coins are well known and can be kept on a veteran’s person, available at any time.

“It is a sign of camaraderie and brotherhood,” said Olson. “It’s to find other veterans in the crowd.”

Iowa County is paying for the veterans’ coins, Olson said.

The school coins have been made possible through donations from the nonprofit Friends of Marengo (Haunted Barn), Switzer Counseling Services and Wilson Counseling Services in Marengo.

Olson will be talking with Iowa County school students and giving out coins to junior high and high school students.

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“You have a lot of people that think if you talk about it, it will make kids think about it,” said Olson. But children are already thinking about it, and they need someone to talk to, she said.

Parents are sometimes too close or too emotional to talk to their children about depression or suicide, Olson said. “A lot of times it’s easier for kids to talk to an outside resource.”

The challenge coins will tell the children where to find those resources.

The first time Olson was affected by suicide, she was 14, she said. Since then she’s lost count of how many people she’s known who have ended their own lives.

One such person drives Olson every day. Olson served in Iraq with Donald Bartling Jr, from 2003-2004 with the 109th. He took his own life in 2008 at the age of 26.

A framed photo of Bartling hangs outside Olson’s office. She sees it every day.

“He reminds me of why I do what I do,” Olson said. “It’s therapeutic to be able to do this.”

Olson showed the challenge coins to Iowa County Supervisors during a Sept. 20 meeting. “I have clinics that ask for them. I have nursing homes that ask for them,” Olson said.

“This is interesting,” said Iowa County Supervisor Jon Degen.

People may not read fliers and won’t remember what’s on them, Degen said. “They’ll have [the challenge coin] in their pockets.”

Olson is redesigning the veteran’s coin so it doesn’t look as much like a poker chip — in case someone has a gambling addiction.

The coins are attached to cards that can be shared. Replacement coins will be available at the Veterans Affairs office.

Compass Memorial Healthcare plans to have the coins at their clinics in Marengo, Amana, Williamsburg, Victor and North English, said Olson.

Olson know she can’t save everyone, she said. “Even if it saves one, it’s worth it.”