Heroes to Heroes provide spiritual healing and peer support for American combat veterans who have attempted suicide or are on a path to self-destruction due to moral injury/PTSD. Judy Isaacson Elias founded Heroes to Heroes in March 2010.
She spent most of her career in Broadcast Media in radio advertising sales and management with Regional Reps Corporation, XM Satellite Radio, Emmis Communications, CBS Radio, and Viacom.
Judy lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, with her husband Zev, their dog, Benji, and is enjoying being a Grandma while following her passion of helping our veterans through Heroes to Heroes.
Tune in for this sensible conversation at TalkRadio.nycor watch theFacebook Livestream by clicking here.
The show opens with Tommy introducing the show and guest to the audience. Today Tommy and his guest, Judy Isaacson Elias, will be discussing Heroes to Heroes. Judy's non profit helps veterans who are on a self destructing path due to injury or ptsd. Judy explains to the audience that operating a non profit was never her plan for life, but as she worked in the world she saw the need to implement lessons learned as a child to her life and career as an adult. Tommy reflects on a time where even he didn't have a mind for philanthropy, but like Judy, saw the need to give more wherever he could.
The second segment opens with Tommy bringing the show back up from commercial and giving the conversation over to Judy. She then goes into a brief explanation of where her passion for philanthropy originated. Judy explains that growing up with a father suffering from PTSD drove her to leave home at 16 to, how she explained, escape her household. Leaving home, having problems with school and family, drove a wedge between her and her father specifically. Although Judy found clarity when she went on a retreat to Israel and in that retreat she found a deeper connection to her faith. That deeper connection to her faith led to a need to become more charitable and involved in her life. Judy lost her father in a car accident while he was driving to a reunion for jewish soldiers. When talking to some of her fathers friends they explained that even they, his friends, felt like he was too broken due to the trauma inflicted by the horrors of war. Judy explains she couldn't have had a more clear sign to get involved in veteran affairs and their mental challenges.
The next segment opens with Judy bringing back the conversation to some of the early research she did on mental health and suicide rates across veterans. This research was shocking for Judy, but she found a sliver of hope when she found out people connected to a faith or community were 5 times less likely to commit suicide. Judy explains that a massive blanket stigma regarding mental health affects the veteran community harder due to the black and white nature of war. Something discussed at length is the non defined difference between killing for your country and murder. Judy explains that difference is a gray area but without breaking through the mental health stigma in our country then no veteran will get the help they need. Judy explains the retreat veterans take across Israel with Heroes to Heroes, and how she has seen so much improvement with these veterans in her work.
The final segment opens with Tommy giving the conversation to Judy to discuss how she helped over 300 people with her program. Judy gives a detailed story about a man named Harrison. He was an angry, depressed individual, wanting no help whatsoever. Judy explains Harrison was desperately looking for a sign to stay alive. Just when he decided to take his life, Judy explains, the phone rang and it was Heroes to Heroes telling him he's been selected to take the retreat to Israel. This emotionally intense experience going to some of the holiest places on earth changed Harrisons outlook on his life. He seeked the help he needed with Judy and is now a spokesman for the organization. Judy gives a sign off and a call to action to the audience and the show ended.
