Shana Lee Mehr

Caregiver

"I had spent so much time taking care of my warrior and our family, I forgot about myself. Op Mend helped me repair that thought process and work on myself."

“Being a caregiver has changed everything about me,” says Shana Lee Mehr. “For a long time, I lost myself as I made sure to keep the emotions and the schedule of our household running smoothly. I lost myself in catering to my warrior’s emotional happiness and keeping our children quiet and not upsetting anything.” 

Shana says juggling everything exhausted her emotionally. “When I wasn’t home, I poured myself into work to find some passion and identity, but often I had to take calls to help my warrior calm down or handle a situation, along with taking him to appointments. I wanted hope and a future for my family that included us staying as a family unit. The way things were going, I’m not sure we would have made it.

Fortunately for Shana, her husband, Warrior Ben Mehr, a specialist in the U.S. Army National Guard, attended an Odyssey track through Wounded Warrior Project and his counselor suggested that he look into UCLA Health’s Operation Mend.

“Op Mend is nothing short of a miracle to me,” Shana explains. “Throughout the whole process the team thought of everything. We didn’t have to book our travel; we were greeted at the airport. We were given gift cards for a local grocery store, as well as having a lot of lunches prepared for us. We were also able to make our lunch choices beforehand, so that the stress of decision fatigue was removed. Our children had their own hotel room connecting to ours, allowing us space to heal and connect while keeping them safe. They were taken care of every day by a wonderful team at UCLA summer camp, and they did things that we could never have dreamed to provide for them – including trips to Disneyland and Universal Studios. Because our children were occupied and taken care of, we were both able to fully embrace and walk into our therapy without having to worry about parenting. I could go on and on – and I will – but I am forever grateful for this experience.”

Shana feels that it was Operation Mend’s belief in the importance of caregivers that enabled her to realize how much work she needed to do on herself. “I had spent so much time taking care of my warrior and our family, I forgot about myself. Op Mend helped me repair that thought process and work on myself.”

Because of her caregiver treatment at Operation Mend, Shana has completed her own trauma focused therapy and has opened her world to new thought processes and strategies to move past trauma triggers. “My soldier and I still take part in marriage counseling, and we’ll always seek therapies to assist us when we need it. Most important, we want to spread the news of the restoration in our marriage and family to anyone with a soldier and family. There is hope.”