Interview · Recorded June 12, 2025 · Published October 5, 2026
Evan Shelline on caring for veterans and preventing veteran suicide
VETTED’s founder sat down with host Brooke Allen of Caffeinated Conversations for the first podcast recorded at Studio 281.
Watch the interview
Evan Shelline is the founder and president of VETTED. He served about a decade in the U.S. Navy, including about six years with the SEAL Teams. In this ten-minute conversation he talks about why so many veterans never use the benefits they earned, what it took to build a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, and why he believes another veteran is the best person to reach a veteran who is struggling.
Our thanks to Inbound 281 and Studio 281 for hosting and producing the conversation, and to Brooke Allen for a great interview.
If you are a veteran in crisis, or you are worried about one, call the Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1.
In Evan’s words
On why Vietnam-era veterans often don’t ask for help
“They weren’t treated very well. And so sometimes they just have a little bit of a boundary, a little standoff.”
On what veterans need most
“What everybody in the mental health space understands is that peer to peer support is the highest quality support you’re going to get.”
On families reaching out
“If you know that your husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter is in a place where you’re worried about them, it’s time to make a call and get somebody involved.”
On building VETTED
“We’re building a network. We’re building a tribe.”
What’s in the interview
- 0:00 Welcome to Studio 281
- 0:35 What VETTED does
- 1:18 Why veterans miss the benefits they earned
- 2:36 Federal contracting as a service-disabled veteran-owned business
- 3:23 The biggest challenges for a new veteran-owned company
- 4:54 The greatest need: mental health and peer support
- 7:24 Veteran suicide and a crisis response idea
- 8:50 How veterans and families can reach out
Since this interview
The conversation was recorded in June 2025. Since then, VETTED has begun accepting VA community care referrals for in-home care for veterans in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties, and has performed federal prime contracts for the VA, the Army Reserve, the Navy and the Treasury.
Families can start with our guide, Does the VA pay for home care?, or call our care line at 248-794-9292.
Independent and veteran-owned. VETTED is not part of, and does not speak for, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA alone decides eligibility and authorized hours. Information on this site is general and is not a benefit determination.