After surviving suicide attempt, Latino veteran from Kansas City strives to save others

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Editor's note: This story discusses suicide and may be triggering for some readers. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, call or text the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If there is immediate danger, call 911.

KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.

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More than a decade after surviving a suicide attempt, Vincent Morales has found a new purpose — raising awareness about mental health and working to prevent tragedy among veterans and in the neighborhood where he grew up on Kansas City's Westside.

Morales, a retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class and veteran of multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, struggled with PTSD and found returning to civilian life difficult after transitioning from active duty, an all-too-common experience among service members.

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“Coming here to the neighborhood, living back here in Kansas City, I was out of place,” Morales said. “I didn't know where I belonged. I was still very much in warfighter mode. I was very, very aggressive. I spoke aggressively [and was] short-tempered on everything that I did. Might made right in that phase of my life, and it didn't work.”

Depression took hold and relationships eroded, leading to isolation. Morales began self-medicating to deal with his physical and mental pain before he reached a breaking point.

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"There is a moment when all these challenges present themselves cumulatively, and the answer your brain tells you, the answer is no longer being here," Morales said. "... I drove my ATV off a cliff right here locally on the west side, right behind Rosedale Barbecue, and spent 10 hours out there before anybody found me.”

When he awakened in the hospital, Morales — who turned his cathartic journals into a book about his experience, "El Corazon de un Oso: A Bear's Heart" — was strapped to a bed, reliving the horrors of combat, including a friend who died in his arms.

Justin Hoover, executive director of The Battle Within, a Kansas City-based nonprofit that works with veterans and first responders facing mental health crises, said the weight of service often follows people home.

"The legacy that you leave a lot of times when you come back from combat or patrolling the streets is one of PTSD,” he said. “There's that anger, that hyperawareness.”

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Hoover, who was deployed with Morales in Iraq, finds strength and inspiration through working with veterans and first responders striving for recovery and peace through The Battle Within.

"What we excel at is giving those that can't say no in the face of crisis, that have really suffered traumatic burdens on behalf of our population, the permission and the opportunity to really begin their own healing journey," Hoover said.

It’s a journey too few discuss in the Latino community, according to those working on the front lines.

Sandy Curry, a clinical social worker for the Fuerza program at the Guadalupe Center, treats vulnerable children and their families. She said the conversation around mental health in the Latino community is overdue.

"I don't think it's been discussed enough," Curry said. "... That's my mission. I just want to really work on prevention. I can't change the world, but I can come out there and help you.”

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Curry said the children she works with are already feeling the weight of uncertainty, whether that’s because there are often language barriers in the Latino community or because of the current political climate.

"A lot of the kids that I see now talk about that insecurity, being Latino, and just what that means, what is that going to mean for their future," she said.

It’s a stress that permeates the Latino community.

“When Latinos are contributing $4.4 trillion to the gross domestic product, and currently 600,000 are being deported during this administration, what kind of generational trauma does that cause for us?” Morales said. “We're here kicking into this system, into this society, and that we're being removed by our own country. What does that do to the young men and women in this country? These are things that we don't speak about enough. I know from my own personal experience what it's like to have a relative leave home and not come back that day. There are too many Mexicanos in this city that know what it's like to go to work or school and not have their children come back because La Migra, ICE, or INS has removed them. Those are conversations we need to normalize.”

Curry said those pressures compound the everyday mental health stressors, like family and financial concerns, that many in the Latino community feel.

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Morales hopes his experience can spark conversations about mental health in the various communities of which he’s a part.

"The neighborhood tried to kill me, ISIS tried to kill me, Al Qaeda tried to kill me, I've tried to kill myself,” he said. “I have a purpose here now. ... My purpose today really is to have courageous, crucial conversations with my brothers and sisters across my neighborhood, across my community, across the country, about how we can get 1% better every day, right? What does that look like? Mental health is not a destination. It's a byproduct of the journey.”

One grounded in hope and gratitude that Morales hopes veterans, first responders and his Westside Chicano community hear and embrace.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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