FAQs

Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs that seeks to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for military and veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers. Creative Forces is managed in partnership with Americans for the Arts, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, and Mid-America Arts Alliance.

There is a growing need in our country to address TBI and PTSD. More than 400,000 men and women of our armed services are living with TBI or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including 10-20% of all service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. TBI and PTSD are known to contribute to depression, and to the estimated 20 suicides committed by veterans each day.

Participation in creative arts therapies or in community arts programs can help reduce stress, decrease anxiety, and increase positive emotions. In clinical and community settings, credentialed professionals, artists-in-residence, and other artists can help people improve their emotional, psychological, and physical well-being.

Creative arts therapies increase patient engagement across all health interventions and are seen as critical by all members of the interdisciplinary care team because they help patients and their providers gain a clearer understanding of the conditions they are struggling to address—making these “invisible wounds” more visible. Patients also acknowledge improvement in sleep, memory, pain, cognitive function, and the ability to confront emotional challenges. Family members who engage in creative arts therapies express similar benefits as well. Creative arts therapies are non-invasive and cost-effective medical treatments.

In a survey at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) Walter Reed Bethesda:

1. 85 percent of military patients said art therapy was helpful to their healing
2. military patients consistently rated art therapy among the top four treatments out of more than 40 health interventions offered

Program evaluation of the music therapy program at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) Walter Reed Bethesda showed:

1. 79 percent of military patients who attended one music therapy group requested follow-up music therapy sessions (group/family/spousal)
2. Military patients endorsed that participation in music therapy sessions assisted with learning how to use instrument-playing as a positive alternative coping skill, understanding the ability of active music-making as a means to connect with others 

For first person accounts from service members who have participated in creative arts therapies, read the Veterans’ Voices found here.

Around the Creative Forces clinical sites, the Arts Endowment is creating a community-based arts network to provide increased arts opportunities for military service members, veterans and their families and caregivers. These networks will extend support for current and former creative arts therapies patients and their families as they transition from treatment in a clinical setting to arts programming in their community. Read more in the community network section of the website.

Community-based arts programs can help current and former patients continue to benefit from the arts beyond the clinical setting, so that arts practice can continue to be incorporated into daily life after patients finish clinical treatment. These programs are also a way of engaging family members of active duty military and veterans who are being treated in a clinical program, as well as other military and veteran populations living in the community who would like to participate.

Community-based arts programming, usually led by an artist-in-residence or another type of arts provider, is intended to be recreational, with therapeutic benefits. But it is not therapy. Creative arts therapies can only be provided by nationally credentialed and/or Board Certified creative arts therapists (art therapists, dance/movement therapists, drama therapists, music therapists, poetry therapists, psychodramatists)—clinicians who possess the training and qualifications required to practice their respective profession. For further information about the creative arts therapies, please visit the website for the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations.  

Telehealth programs use many forms of remote communication within a healthcare setting, including videoconferencing, secure text messaging, streaming media, and digital correspondence. Benefits of offering telehealth services include reduction in health disparities by improving access to comprehensive care independent of local resources, cost savings related to elimination of transportation expenses and improved military readiness through reduction in time lost from work and occupational training.