Veterans across the country are using creative expression to ease their symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and are getting more support from Congress.
(FOX)- In 2016 an additional $1.98 million in funding was added to the National Endowment for the Arts budget to support the Creative Forces NEA Military Healing Arts program. In 2017 it will expand and five art therapy sites will be added to the seven currently scattered across the country. The program is a partnership between the NEA and the Department of Defense and it puts creative arts therapy at the center of the patient-focused treatment for veterans, military members and their families.
The program has had positive feedback from veterans through surveys and evaluations by the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) Walter Reed Bethesda. Of the military patients involved, 85 percent said the therapy has been helpful to their healing.
Wally Kollmann served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He has spent the last 45 years battling PTSD and has turned to art therapy to cope. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 26 percent of Vietnam veterans have suffered symptoms of PTSD or signs of impairment related to the condition throughout their lives.
“I’ve had nightmares throughout the last 45 years of being forced into a cage,” Kollmann told FoxNews.com.
His work was recently featured at a national creative arts festival in Jackson, Mississippi. The exhibit gives veterans an opportunity to express their creativity.
“I’m hoping that by doing and seeing what I’ve got here I can help release that and what I’m finding is, it’s releasing some pressure,” Kollmann said.