Abstract
Over 18.5 % of military personnel returning from war zones to civilian life suffer mental health issues that can lead to family breakdown, homelessness, and other problems. Almost 4000 Australian soldiers have returned home from active service in the last decade suffering from combat stress and mental health conditions. A 2009 Australian independent government review warned a new generation of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severe mental health disorders will emerge in the next 5 years, with as many as one in four likely to need mental health treatment.
The Difficult Return: Arts-based approaches to mental health literacy and building resilience with recently returned military personnel and their families is a 3-year Australian Research Council funded arts project aimed at supporting the mental health and well-being of recently returned veterans in Australia, the USA, and Canada. The project combines a range of arts-based strategies to help returning veterans, including online digital films to improve awareness and help-seeking motivation, a performance project with ex-soldiers and actors, and a process-based group work program. The chapter focuses specifically on the development of the Veterans Transition Program (VTP), a partnership between Griffith University and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. The VTP leverages the resilience and resources of veterans, providing help to participants attempting to better understand the impact of military experience on their lives. It draws on a range of psycho-educational and action-based approaches, including life review and drama enactments, to engage participants in ways of dealing with disturbing events from their lives. The chapter describes and reflects on a number of the strategies used in the VTP, for example, how drama enactments help to integrate emotion, cognition, and embodied awareness, the significance of contact when working with trauma, and the importance of a therapeutic milieu in constructing “units” of support for the veterans.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Following ethical procedure, all participant names have been changed. However, Todd has formally requested that his name be kept as it is.
References
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for the Beck depression inventory-II. San Antonio: Psychological Corporation.
Blatner, A. (1996). Acting-in: Practical applications of psychodramatic methods (3rd ed.). New York: Springer.
Bolton, G. (1986). Emotion in the dramatic process—Is it an adjective or a verb? In D. Davis & C. Lawrence (Eds.), Gavin Bolton: Selected writings (pp. 100–107). London: Longman.
Dunt, D. (2009). Review of mental health care in the ADF and transition through discharge. Department of Defence, Australian Government. Retrieved from http://www.defence.gov.au/health/DMH/docs/Review%20of%20Mental%20Health%201%20May%2009.pdf
Fox, J. (Ed.). (1987). The essential Moreno: Writings on psychodrama, group method, and spontaneity by J.L. Moreno, M.D. New York: Springer.
Kagan, N. (1984). Interpersonal process recall: Basic methods and recent research. In D. Larson (Ed.), Teaching psychological skills: Models for giving psychology away (pp. 229–244). Monterey: Brooks/Cole.
Knaster, M. (1996). Discovering the body’s wisdom. New York: Bantam Books.
Levine, P. A. (with Frederick, A.) (1997). Waking the tiger: Healing trauma. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
Parnell, S. (2010, January 20). 4000 diggers on war sick list. The Australian, p. 1.
Rosen, M. (with Brenner, S.). (2003). Rosen method bodywork: Accessing the unconscious through touch. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
Rothschild, B. (2000). The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.
Rozynko, V., & Dondershine, H. E. (1991). Trauma focus group therapy for Vietnam veterans with PTSD. Psychotherapy, 28, 157–161.
Ruzek, J. I., Riney, S. J., Leskin, G., Drescher, K. D., Foy, D. W., & Gusman, F. D. (2001). Do post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms worsen during trauma focus group treatment? Military Medicine, 166(10), 898–902.
Solomon, S. D., & Johnson, D. M. (2002). Psychosocial treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: A practice‐friendly review of outcome research. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(8), 947–959.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1976). Play and its role in the development of the child. In J. S. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play—Its role in the development of evolution (pp. 537–554). Middlesex: Penguin.
Westwood, M. J., & Wilensky, P. (2005). Therapeutic enactment: Restoring vitality through trauma repair in groups. Vancouver: Group Action Press.
Westwood, M. J., Keats, P. A., & Wilensky, P. (2003). Therapeutic enactment: Integrating individual and group counseling models for change. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 28(2), 122–138.
Westwood, M. J., McLean, H., Cave, D., Borgen, W., & Slakov, P. (2010). Coming home: A group-based approach for assisting military veterans in transition. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 351, 44–68. doi:10.1080/01933920903466059.
Yalom, I. D. (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Balfour, M. (2016). The Difficult Return: Supporting Returning Veterans Through an Arts-Based Social Leadership Program. In: Johnson, G., Dempster, N. (eds) Leadership in Diverse Learning Contexts. Studies in Educational Leadership, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28302-9_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28302-9_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28300-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28302-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)