Roger Koch, with Ozark Center, honored as 2025 Mental Health Champion
Koch was one of three winners chosen from a pool of nearly 50 nominees.
The award was presented May 1 at the Foundation's banquet in Jefferson City.
Missouri Mental Health Champions are people who make positive contributions to their community, and whose actions have increased independence in others with similar mental health conditions.
Koch was recognized for his one-on-one work with military veterans struggling with mental health issues, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder.
He served in the U.S. Army from 1985-2005, including an 18-month combat deployment to Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and returned with PTSD symptoms.
After retiring from the military in 2005, he said in a statement: 'I chose to do what most combat veterans do, and that's to bottle everything up and cope with things the best way I knew."
He said he kept his PTSD struggles bottled up inside for 14 years before his wife suggested he seek professional treatment.
'I must admit, asking for help was a huge first step for me,' Koch said in a statement. 'You figure, throughout my military career, it had been overly emphasized that a veteran should never ask for help or need assistance; it was considered a weakness if you did. Once I finally let my guard down and talked openly to mental health professionals, it didn't take them very long to diagnose me with anxiety, anger issues, depression and PTSD.'
It was around this time that he earned of Ozark Center's search for a local veteran to lead its VIP program, working with other veterans and their mental struggles. Due to his veteran status, and because he's familiar with PTSD's destructive and disruptive power, he discovered it was easy for him to connect with the veterans he counseled.
'Being a veteran seems to make the conversations more open,' Koch said. 'I'm not sure if it's because of the 'trusting another veteran' thing or being able to speak and understand the military jargon. Nonetheless, veterans tend to open up easier to other veterans."
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