Green Thumb Partners With Mental Health Co. To Address Veterans' Issues, Stem Suicides
Today 1:06 PM ET (Benzinga)Print
Cannabis company Green Thumb Industries (OTCQX: GTBIF) announced that it has teamed up with peer-based mental health company Happy to directly address the mental health of U.S. military veterans.
It is common knowledge that military veterans have been particularly hard hit by social isolation, anxiety, depression and unique traumatic experiences. Four times as many Veterans have died by suicide as in combat. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) confirmed in a report that at least 60,000 veterans had died by suicide between 2008 and 2017. Currently, 17 to 20 veterans per day take their own lives, reports the VA.
Green Thumb and Happy concur that new solutions to mental health are more important than ever. Through this partnership, the duo will offer veterans and their families free and unlimited mental health support through Happy starting November 1st through the end of December.
Happy is working with major insurers, hospital systems and employers across the U.S. to significantly expand access to and adoption of basic mental health support.
Happy operates one of the highest quality peer networks in the country,
through which it has implemented an innovative proactive engagement model that does not wait for people to reach out, but instead contacts individuals first. This creates frictionless mental health by generating high engagement rates and marked reductions in anxiety and depression.
“Military service members, veterans and active-duty personnel are often some of the most underserved demographics when it comes to mental healthcare,” Green Thumb founder and CEO Ben Kovler told Benzinga.
“There is not only a dearth of comprehensive resources but also numerous harmful stigmas linked to post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses that prevent these individuals from seeking help when they need it the most," Kovler continued. "In partnership with Happy, Green Thumb is committed to connecting veterans with support services, making active efforts to reduce stigmas around treatment and, most importantly, empowering this community to take charge of their own mental health."
Price Action
Green Thumb Industries’ shares were trading 5.31% higher at $19.64 per share at the time of writing Friday morning.
