Military veterans face many challenges when returning to civilian life: reconnecting with family and re-establishing a role in the family; joining or creating a community; returning to a job or preparing to enter the workforce; and adjusting to a different pace of life and work. Some veterans return home with severe injuries, some visible, and some invisible. In healthcare and community settings, veterans have discovered vital outlets for expression and pathways to purpose and joy through activities such as writing, gardening, performing music, hiking, painting, and fishing.
The Benefits of Arts and Nature Experiences
Researchers and professionals who work with veterans have reported myriad benefits when spending time in nature and the creative arts:
- Decreased feelings of anxiety
- Reduced levels of stress hormones
- Greater focus, self-awareness, and sense of confidence
- Improvement in cognitive skills and the ability to process trauma
- Higher capacity for confronting frustrations, transitions, and grief
Veterans, too, have identified additional benefits:
- Facilitate bonding with others
- Provide a sense of call, being more in control
- Offer respite from problems and stress
- Ease transition from military to civilian life
- Help them find meaning in their recovery
- Make it easier to talk about difficult subjects
- Give them a reason to live
Scientific Evidence
A growing body of research has demonstrated the therapeutic value of the arts and spending time in nature. Below are selected studies:
Creative Arts
- Coming home to the arts: theatre with military veterans and families
- Participatory choral music as a means of engagement in a veteran’s mental health and addiction treatment setting
- Randomized controlled trial of online expressive writing for veteran reintegration difficulty
Nature
- Sharing a New Foxhole with Friends: The Impact of Outdoor Recreation on Injured Military
- Enhancing the well-being of veterans using extended group-based nature recreation experiences
- Nature adventure rehabilitation for combat-related posttraumatic chronic stress disorder: A randomized control trial
Community Tools and Resources
- Arts, Health and Well-Being Across the Military Continuum
- ARTS DEPLOYED: An Action Guide for Community Arts & Military Programming
- AESTHETIC PERSPECTIVES Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change
- AESTHETIC PERSPECTIVES Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change (short take)
- The National Endowment for the Arts Guide to Community-Engaged Research in the Arts and Health
- Talking about Arts in Health: A white paper addressing the language used to describe the discipline from a higher education perspective
- The Arts: Promising Solutions for Meeting the Challenges Facing Today’s Military — Then and Now
- The Arts: A Promising Solution to Meeting the Challenges of Today’s Military A Summary Report and Blueprint for Action
- Briefing Paper prepared for the National Roundtable for Arts, Health and Well-being Across the Military Continuum November 30, 2016
- ARTS, HEALTH, AND WELL-BEING IN AMERICA- A white paper commissioned by the National
- Organization for Arts in Health
- What are the Healing Arts (NEA INFOgraphic)
- Creative Forces Fact Sheet
- NOAH Code of Ethics
- Learn More About PTSD