Willard named Peer of the Year at John J. Pershing VA Medical Center

“It made me feel good to get that recognition, and I am extremely proud of it,” says Lee Willard, the recipient of the 2022 award, though he credits having “a great team” around him for his success.

Willard has worked at the medical center for nearly five years and has been a peer support specialist for almost two.

“Lee is an excellent asset to the At-Risk team,” says supervisor Stacey Weitzel, “His passion for Veteran service is evident in his results, and he always makes himself available when needed to assist Veterans in their treatment goals.”

Willard works with at-risk Veterans daily, but sees his job more as a labor of love than work.

“I love my job and I don’t feel like I’m working because I get to spend time with Veterans every day,” says Willard.

As a peer support specialist, Willard describes his role as “almost like a conduit for the Veterans and their providers. We get put in a position to build a rapport and trust with the Veterans, just by being Veterans ourselves. We can bridge that gap, say, if they were on the fence about seeing a mental health provider.”

Willard especially likes tailoring services and programs to individual Veterans’ needs, including “small things” like helping them get a consult for a scooter.

“We spend a lot of time with the Veterans, and we spend a lot of one-on-one time with them. We’ll hear things like, ‘I really want to go fishing.’”

When Willard heard that, he and co-workers quickly made some connections and were able to take a number of Veterans to a local fishing event just for them.

He and his team also have set Veterans up with free haircuts, helped some acquire bicycles for transportation, and so much more.

He even started guitar classes for Veterans through the facility’s whole health program, which have seen great success in just a short time period.

“It’s much more than a guitar group,” says Willard of the deeper therapeutic nature of the classes. “It’s Veterans getting together, and after two or three weeks, they’ll start opening up and maybe tell a little bit of their story,” he says.

Willard’s ability to find resources and solutions for Veterans, Weitzel says, is keen.

“He is energetic about finding a need and creating a solution,” she says.

Seeing Veterans he’s assisted succeed in their goals, Willard says, is especially satisfying.

“It’s like being a kid on Christmas,” he says. “The ones you see absolutely doing everything they can to accomplish everything they want to accomplish, it’s almost a euphoric feeling. Seeing them do something great and build on success, we celebrate it. It’s just a great feeling.”

Ultimately, Willard says, he would like to see the peer support program grow at the medical center because of the great benefits it provides to Veteran patients.

To learn more about services offered at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center, please call 573-686-4151 or visit https://www.va.gov/poplar-bluff-health-care/.