Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) is an American nonprofit organization that provides care and support to families and friends of members of the U.S. armed forces who died while serving. TAPS was founded in 1994 by Bonnie Carroll. The mission of TAPS is to provide ongoing emotional help, hope, and healing to all who are grieving the death of a loved one in military service to America. TAPS is committed to providing compassionate care to all military survivors regardless of their relationship to the deceased or the circumstances or geography of the death. This is done through long-term, peer-based emotional support, crisis response and intervention, casualty casework assistance, and grief and trauma resources and information.
History
TAPS was founded in the wake of a military tragedy, after eight soldiers were killed in a C-12 plane crash in Alaska in November 1992. Among the grieving family members was Bonnie Carroll, the military widow of Army Brigadier General Tom Carroll. At the time there was no national emotional support network for the families of America's fallen heroes. The families therefore found support amongst each other then, often right at the comfort of their own kitchen tables.
After conducting two years of research examining the resources available to support bereaved military families and benchmarking best practices at other peer-based support organizations, Carroll founded TAPS in 1994 and still serves as its president and on its board of directors.
By September 2001, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) had established grief and peer support programs recognized by military leadership. Following the 9/11 attacks, as the United States entered prolonged military conflict, TAPS integrated into the Pentagon Family Assistance Center to offer peer-based emotional support to affected military families.
The impacts of two decades of persistent security threats and conflict have meant a stark increase in training, combat, suicide, and illness deaths across the military services and in our veteran population. In recognition of both TAPS continued commitment to provide quality compassionate care for the growing group of bereaved military family members in this post 9/11 era and Carroll's decades of selfless work on behalf of all families of the fallen, President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to TAPS President and Founder, Bonnie Carroll in 2015. Carroll accepted this award on behalf of the entire TAPS Family.
Mission TAPS mission is caring for the families of America's fallen heroes. They do so by providing comfort, care and resources to all those grieving the death of a military loved one. Since 1994, TAPS has provided at no cost, a support network and connection to grief resources to surviving families and loved ones.
On average, TAPS reaches new survivors within days of a casualty notification.
TAPS was designed to complement services offered by other organizations, the military, or the government. They operate under Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with the military service components, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and contractor assets with the Department of State to ensure the continuity of care for families following casualty assistance. TAPS collaborates with both the Executive and Legislative Branches of government to advocate for care and benefits for survivors of military loss.
Survivors Helping Survivors Heal Caring for families of America's fallen heroes often begins with a phone call. The TAPS National Military Survivor Helpline is a toll free 24/7/365 resource and information line at 1-800-959-TAPS (8277) through which TAPS begins to connect families with the care and benefits assistance they need. All calls are answered by a TAPS professional and not an automated system.
TAPS was founded on the principles of best practices in peer-based emotional support for bereaved survivors. Even staff members are primarily survivors of military loss who received support from TAPS after their own loss and who have now made it their profession to pay it forward.
Today, TAPS provides care to grieving military family members using these best practices. Researcher Dr. Paul Bartone has documented the impact of this work in a landmark systematic review of evidence and best practices in peer-based support. This report, "Peer Support for Bereaved Survivors: Systematic Review of Evidence and Identification of Best Practices" highlights eight ground rules for successful programs that can be benchmarked by all those working in peer-based programs.
Peer support gives those who have had a unique experience or who are facing a personal challenge the framework to connect with another with that shared experience or challenge, either individually or in a group setting.
Being heard, understood, and having a sense of community is at the heart of TAPS and is the mission focus of the TAPS Peer Mentor Program. TAPS Peer Mentors are survivors ready to be a companion in another's grief journey. They are typically at least 18 months beyond their own loss and have reached a place where they feel ready to give of their time and their heart to be a supportive presence to a new survivor. Peer Mentors receive training and become a vital part of outreach, including opportunities for leadership and facilitator roles.
One-to-one pairings of two adult military survivors offer a companion to new survivors as they face their unexpected path. In addition survivors are supported by their peers within TAPS Care Groups, TAPS Togethers, Seminars, and other special programming like expeditions and empowerment retreats.
Each year, TAPS holds several programs which welcome and support thousands of participants across the nation and overseas. The National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp has been held annually in Washington, D.C., over Memorial Day weekend since 1994. TAPS also conducts regional survivor seminars for adults and youth programs at locations across the country, as well as expeditions and empowerment programming. Unique to TAPS Good Grief Camp and TAPS youth programs are the Military Mentors and Legacy Mentors who volunteer to provide one-on-one mentoring for the bereaved military children and teens attending TAPS events. A military mentor is someone currently serving in the military or a veteran of the armed forces who serves as a caring companion and a reminder to TAPS kids that the military never forgets them or their fallen heroes. A legacy mentor is themself a military survivor who has already graduated from Good Grief Camp and is ready to support younger survivors grieving the loss of their military loved one.
TAPS offers online resources that allow survivors to connect through peer-hosted chats, message boards, and group discussions between in-person events. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it expanded its online services to support continued connection and access to care.
Through its network of partners and resources, TAPS assists people through grief and loss, along with training and education for bereavement professionals. In March 2018, it launched the TAPS Institute for Hope and Healing through a partnership with the Hospice Foundation of America. The Institute seeks to be a resource and training center while also serving as a hub for collaboration among professionals working in the bereavement community.
Suicide Loss Support and TAPS Suicide Postvention Model (TM) In 2008, TAPS began building a new program specifically designed for military families bereaved by suicide deaths. Under the leadership of Kim Ruocco as Vice President of TAPS Suicide Prevention & Postvention, thousands of military family members, loved ones, and friends have received services and support for their grief related to losing a service member or veteran who has died by suicide.
TAPS offers specialized care and resources developed in part by suicide loss survivors themselves, which address the complicated grief of this population and the factors that often hinder the healing process. Rooted in peer-based support, TAPS is able to provide vital encouragement to survivors so they know they do not have to face their grief alone—the process of postvention.
Postvention is an intervention strategy of support for survivors in the aftermath of a death by suicide, which reduces the likelihood that survivors will suffer from "complicated grief," and, ultimately, gives them a pathway to healthy grieving. Postvention is an effective tool in suicide prevention that allows survivors to share their "lessons learned on the lookback" to improve best practices in mental health and reduce stigma, thereby saving lives.
TAPS uses a three-phase postvention approach called the TAPS Suicide Postvention Model, which includes Stabilization, Grief Work, and Posttraumatic Growth. Stabilization focuses on identifying and addressing suicide-specific issues that may complicate the grief journey. Grief work is the process of moving away from how a loved one dies and rebuilding a relationship that focuses on how they lived and served. Posttraumatic growth is the process of finding meaning from the loss.
One such program, the National Military Suicide Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp, which began in 2009. This annual event has given thousands of survivors of suicide loss the coping skills and encouragement needed to begin a path toward healing for themselves as well as their families.
The TAPS Suicide Prevention & Postvention program was created in 2017 to bring the TAPS Suicide Postvention Model to other outside organizations and providers around the world. The program's team has become a major contributing voice in the national conversation on suicide awareness, prevention, and the field of suicidology. The team continues to contribute in the areas of public messaging, specialty training, and webinars as consultants across the military, public, and private sectors.
Their work now includes partnerships with both national and international organizations, board representation on task forces, specialty committees, and other advocacy platforms (for example with the American Association of Suicidology, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention) and thought leadership among national policy discussion and legislation related to military suicide (such as with the Defense Suicide Prevention Office and the Department of Veterans Affairs).
TAPS is America's leading organization in military suicide postvention, setting the standard in best practices and quality of care for those impacted by military suicide loss. In 2020, the team was selected to be a key member of the President's Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS). Enacted by Executive Order, PREVENTS is a Cabinet-level, interagency effort to develop the first federally coordinated national public health strategy to address suicide.
The PREVENTS Roadmap, released in June 2020, is a historic, national plan to raise awareness about mental health, connect veterans and others at risk of suicide to federal and local resources, and facilitate focused and coordinated research into suicide.
In January 2021 TAPS published a peer-reviewed article in the field-leading scholarly journal Death Studies entitled "TAPS Suicide Postvention Model: A Comprehensive Framework of Healing and Growth" about TAPS’ three-phase approach to care that is beneficial to both survivors and providers in the aftermath of a death by suicide. This document is the culmination of a more than decade of care to thousands of survivors of military and veteran suicide loss.
Government relations, policy, and advocacy TAPS support for survivors extends beyond grief work to advocacy and assistance with casework and benefits.