Americans for the Arts

The American Music Therapy Association presented this 2014 briefing paper focused on music therapy programs provided to military personnel, their families, service members in transition, and Veterans on military installations, in military treatment facilities, in VA healthcare facilities, and in communities.  It includes four sections: Background, Model Programs, Research, Recommendations & Conclusions.

A evaluation catalogue that can assist individuals and organizations in providing programming for veterans and military members in their communities. It consists a University of Oklahoma program evaluation of the pilot arts program for residents at the Norman Veterans Center, offered through a collaboration of the Oklahoma Arts Council and Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs.

NASAA's Arts & Military Snap Survey was a first step toward gaining a more comprehensive understanding of state arts agency (SAA) and regional arts organization (RAO) policies, programs, services, partnerships and other efforts to serve military and veteran populations.

This strategy sampler summarizes existing policy goals, services and relationships of SAAs and RAOs working to support military and veteran populations through the arts. It also highlights programmatic issues and other challenges these agencies face in rea lizing their arts and military goals .

A Briefing Paper prepared for the National Roundtable for Arts, Health and Well-being Across the Military Continuum, November 30, 2016.

Published in October, 2013 the report, Arts, Health, and Well-Being Across the Military Continuum - White Paper and Framing a National Plan for Action, details a series of recommendations in the areas of research, practice, and policy that came out of two national convenings. The convening were The Arts and Health in the Military National Roundtable (November 2012) and the National Summit: Arts, Health, and Well-Being Across the Military Continuum.

The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. The arts bring us joy, help us express our values, and build bridges between cultures. The arts are also a fundamental component of a healthy community—strengthening them socially, educationally, and economically—benefits that persist even in difficult social and economic times.

Transcript of Yo-Yo Ma's lecture, for the 26th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy on April 8. 2013.

"This volume describes a burgeoning area of psychotherapy that employs the art of fi lmmaking and digital storytelling as a means of healing victims of trauma and abuse." [p.1]

Art therapy has been shown to be effective in reducing acute stress symptoms in pediatric trauma patients. 

"This comprehensive summary of SRs demonstrates that MT treatment improved the following: global and social functioning in schizophrenia and/or serious mental disorders, gait and related activities in Parkinson’s disease, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality. MT may have the potential for improving other diseases, but there is not enough evidence at present. Most importantly, a specific adverse effect or harmful phenomenon did not occur in any of the studies, and MT was well tolerated by almost all patients."

"Our findings demonstrate that training in a visual art production group enhances functional connectivity of the DMN, particularly between the parietal and frontal cortices. No such effects were observed in a cognitive art evaluation intervention group."

"In this paper we presented a case study of the ongoing process of healing for an active duty military service member with symptoms of chronic PTSD and mild TBI. Using multiple data sources we identified how the patient overcame resistance to treatment and used art therapy and acupuncture to externalize and manage recurring intrusive images and traumatic memories. In addition, the study highlights the applications of non-verbal therapies like art therapy to help patients who are unable to express themselves through traditional talk therapies, as well as the ways in which multiple

"Results indicate that free art-making in this context significantly lowered negative affect and improved positive affect and self-efficacy. Improved affect was also moderately correlated with improved self-efficacy. There was no difference between groups based on prior experience with art-making, gender, age, or race/ethnicity. Content themes from the participants’ artwork were very diverse including references to nature, people, activities, memories, and abstract explorations of colors and shapes."

"Our findings suggest that the association and projection fibers interconnecting fronto-parieto-temporal region, for example, CCG/CAB, SLF, and UNC; and fronto-subcortical regions, for example, ATR, are particularly vulnerable to military-related blast injury, where the compromised circuits have significant effects on the functional outcome of chronic mTBI patients. Furthermore, high frequency of blast exposures may deflect negatively normal aging trajectories of white matter integrity. However, longitudinal study with follow-up scans is needed to validate these findings. Nevertheless,