Retired United States Marine Corps Captain Sean Christensen has spent time all over the world serving on the front lines to keep America safe. From building schools in Southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan to jungle warfare training in Pohang, South Korea, Sean was never far from danger. Over a distinguished two-decade career, Sean spent time in 20 different countries during 6 separate deployments while being stationed across the U.S. at different Marine Corps bases.
But Marine life took its toll. By the time he retired at the end of 2017, Sean was anxious in crowds, quick to anger, and often experienced horrific nightmares. The doctors diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress. Even though he didn’t immediately agree with the diagnosis, he knew he needed to retire. Sean looked around and saw what his military career had afforded him: experience, savings, a wife, and an MBA—real reasons to try to find a new purpose in life after the Marines.
“How do you find your new purpose?” asks Sean. “That’s the question servicemen and women ask themselves the first day they become a Veteran. When I retired, suddenly I didn’t know what my purpose was or if I’d ever find a new one.”
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One Veteran’s Story Highlights the Need for More Programs Like Northwell’s Military Liaison Services
SIDE-BY-SIDE: A CELEBRATION OF SERVICE
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The transition to civilian life led to some dark times. While Sean knows he was lucky to have the opportunity to search for his new purpose, the search was derailed by his PTSD. He knew he needed help, but no one to whom he reached out understood his unique experiences.
“The help I found wasn’t helpful,” he recalls. “We weren’t speaking the same language. Nobody I talked to could ever understand what
I went through unless they went through it themselves.”
This is a common problem for Veterans returning from service. Combined with a loss of purpose and suffering from the isolation of PTSD, too many servicemen and women choose to forgo help altogether.
“This happens every day,” says Sean sadly. “Veterans don’t seek or find the help that they need. And that’s how we end up with so many Veterans who are homeless, have substance abuse problems, or worse, take their own lives.”
Thankfully, Sean’s story has a different ending. A friend, John, who worked for Northwell Health’s Military Liaison Services, referred Sean to a job at Northwell as a Distributions Operations Manager for the Core Lab. Here, Sean was involved with COVID testing, among other types of important tests for patients, putting him back where he was trained to be: the front lines.
“Now I see the value of the work I do every day for the greater good,” says Sean, “and it finally feels like I’ve found my new mission. My new purpose.”
decade has also awarded about $2 million to employees who were mobilized and deployed overseas—funds that represent the difference between their military pay and the regular salaries they would have earned at their Northwell jobs. In recognition of its efforts, Northwell is ranked as the nation’s seventh top nonprofit employer by the Veterans' advocacy group, Military Friendly.
“We are forever in debt to our armed forces, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for our freedoms,” says Michael Dowling, President and CEO of Northwell Health. “We must never forget their service. We will continue to celebrate their efforts, along with all of our first responders and health care workers, who risked everything to save lives after the September 11 attacks and again during this pandemic. We will keep their spirits alive as we prepare not just for a return to normal—but a brighter future for us all.”
According to Dowling, being on the front lines has a different meaning today than it did before the pandemic. In his book Leading Through a Pandemic, Dowling frames New York City’s COVID onslaught and the reaction by Northwell Health’s healthcare workers as nothing short of heroic. While we continue to honor and support the men and women who’ve served in the U.S. Armed Forces this Memorial Day, a new kind of frontline hero has joined them in deserving our recognition: America’s healthcare heroes.
Side by Side: A Celebration of Service, Northwell Health’s annual event honoring active-duty personnel, Veterans, and their families, will now include our frontline healthcare workers who served bravely and valiantly in the fight against COVID. Begun in 2019 as a platform showcasing Northwell’s continued dedication, as a healthcare leader, to serving the needs of our Veterans and active military members, Side by Side returns this Memorial Day Weekend with a bang, including a TV special airing on WNBC and a livestream benefit concert hosted by Alfonso Ribiero with performances by Katy Perry, Ne-Yo, and Gavin DeGraw.
CONTINUED LEARNING
Sean Christensen’s story is but one of many that lead Veterans to a career with Northwell Health. Since 2006, Northwell has been serving and supporting active-duty personnel, Veterans, and their families as a proud, military-friendly employer and provider of medical care and behavioral health treatment for those struggling with PTSD, while also recruiting and assisting newly-returned Veterans who are trying to find a job and acclimate back into civilian life. Northwell hires hundreds of Veterans a year, and over the past
“Along with honoring our healthcare heroes,
we are celebrating everyone who has stepped up to the challenges brought on by the pandemic over this past year.
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“Now I see the value of the work I do every day for the greater good,” says Sean, “and it finally feels like I’ve found my new mission. My new purpose.”
“Side by Side was created to show appreciation for our military, Veterans, and their families who have selflessly served our country,” says Juan Serrano, Assistant Vice President of Northwell’s Military Liaison Services. “Along with honoring our healthcare heroes, we are celebrating everyone who has stepped up to the challenges brought on by the pandemic over this past year. We will remember our 9/11 heroes as 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of those attacks.”
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Sean Christensen is grateful for our appreciation, and for events like Side by Side that honor frontline Veterans of all kinds. But even more so, he’s grateful for the opportunity Northwell’s MLS program afforded him.
“I don’t like to think about where I’d be today without the folks at MLS, without my friend John who reached down and helped me out of the foxhole, without Juan Serrano or Michael Dowling,” says Sean. “What I do think about is how lucky I am that John introduced me to Northwell’s programs for Veterans. And I think about the Veterans who don’t know about those programs, or who don’t have access to them. The ones who can’t find the help they need or won’t ask. The younger Veterans. The ones with disabilities or substance abuse problems. With no jobs. The ones who feel stuck, like they’ll never have a purpose again. Our brothers and sisters are in a foxhole, and we need organizations like Northwell Health to reach out a hand and pull them out.”
This Memorial Day Weekend, take part in Northwell’s Side by Side: A Celebration of Service in any way you can. To learn more, or to learn how you can contribute to Northwell’s Military Liaison Services, please visit SideBySideNYC.com. And if you’re a Veteran of either the military front lines or the pandemic front lines, know that there are resources for you. You don’t have to suffer alone. Visit northwell.edu to get started.
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The transition to civilian life led to some dark times. While Sean knows he was lucky to have the opportunity to search for his new purpose, the search was derailed by his PTSD. He knew he needed help, but no one to whom he reached out understood his unique experiences.
“The help I found wasn’t helpful,” he recalls. “We weren’t speaking the same language. Nobody I talked to could ever understand what
“Side by Side was created to show appreciation for our military, Veterans, and their families who have selflessly served our country,” says Juan Serrano, Assistant Vice President of Northwell’s Military Liaison Services. “Along with honoring our healthcare heroes, we are celebrating everyone who has stepped up to the challenges brought on by the pandemic over this past year. We will remember our 9/11 heroes as 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of those attacks.”
I went through unless they went through it themselves.”
This is a common problem for Veterans returning from service. Combined with a loss of purpose and suffering from the isolation of PTSD, too many servicemen and women choose to forgo help altogether.
“This happens every day,” says Sean sadly. “Veterans don’t seek or find the help that they need. And that’s how we end up with so many Veterans who are homeless, have substance abuse problems, or worse, take their own lives.”
Thankfully, Sean’s story has a different ending. A friend, John, who worked for Northwell Health’s Military Liaison Services, referred Sean to a job at Northwell as a Distributions Operations Manager for the Core Lab. Here, Sean was involved with COVID testing, among other types of important tests for patients, putting him back where he was trained to be: the front lines.
“Now I see the value of the work I do every day for the greater good,” says Sean, “and it finally feels like I’ve found my new mission. My new purpose.”
decade has also awarded about $2 million to employees who were mobilized and deployed overseas—funds that represent the difference between their military pay and the regular salaries they would have earned at their Northwell jobs. In recognition of its efforts, Northwell is ranked as the nation’s seventh top nonprofit employer by the Veterans' advocacy group, Military Friendly.
“We are forever in debt to our armed forces, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for our freedoms,” says Michael Dowling, President and CEO of Northwell Health. “We must never forget their service. We will continue to celebrate their efforts, along with all of our first responders and health care workers, who risked everything to save lives after the September 11 attacks and again during this pandemic. We will keep their spirits alive as we prepare not just for a return to normal—but a brighter future for us all.”
According to Dowling, being on the front lines has a different meaning today than it did before the pandemic. In his book Leading Through a Pandemic, Dowling frames New York City’s COVID onslaught and the reaction by Northwell Health’s healthcare workers as nothing short of heroic. While we continue to honor and support the men and women who’ve served in the U.S. Armed Forces this Memorial Day, a new kind of frontline hero has joined them in deserving our recognition: America’s healthcare heroes.
Side by Side: A Celebration of Service, Northwell Health’s annual event honoring active-duty personnel, Veterans, and their families, will now include our frontline healthcare workers who served bravely and valiantly in the fight against COVID. Begun in 2019 as a platform showcasing Northwell’s continued dedication, as a healthcare leader, to serving the needs of our Veterans and active military members, Side by Side returns this Memorial Day Weekend with a bang, including a TV special airing on WNBC and a livestream benefit concert hosted by Alfonso Ribiero with performances by Katy Perry, Ne-Yo, and Gavin DeGraw.
SIDE-BY-SIDE: A CELEBRATION OF SERVICE
“Now I see the value of the work I do every day for the greater good,” says Sean, “and it finally feels like I’ve found my new mission. My new purpose.”