Guardian Hills
Veteran Healing Center

The concept of the formation of Guardian Hills Veterans Healing Center began after the national tragedy on September 11, 2001. At that time, founding Board President Daniel Slawski, MD was in active practice as an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist. Prior to that, he had been a United States Air Force Medical Corps Major treating a wide variety of active-duty personnel, reservists, military dependents, retirees and former prisoners of war. With the onset of military action in Afghanistan, Iraq and other theaters of anti-terrorism operations, Dr. Slawski began to see more National Guard and Reserve members in his civilian practice who had been deployed, sometimes multiple times, and were returning with physical injuries as well as the signs of Post Traumatic Stress (PTS). In addition, there were the tragic realities of combat deaths of local service members and veteran suicides. The stress on military families was obvious and palpable.