North Field Journal
Notes from the field, not the feed
The North Field Journal is a place for reflection, perspective, and hard-earned clarity.
These are notes shaped by experience, not theory, written for people who carry responsibility, uncertainty, and purpose at the same time.
This isn’t therapy.
It isn’t advice.
It’s a record of what helps steady the compass when the terrain gets rough.
From the journal
“You Don’t Even Know I’m a Veteran.”
By Rod Price Founder & CEO, Ithos Wellness I’ve been with this company for four years. I’m reliable. Respected. I show up early. I don’t complain. My manager would probably describe me as one of the good ones. I served eight years in the Marine Corps. Two deployments. I don’t talk about it at work. I’ve never mentioned it to HR. It’s on my resume, but nobody asked about it after the interview. I don’t wear it on my sleeve either. Last month the company sent out a mental health awareness email. A list of resources. The EAP number. A reminder that support is available. I read it. I thought: that’s not really for me. And I moved on. You don’t know I’m a veteran. You don’t know what I carried home. And here is what I need you to understand: I’m not asking you to know. I’m not looking
Why EAP Utilization Is Low and What Employers Can Do About It
By Rod Price Founder & CEO, Ithos Wellness Most employers offer an Employee Assistance Program. Most of those employers would tell you utilization is lower than they would like. And most of them, if they are being honest, are not entirely sure why. The answer is not that employees do not need support. The answer is that the pathway to support was not designed with the most reluctant employees in mind. And in most workforces, the employees who need support the most are exactly the ones least likely to use it. Understanding why EAP utilization stays low is not a benefits administration problem. It is a design problem. And design problems can be solved. Here is what HR and benefits leaders need to understand. 1. Awareness is not the bottleneck. The instinct when utilization is low is to improve communication. Send another email. Add the EAP number to the wellness
Veterans Do Not Just Need Access. They Need Trust.
When people talk about veteran mental health, the conversation often turns quickly to access. Access to care. Access to providers. Access to appointments. Access to benefits. Access matters, but it is not the whole problem. Veterans do not just need access. They need trust. A veteran may technically have access to a provider, a hotline, a benefits program, a peer group, or a community resource. That does not mean they will use it. It does not mean they believe the system will understand them. It does not mean they are ready to tell a stranger what is really going on. For many veterans, the issue is not whether help exists. The issue is whether that help feels safe, credible, relevant, and worth the risk of reaching out. That is a different problem. Trust Is Earned Before Help Is Accepted Military service shapes how people think about responsibility, loyalty, pain, weakness,
The Mental Health Benefit Gap No One Wants to Talk About
Most organizations care about the mental health of their people. That is not the problem. Many employers, public agencies, veteran service organizations, nonprofits, and first responder agencies already offer some form of mental health support. They may have an Employee Assistance Program, a benefits portal, peer support, crisis resources, wellness webinars, or a list of providers. On paper, that looks like access. In real life, it often does not feel like access at all. For the person who is overwhelmed, exhausted, angry, grieving, anxious, burned out, or quietly falling apart, a benefits packet is not enough. A phone number buried in a portal is not enough. A generic resource list is not enough. When someone is struggling, the hardest part is often not admitting that help exists. The hardest part is knowing where to start. That is the mental health benefit gap no one wants to talk about. Access on
Fundraising Did Not Distract Me From the Mission. It Sharpened It.
By Rod Price, Founder and CEO, Ithos Wellness Somewhere in the middle of writing a grant application, updating our pitch deck for a veteran-focused investment firm, and preparing materials for early funder conversations, I stopped and looked at what was in front of me. Pages of carefully chosen words. Hundreds of character-limited answers. Data I had gathered, refined, and re-examined until I could recite it in my sleep. I’ve spent months in the fundraising process thinking of it as a means to an end. A necessary step. Something to get through so I could get back to building. But sitting there, looking at everything laid out, I realized the process had been doing something I had not asked it to do. It had been pulling me back, over and over again, to the original vision. Not what North is today. What North is going to be. Every question on every
Why Survival Should Not Depend on Miracles
This is hard and very personal. Very few people close to me know this story, but it feels like the right time to share why I do the work I do. Around 2008, my life collapsed quietly. The economy was unraveling, and so was my career. I had walked away from banking, believing there was no way back. Then the path I was trying to build disappeared. No plan B. No safety net. Just the growing realization that everything I had worked toward was gone. At the same time, life did not pause. I had a family to provide for.Responsibilities that did not slow down.Bills that did not care about uncertainty or reinvention. From the outside, I looked like a capable adult navigating a hard season. On the inside, I felt completely alone. I was a veteran and a former first responder, yet I had no idea who to turn