{"id":45060,"date":"2025-11-11T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/45060\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T15:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:49:08","slug":"san-antonio-clinic-offers-free-mental-health-care-for-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/45060\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio clinic offers free mental health care for veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the city\u2019s Northwest Side, the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic offers service members, veterans and their families care \u2014 even if they don\u2019t qualify for services through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n

Part of the national Cohen Veterans Network, a nonprofit founded by philanthropist Stephen A. Cohen, to address timely mental health care access for veterans, the clinic provides no-cost mental health care to any post-9\/11 veteran and their family members, regardless of discharge status, insurance coverage or ability to pay. When space is available, the clinic also serves active-duty service members and veterans who served before Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the veteran population doesn\u2019t want to raise their hand and say they need help. They don\u2019t like asking for help. They\u2019re used to being the ones to jump in and offer the help,\u201d said Kristy Dean, regional director overseeing four Cohen clinics operated by Endeavors, including the San Antonio location. \u201cSo when veterans finally get to a place where they raise their hand and say they need help, we should have a way to get them help immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The network operates 22 clinics nationwide.The San Antonio location at 6333 De Zavala Road first opened its doors in 2016. The clinic, Dean says, is meant to fill gaps for veterans who cannot or choose not to seek care through the VA health care system, whether due to eligibility constraints, costs, long wait times or discomfort with the federal system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The reception area of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Endeavors on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Veterans can receive care from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays, with both in-person and telehealth appointments offered. Transportation assistance, including free Uber rides, is available for clients who need help getting to sessions.<\/p>\n

Family eligibility for care also extends beyond the traditional VA or Tricare definition by allowing veterans to determine who counts as part of their support system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see people in whatever capacity you consider them family, whether it\u2019s a cousin, uncle, brother, sister, spouse, child, mother, father. So long as they have some sort of connection to the veteran,\u201d said David Alvarado, the clinic\u2019s office manager and a retired U.S. Air Force medic. \u201cThere\u2019s usually things that\u00a0 we are able to do that the (VA) system doesn\u2019t allow you to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside the clinic, many staff members are veterans or military-connected, a strategy Dean said is used to help veterans feel comfortable and welcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very committed to military cultural competence. So in addition to an extensive training that was developed and provided by USAA, most of our clinicians have lived experiences as either a military spouse, grew up in a military family or are veterans themselves,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody here chose to be here because they\u2019re very connected to the mission personally, and we certainly prefer that in our hiring practices.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

USAA is a San Antonio-based financial institution that provides services exclusively to members of the military, veterans and their families. The training was developed through its \u201cFace the Fight\u201d<\/a> initiative, which focuses on improving the mental health outcomes for veterans by helping civilian providers better understand military culture.<\/p>\n

The clinic\u2019s staff provides individual, group, family, couples and child counseling to those in need. Initial screening is conducted within one to two business days, clients can expect to have their first appointment within two weeks of their screening, Dean said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional VA brief intervention models<\/a> that last 12-16 weeks on average, the Cohen clinic offers a different approach to care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur treatment model is very tailored to the person in front of us. They get to decide, and we customize it based on their needs.\u201d Dean said. \u201cWe never say this is a 10-week model, this is a 12-week model, even though we use all the practices of a brief intervention model, it\u2019s never just a hard, this is the number of sessions you get. \u2029It\u2019s based on what you define as progress symptom reduction. \u201c\u00a0<\/p>\n

The clinic also offers a staffed child care room at no cost for clients to use during appointments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A food pantry for clients in need at the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Endeavors on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Beyond counseling, a small food pantry \u2014 stocked by employees \u2014 is available for clients. Alvarado said the pantry started after the clinic received a call from a diabetic veteran \u201cwho hadn\u2019t eaten in a few days.\u201d The clinic\u2019s staff was able to provide multiple meals to the veteran via uber eats, which led to the idea of formalizing a pantry for those in need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow whenever clients come into our clinic, if they have any kind of food insecurities, we will let them go into our food pantry and take some things that will help them out,\u201d Alvarado said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite all the resources available, Dean refers to the clinic as \u201cthe best kept secret in town,\u201d with most referrals coming from word of mouth, and many veterans unaware of the services they may be eligible for.<\/p>\n

She said emotional barriers \u2014 fear of being judged, fear of being seen as weak or fear that seeking help could affect disability claims \u2014 are common among veterans seeking help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hear that a lot from folks,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot they associate with the VA and that culture and that experience.\u201d She noted that those concerns can be especially pronounced for women veterans, who make up 60% of the clinic\u2019s clientele.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alvarado said that hesitation is something he recognizes from his own time in the Air Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent 26 years in the military as a medic. Sometimes those that provide care or those that are in certain positions are reluctant to get the help that they need because they think they\u2019re supposed to be stronger,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we want to do is really try and break down some of that stigma of getting here in a rapid way and the way that we do it here by creating these spaces, creating quick access to care and providing care that is actually quality and evidence based.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvarado said the most important message is that help is available long before a crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want people to know is that they don\u2019t have to be alone in this \u2014 whatever it is that they face,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veterans and family members can start by calling 210-399-4838 or emailing SAclinic@endeavors.org<\/a> he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the city\u2019s Northwest Side, the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic offers service members, veterans and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[26312,26313,5015,26314,26315,2125,82,84,83,26316,26317,19761,26318,3028,26319,1913,5018,3440],"class_list":["post-45060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-cohen-veterans-network","tag-david-alvarado","tag-department-of-veterans-affairs","tag-endeavors","tag-kristy-dean","tag-mental-health","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-steven-a-cohen","tag-steven-a-cohen-military-family-clinic","tag-texas-veterans","tag-tricare","tag-typedaily","tag-u-s-department-of-veteran-affairs","tag-veterans","tag-veterans-affairs","tag-wc-1000-1500"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}