Many efforts now exist to help veterans find normalcy in their lives after service, and that can take many different forms. One such organization takes veterans out for fishing excursions so they can spend a relaxing day at sea off the coast of Florida.

Reel Heroes Recovery helps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder get away from everything that might be stressful to them and hit the waters off St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Tampa, according to a report from the Tampa Tribune. The organization is a 501c3, and has sponsored dozens of these trips. However, it has an eye on expansion in the near future.

"I've been paying for it out of my own pocket," Reel Heroes Recovery founder Justin Willis, just 28 years old, told the newspaper. "Chairs, poles, bait and tackle – we could use some help. I want to get this to the point where it's not just in Tampa, either. I'd like to see it all over with different chapters in other cities."

These kinds of efforts often make a huge difference for veterans who are still trying to cope with civilian life after years of service, and for that reason should be supported as much as possible.

A couple in Tallahassee, Florida is working to help student-veterans succeed in life after service, reported the Tallahassee Democrat. Karen and Richard Moore, co-founders of a local communications company, donated to Tallahassee Community College's veterans center, which provides academic and financial services to former military personnel enrolled in TCC degree programs. The Moores also established a mentorship program at the school that connects student-veterans with local professionals.

The couple maintains a close relationship with TCC. Their son attends the school, and Karen Moore is a trustee. The college, on Feb. 23, renamed its veterans center in honor of the Moores' contribution.

"Karen and I wanted to make a significant gift to TCC," Richard Moore said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Richard W. and Karen B. Moore Veteran Success Center. "Service to our country and the military runs deep on both sides of our family."

Richard Moore is an Air Force veteran. His father and four uncles saw action in World War II, as well. Karen Moore's father served in the Navy. 

According to the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, the state has the third largest veteran population in the country. And, 75 percent of these former servicemembers served in wartime.

Students centers gaining importance
Since the post-Sept. 11 G.I. Bill took effect in 2009, almost 1 million veterans and their family members have accessed federal educational benefits, reported The New York Times. In response, colleges across the country established on-campus programs to aid student-veterans as they return to campus. Eastern Kentucky University instituted new academic initiatives to support its student-veteran population, which has doubled since 2010. It now offers specialized English and math courses to incoming freshman who served in the military. Travis Martin, an Army veteran, EKU grad and instructor at the school, runs multiple orientation programs for former servicemembers.

"I've learned that creating community was key for the veterans," he told The Times. "Those relationships will keep them in school."

Other universities have long offered veteran-centered programs. The University of Maryland has hosted on-base educational programs for servicemembers since 1949.

Serving those who served
Tallahassee Community College provides a host of services for enrolled former military personnel. It offers specialized academic advisors to student-veterans and staffs a cadre of VA medical counselors who are available to ex-military members and their dependents.

"Our college will continue to do everything we can to promote those who have served our country," TCC President Jim Murdaugh, Ph.D., wrote in a blog post. "Their stories of dedication and sacrifice are a constant inspiration."     

The U.S. Department of Labor, on Feb. 22, announced $13 million in grants will be given to its Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program, which offers employment and housing services to thousands of veterans nationwide. The agency projects that this latest round of funding will help an estimated 6,000 veterans struggling with life after service.

"Finding gainful employment can change the life of a homeless veteran," Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said in a news release. "The men and women who have served our country with distinction should not have to struggle to find and keep good jobs."

According to the Congressional Research Service, around 50,000 veterans are homeless in the U.S.

The war on veteran homelessness
In 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs pledged to house all homeless veterans by 2015, reported NPR. In response, the Obama administration tripled federal funding for veteran housing programs. States quickly took advantage of the funding and instituted local initiatives. Ultimately, the VA missed its deadline. However, the agency's action did spur widespread change. 

So far two states – Connecticut and Virginia – have effectively ended veteran homelessness using federal funding, reported The Huffington Post. And, according to The New York Times, the national veteran homeless population has fallen by 80 percent since the VA announced its ambitious plan.

"We've been able to house more vets in the last five years than at any point in our history – 30-plus years," Vince Kane, assistant to the VA secretary, told NPR. "In the past, both inside and outside of VA, we were focused on models more about managing homeless than on ending homelessness."

Federal and state services have altered their protocols for getting former servicemembers off the streets. Case workers now work to house homeless veterans before addressing their medical or psychological problems. Before outreach agencies made these tactical changes, veterans looking for housing first had to go through treatment programs, which prevented many from seeking help.

Still work to do
Despite these major leaps, many stakeholders realize there is still work to do. States like California, Louisiana and New York are still working to house struggling veterans. Even cities that report zero homeless servicemembers still have many living beneath overpasses.

"Homelessness is a continuous process. There's a veteran right now who is in a home who could very well be homeless tomorrow," Melissa Haley, director of supportive services at the New Orleans-based organization Volunteers of America, said in an interview with NPR. "Functional zero is defined as having a process and the resources in place where we can immediately house a veteran."

A local nonprofit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is providing care to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, reported NBC affiliate WTMJ-4. The group, called Healing Warrior Hearts, offers a variety of programs for ex-military personnel struggling through life after service with permanent psychological scars.

"It changes a person. It changes them deep inside," Patricia Clason, an emotional intelligence expert and founder of the group, told WTMJ-4. "In order to find a sense of safety again, and open their hearts again, and not be in fear every day, requires the love of a lot of people to make that happen."

Veterans in the program participate in therapeutic exercises that force them to confront past traumatic experiences and work through the accompanying emotions. Healing Warrior Hearts also hosts specialty sessions for former servicemembers who suffered sexual abuse during their deployments.

U.S. Air Force veteran Johni Baxter took part in one such session.

"Healing Warrior Hearts has given me a sense of purpose and direction in my life," she said in an interview with WTMJ-4. "It has helped me to learn how to love and be loved again and that's an ability that has changed my life."

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 20 percent of all servicemembers who served in the last four modern military conflicts – the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, the Gulf War and the Vietnam War – suffer from PTSD. Rates of diagnosis for the condition have risen over the past decade, reported Time magazine. In 2003, 190,000 veterans sought treatment for PTSD through the VA. In 2014, that number had climbed to more than 500,000.

Federal and state entities offer a number of services for veterans dealing with the condition but skeptics question the efficacy of these treatment programs. Others say many government-sponsored therapy plans for PTSD are fundamentally flawed.

In 2014 an Institute of Medicine panel leveled criticism against The Pentagon's offerings.

"[The programs] appear to be local, ad hoc, incremental, and crisis-driven, with little planning devoted to the development of a long-range approach to obtaining desired outcomes," the panel concluded.

Local programs such as Healing Warrior Hearts have picked up the slack and provide personalized, community-centered treatment. State governments and national nonprofits help, as well. Vermont recently began a statewide PTSD program for veterans. And national organizations like the Wounded Warriors Project offer therapy sessions and veterans insurance plans to former military personnel seeking treatment for psychological damage sustained in combat.

The University of Southern California's School for Social Work is running a unique campaign dedicated to raising funds for veterans looking to aid fellow servicemembers, reported the Daily Trojan. The program, called Salute4Vets, launched on Feb. 11 and provides free education to veterans who wish to pursue a master's degree in social work with a military specialization.

The campaign aims to raise $2.6 million to fund 120 scholarships. John Dumbacher, head of corporate partnerships for the School of Social Work, spearheaded the initiative. While talking to USC graduates with military experience, Dumbacher saw the impact veterans can have on others who served and was inspired to start Salute4Vets.

"Those students are helping on average about 100 veterans each year," he told the Daily Trojan. "We have 1,176 graduates of the program today, and that means over a 100,000 veterans were helped last year. So we started gathering the best of those stories and then [felt] we need to tell this [story] because it's amazing and unique."

Other colleges offer similar, veteran-centric education programs, reported The New York Times. For instance, San Diego State University's Joan and Art Barron Veteran Center offers former military personnel personalized assistance. Many of the center's employees are veterans themselves.

Veteran graduation rates are an ongoing concern. In 2013 alone, federal tax dollars funded college courses for over 1 million servicemembers and their families. According to The Washington Post, evidence shows veterans use these opportunities wisely. The Student Veterans of America in 2014 published analysis that revealed nearly 52 percent of veterans using the G.I. Bill completed their degree. However, the very fact that former servicemembers have 15 years to use these funds means that they take longer than traditional students to graduate.

Many experts say that it's important for disabled veterans to get out of the house every once in a while, and organizations exist specifically to help them with that goal. One such program allows veterans to hit the ski slopes in Pennsylvania for a big annual event.

For the last five years, the Wounded Warrior Project has brought a large number of disabled veterans and their families to Seven Springs ski resort as part of an effort to get them active once again, according to a report from Johnstown television station WJAC. Those with physical limitations even received specialized equipment from a nearby organization called Three Rivers Adaptive Sports.

"The mountain is there for them to play with," said Christopher Raup, CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project. "It's really amazing bringing the whole family in and having their children see them shooting down the slope for the first time and with a big smile on their face."

These types of programs often go a long way toward helping veterans feel engaged and active again, especially after they've suffered serious physical injuries that can otherwise feel like a massive and almost unbearable burden.

One of the big focuses in veteran services over the last several years has been on helping those who come home with more than just physical scars. Post-traumatic stress disorder impacts a large number of veterans, and many groups are focused on helping to tackle that problem in a number of ways. That includes an organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, focused on therapy.

The Healing Warrior Hearts program asks veterans to draw pictures of their hearts and discuss their problems in an open and accepting setting with other former servicemembers, according to a report from Milwaukee television station TMJ 4. Participants say the sessions, which include role playing, can go a long way toward helping them see a path to getting better once again.

"[PTSD] changes a person," Patricia Clason, who founded Healing Warrior Hearts, told the station. "It changes them deep inside. In order to find a sense of safety again, and open their hearts again, and not be in fear every day, requires the love of a lot of people to make that happen."

This kind of support exists for veterans in almost every part of the country, and often all they have to do to tap it is do a bit of research, and then reach out.

Therapists are using virtual reality technology to treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, reported Tech Insider. In this jarring form of therapy, former servicemembers suffering from the condition immerse themselves in familiar battlefield scenes via videogame-like virtual reality simulators. According to the National Center for PTSD, this technique is quickly taking hold within the psychological community. At least two Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers currently use virtual reality simulators to treat patients.

Confronting the past
According to The Wall Street Journal, veterans who regularly undergo this unique treatment regimen see tangible results. Marine Chris Merkle, a veteran of the Iraq War, began virtual reality therapy in the summer of 2013. Merkle had tried normal talk therapy and it didn't work – he couldn't unpack those memories in a silent, sterile office. So, he visited the VA Long Beach Healthcare System and enrolled in its fledgling virtual reality program.

During Merkle's first session, a therapist asked him to describe his hardest day in Iraq, reported Wired. Within minutes, the former platoon sergeant, wearing a virtual reality headset and clutching a plastic M-16, was once again experiencing war. He was with his men in the back of a truck in Nasiriyah, Iraq. Bullets hit Merkle's open-air transport. Buildings in the distance burned. It all seemed so real.

"As you walk through, you talk it through," Merkle told the magazine. "It's almost like opening a filing cabinet. Suddenly I'd be able to remember names. I'd remember details of what people looked like; what insurgents looked like."

These realistic simulations allowed Merkle to encounter the darkness head-on and sort through the situations that filled him with anxiety and rage.

"I tried a lot of things, but when I tried virtual reality it was like a toxic release," Merkle said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "You're not just talking to a therapist on a couch. You're in that event, you're reliving those moments."

Working off established techniques
PTSD sufferers often feel they are frozen in time, reported Al Jazeera America. They recall traumatic situations in violent, hazy spurts that leave them grasping for details and meaning. Most PTSD treatments center on strategies that enable patients to fully relive disturbing memories and evaluate the emotions that accompany those recollections. Virtual reality technology is particularly useful in these situations, as it can render personalized reconstructions.

"We teach them how to control breathing, heart rate, respiration, sweat gland response, and teach them some processes to control automatic thoughts," Dr. Brenda Wiederhold, president of the Virtual Reality Medical Institute in Belgium, told the news agency. "It keeps them from becoming overwhelmed by the emotion."

Some critics say this brand of treatment is too intense for many patients. Others believe it's a gimmick that repackages gaming as therapy.

Proponents point to several studies that have assessed the efficacy of virtual reality therapy and found it to be a viable methodology. Therapists who work with the technology see results daily.

Dr. JoAnn Difede, a PTSD researcher at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, used virtual reality therapy to treat survivors of Sept. 11 and told The Wall Street Journal about a particularly obstinate patient who had deep reservations about the technique.

"She looked at me and said, 'This looks like a cartoon,'" Difede said in an interview with the newspaper. "But when she put the headset on, she started to cry, and she started to tell me her story with a degree of emotion that I had not seen in eight weeks of treatment with her."

Veterans employed at the University of California, Los Angeles can now receive free walk-in care at the UCLA Staff and Faculty Counseling Center, reported The Daily Bruin. The program launched earlier this month and appears to be another in a lengthening line of institutional actions aimed at improving the school's relationship with local veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs in 2005 invited a variety of Los Angeles-based organizations to set up shop on a dilapidated VA property on the western side of the city, reported the Los Angeles Times. A number of local entities, including UCLA and the Brentwood School, developed property on the site. However, a federal judge in 2013 ruled that the VA had abused its power by leasing land for purposes unrelated to its mission. Investigators from the Government Accountability Office soon discovered that the VA and its lessees had completely mismanaged the property. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki called for a federal investigation.

President Barack Obama in May 2014 forced Shinseki to resign and replaced him with Bob McDonald. The new secretary promptly ended the investigation and re-purposed the land for an expansive community for homeless veterans. The VA released the final plans for this project in January and vowed to remove tenants who didn't intend to serve former military personnel.

"Those who have not become veteran-centric as we hope UCLA and the Brentwood School will be will have to leave," Vince Kane, one of Secretary McDonald's senior advisors, told the Times.

Local veterans reacted harshly to UCLA's role in this controversy and were doubly disappointed to learn that the school planned to hold on to Jackie Robinson Stadium, the large NCAA Division-I baseball complex that occupies its portion of the misused VA land. Ultimately, the school cut a deal with the agency and signed a new lease on the property in January, reported The Daily Bruin.

The school has begun to address the concerns leveled by local veterans. It actively collaborated with the VA on the proposed West Los Angeles community and pledged $3 million for a variety of veterans service centers that will dot the property when it's completed, reported the Los Angeles Times. The university also promised to develop specialized sports programs for local military personnel and their families.

"Beyond research and teaching, UCLA's other core mission is service, and I can think of no better way to serve our community than through an even stronger partnership with the VA," UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a news release.

The school's walk-in therapy program adds to its growing portfolio of veterans services.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Feb. 18 announced the deployment of a free mobile app that enables veterans to access state and federal services via smartphones and tablets, reported The Associate Press. The New York State Division of Veterans' Affairs developed the app, which is available to iOS and Android users.

"The brave men and women of the Armed Forces have dedicated their lives to defending our nation and this new app helps ensure these heroes and their families have access to the resources and services they need after returning home," Gov. Cuomo said in a press release. "This is one more way we are using technology to make a smarter and stronger New York."

The app not only gives veterans easy access to education, employment, health care and housing resources, but also includes a location feature that shows nearby veterans' affairs field offices and medical facilities. Users will also receive updates on federal and state assistance programs.

This app is the latest in a series of mobile information portals developed by New York. Over the past few years the state has released apps that provide information on parks programs and display up-to-date train timings.