Life Management was awarded a $72,000 grant, administered by the Community Foundation in Jacksonville, from the Florida BrAIve Fund.

Rachel Rackard, a licensed Life Management mental health counselor, said the new grant allows Life Management to offer free mental health services to qualifying individuals, including military personnel or their families with needs resulting from service in Iraq or Afghanistan.

She said the new funding allows Life Management to extend free care to individuals who do not have a severe and persistent mental illness, but need short term care to cope with war-related stress and mental health issues.

“It’s a little more specialized as far as the care,” Rackard said.

According to Life Management, the grant covers active duty, reserve, National Guard and veteran service members, as well as their family members.

Free services include individual, family and group counseling, psychiatric services, and crisis counseling and evaluation services.

Rackard said Life Management, which serves Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington counties, has already been providing mental health services to soldiers and their families affected by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

She said the center, a non profit organization, tries to help everyone it can but can’t provide free services to all of its patients.

Life Management’s application for the grant was not directly related to the deployment this week of hundreds of area Florida National Guard soldiers to Kuwait and Iraq, Rackard said.

Rackard said the continued American military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq for most of the last decade has impacted military families throughout the region.

“This community has been constantly affected by deployments,” Rackard said.

To inquire about the services provide by the grant, contact Rackard at 522-4485, ext. 4001.