Healing Our Troops

Current Status:

  • 120 Military, VA & community providers working with returning troops trained in mind-body medicine since 2007
  • Supervision Groups led weekly for program graduates
  • DoD funded randomized control trial to study the effectiveness of our model on of PTSD & major depression OIF and OEF vets and their families. Click here
  • Tri-Service training program in development

The Center’s Healing Our Troops program is providing active duty, Veterans and Military Families with a powerful approach to dealing with the stress of war and enhancing their resiliency. Through specially tailored mind-body medicine training programs and on-going supervision for health and mental health providers and community leaders, the Center is committed to bringing effective, non-stigmatizing care to the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.
 

The need:

The severe trauma of war and its profound impact on individuals and families is well documented. Even more deeply disturbing, the need for effective care is not being met.

  • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the most common diagnosis among troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq after musculoskeletal injuries.
  • A recent RAND Corporation study reports approximately 300,000 veterans are affected by PTSD and depression.
  • A US Army released report showed the highest annual level of suicides in 2008 among active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and Reserves since the Pentagon began tracking the rate 28 years ago.
  • The most common symptoms reported by veterans coming to VA healthcare centers are anger and sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances are a main feature of PTSD and can exacerbate depression, suicidality, general psychiatric distress, poor quality of life and functioning, and poorer perceived physical health.
  • In the PTSD guidelines, it is noted that populations such as veterans with PTSD are especially resistant to first-line therapy and are good candidates for programs that include multiple modalities.
     

Our Goals:

Our model offers returning troops a supportive, non-stigmatizing environment comprised of their peers that encourages sharing a common healing experience that will ultimately lead them to resiliency and recovery. Our goal is to train a sufficient number of military health and mental health professionals to help bring population-wide relief and healing among our returning troops.

Since 2007, this Healing Our Troops has trained over 120 Military, VA and community providers in The Center’s model for trauma care and resiliency building, including representatives from:

  • Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCOE)
  • Office of Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs
  • Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences
  • Department of Deployment Health Services
  • US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine ( USA CHPPM)
  • US Army Office of The Surgeon General (OTSG) Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center
  • William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC)
  • Office of the Psychological Health for Navy Medicine
  • National Naval Medical Center
  • Veterans Integrated Service Network 23 (VISN 23)
  • Blue Star Mothers of America  

Our global trauma relief model:

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine has developed a trauma relief program utilizing mind-body skills including biofeedback, relaxation, guided imagery, meditation, drawing, and breathing exercises that have been used successfully around the world.

This program, which is presented in small educational groups, has the advantage of enhancing soldiers’ and veterans’ capacity to help themselves while mobilizing social support crucial to full recovery. The Center has used this program to assist in population-wide healing efforts in war-torn and traumatized regions around the world, including Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Israel and Gaza, and in the United States with NYC firefighters post-9/11 and in post-Katrina Louisiana.

Click here to read more about our sustainable model!
 

Our research:

The Center’s published research shows remarkable results.

In the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) ever of any intervention with war traumatized children, The Center’s comprehensive, non-drug model to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) produced an approximately 80% reduction in PTSD symptoms after 12 two-hour treatment groups. Most of these gains were maintained at 3 month follow-up (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2008). Click here to read more.

An evaluation of the experience of personnel serving the military who have participated in CMBM’s training program in Mind-Body Medicine revealed:

  • An across the board improvement in mood, including highly significant decreases in scores for depression, fatigue, anxiety and anger, and a significant improvement in vigor.
  • Significantly decreased feelings of professional “burnout.”
  • Major changes in attitude, including significantly enhanced: “personal strength,” capacity to “relate to others,” appreciation of “new possibilities” and of “life, in general”, general feeling of “positive spiritual change.”

The Department of Defense has also awarded the Center a research contract through the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to study the effectiveness of the CMBM’s comprehensive, non-drug approach to treating posttraumatic stress disorder and major depression with troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families.

Click here for other research on our trainings.

Join us in helping Heal Our Troops.

Details of the upcoming training: click here

Donate funds to help a Military health professional attend: click here

Read about our other Global Trauma Relief programs: click here

 

My experience with this training has given me a gut-level belief in the strengths and resources within each of my patients. And, thanks to their experience in the group, my patients are learning to believe in these strengths as well! I only wish everyone could have access to this training.

- Chanel Helgason, MD, Psychiatrist, VA Nebraska Western Iowa Health Care System