Clinical Programs
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 and the state and local arts agencies 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. The initiative was established in 2012 through a partnership with the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and has grown to include multiple clinical sites at the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs treatment facilities across the nation.
Clinical Activities by the Numbers
As part of Creative Forces, 29 creative arts therapists work in clinical settings across the country in addition to providing services through telehealth programs for rural and remote areas and in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Learn About Creative Forces Clinical Program
Creative Forces Clinical Sites
The Creative Forces Network supports creative arts therapists in collaboration with military locations at Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs sites.

Telehealth and Virtual Arts Engagement
During COVID-19, Creative Forces’ creative arts therapists quickly pivoted from face to face clinical encounters to those conducted via telehealth, ensuring limited disruptions in patient care. Their adept ability to change delivery was due in large part to experiences gained through Creative Forces’ partnership with the VA’s Rural Veterans TeleRehabilitation Initiative (RVTRI) in which creative arts therapists deliver services to patients in rural and remote areas using secure internet video.

Research and Impact
Creative Forces invests in research on the impacts and benefits – physical, social, and emotional – of creative arts therapies as innovative treatment methods. Bio medical and behavioral research in clinical settings is conducted around five priority areas:
1.Targeted deployment of creative arts therapies interventions
2.Creative arts therapies in integrated care
3. Co-treatment and telehealth
4. Population characteristics and relationships to creative arts therapies implementation and outcomes
5. Neuroimaging and creative arts therapies
In partnership with the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Creative Forces aims to advance knowledge, leverage subject-matter expertise, and promote use of best practices to benefit targeted military patient populations. Creative Forces clinical research findings have resulted in 23 peer-reviewed articles published since 2016.