The National Endowment for the Arts is expanding its NEA Military Healing Arts Partnership with the Department of Defense, a program launched in 2011 that supports music, writing, and visual art therapy at military care facilities. The partnership’s art therapy programs currently take place at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) at Walter Reed Bethesda and also includes the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital Brain Wellness Center in Virginia. Both medical centers use an integrative healthcare model to treat service members with traumatic brain injury and associated psychological health issues. The NEA will add to its roster of creative art therapists and other integrative care providers working within the military, and is also collaborating on a research project with NICoE and Drexel University’s Creative Arts Therapy PhD program. Says NEA Chairman Jane Chu, “Arts interventions sit at the core of integrative, patient-centered care. We are deeply inspired by how these service members use art-making as a tool to bolster their resilience and accelerate their ability to heal.”
Posted November 18, 2015
