For more than a decade, the Special Forces Trust has worked to support the unique needs of Green Berets and their families as they serve at the tip of the spear in locations around the world. Among the most utilized facets of their programming is a suicide prevention effort that “fills the gap between the military and health care” systems.
Jodi Burns, CEO of the Special Forces Trust, told the Special Operations Association of America (SOAA) about her nonprofit’s signature suicide prevention and invisible wounds program, Beyond the Battlefield, which helped pay for more than 3,000 counseling sessions for Green Berets in 2025 alone.
Creating Beyond the Battlefield
When Burns and her team set out to develop Beyond the Battlefield, she said that Green Berets reported being met with a mental health “system that was broken.” Personnel faced “long wait times to find a therapist,” and sometimes they could not consistently see the same practitioner, which forced them “to tell their painful story over and over again.” Some avoided seeking care out of worry of what they might lose. This included more practical items like security clearances or the ability to own a gun, but also deeply personal intangibles like the confidence of their teammates, leadership, and/or spouses.
To learn more about the barriers to finding assistance, Burns held an impromptu sensing session in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, assembling operators from throughout the special operations ecosystem at a beach to discuss mental wellness. The common concern was that operators would “be too embarrassed” for people to know they were seeking help.
As Burns set out to build a “discrete” and “trusted” platform that would help Green Berets invest in what she calls their “mental wealth,” she knew that anonymity was key. The result was an online tool called “S.O.S.,” which has three distinct features for Green Berets seeking support.
The first “S” stands for side-by-side experiences, in which small groups of six to 12 Special Forces (SF) personnel gather for group activities like fishing, hunting, sport clay shooting, rafting, and rucking, which give them the chance to bond as they practice a new skill. Burns reports that side-by-side sessions wind up with a bonfire and deep conversation.
By going online to the Beyond the Battlefield website and clicking on the “O” in S.O.S., Green Berets receive a unique identification code with an attached QR code they can take to any mental health clinician to access 12 paid therapy sessions. Because the therapist is outside of Tricare or on-base healthcare, Burns says that Green Berets can express their concerns more freely.
As of May 3, Burns reported that users had pulled over 600 identifier codes to access therapy. Of these, 420 were in use. Those figures demonstrate the importance of the program in the SF community, but Burns explained that they also remind her of the program’s current limitations. If all 600 identifier codes had been used, Burns said that “the budget would have been kaput.” Burns says that the Special Forces Trust is “constantly raising money to fund” the therapy initiative through annual grants and family members, the term the nonprofit uses for its donors.
Beyond the Battlefield’s therapy program has expanded since its inception in May 2022, when $14,000 in sessions were paid out to clinicians countrywide. By the end of 2025, Beyond the Battlefield programming had required $618,000 in funding. Thinking about the success “keeps me up at night,” Burns admitted. “It’s what makes me proud, but it keeps me up at night because I never want to say ‘no.’”
The second “S” in Beyond the Battlefield’s S.O.S. program stands for sponsored treatments and services. Designed for someone who needs more substantial assistance because they are experiencing suicidal ideation or addiction, intervention can include referring Green Berets to inpatient treatment facilities where they can get longer-term care tailored to their needs. When a participant finishes their clinical treatment, the Special Forces Trust continues to stay in contact, and recommends participation in side-by-sides and other ongoing efforts to build “their mental wealth portfolio.”
Evolving the Program
Because of the community’s expressed preference for anonymity in receiving care, Burns was surprised that the launch of Beyond the Battlefield was followed by a plethora of direct calls from SF personnel in immediate need of help. At the time, Burns had a team of five with no training in managing mental health crisis. She reports that it “got heavy” in a way no one was prepared for, particularly on Friday nights after the fall time change, when darkness fell earlier and Green Berets faced a weekend without the distraction of work.
Finally, Burns said the team “did some internal cleanup” to ensure they were prepared for incoming calls and hired additional teammates who could help with the volume of need.
Those calls taught Burns’ team that anonymity was not a key concern for all Green Berets. As a result of that experience, those applying for support today can choose whether or not they prefer to remain anonymous. Burns reports that both options “are used widely,” and that when a Green Beret shares their identity, it makes it easier to maintain touch points to monitor their ongoing level of need.
As Beyond the Battlefield grew, so did requests for support from the spouses and children of SF personnel. The Special Forces Trust has acquired a separate grant to meet the demand for care for family members of Green Berets who are facing complex mental health concerns, but Burns says that the demand for these services will soon exacerbate the amount of the grant.
At this point, Burns said that “the command leans on us” for the support that Beyond the Battlefield provides. But Burns reports feeling like she is “constantly pitching for more support” as the Special Forces Trust seeks out annual grants to keep up with demand.
To that end, Beyond the Battlefield is in the process of creating an endowment that will ensure the program “can always have those resources in perpetuity.” The Special Forces Trust intends to launch the endowment campaign by year’s end.
One Portion of a Larger Mission
Beyond the Battlefield is just one pillar of the Special Forces Trust’s efforts. The organization also assists families managing tragedies, helps with scholarships, and offers educational workshops to build family resilience. In support of the U.S. Army’s incredible heritage, Special Forces Trust helps with hosting receptions for Medal of Honor recipients, assists with military organization weeks and hosting military balls, and can offset costs for some military burials.
Because of its 501(c)3 status, the Special Forces Trust can also offer emergency relief crowdfunding for Green Beret families. Unlike GoFundMe campaigns, which take a percentage of accumulated funds raised and are not tax deductible, funds raised for families through the Special Forces Trust can be given as tax-free grants. While donors cannot earmark expenses for a particular family through donations at the Special Forces Trust, this feature can be a benefit. If a family raises funds beyond their needs, excess funds remain within the Special Forces Trust. Those funds help the Special Forces Trust make up the difference if another family is not able to raise enough to cover their needs.
Burns came to the Special Forces Trust with a deep understanding of the special operations forces community. The wife of a Navy SEAL who recently retired after over 28 years of service, she said she “raised kids in this lifestyle” and knows “how difficult it is.”
“I don’t even consider it a job,” Burns said of her role in keeping the Special Forces Trust’s mission thriving. “I just consider it a lifestyle.”
