Music therapy for military personnel
The military healthcare system is presented with significant challenges following recent conflicts. With advances in military medicine and technology, survival rates are higher and more service members leave combat with psychological injuries, including traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder. Such injuries present complex difficulties for treatment because of overlapping symptoms due to multiple health conditions, stigma of receiving care in military culture, and treatment options available within the military healthcare system.
Integrating creative arts therapies in military treatment can present challenges; many patients benefit from individualized care programs. To overcome such issues and ensure consistent, high quality treatment the researchers believe it’s important for music therapists and treatment centers to share program evaluations and successes, particularly by publishing more program evaluations and patient outcomes data in order to further validate program models, expand implementation, and provide research evidence. The paper outlines the current program models at two facilities, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the Intrepid Spirit Centre at Fort Belvoir.