Neurorehabilitative music intervention has been a great help for those veterans who are suffering from mental illnesses after their return from their duties.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 20% of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan experience PTSD in a given year.
Apart from other innovations in rehabilitating these veterans, music intervention has played a great role. With support like Warrior Sprit Band veterans are taking the reins of their lives in their own hands and keeping the spark alive with music. Let’s explore the impact of music intervention and therapies for veterans.
Scientific Basis of Musical Intervention
Music has a significant effect on the human brain and all body organs. The literature review revealed that music has the ability to make the listener feel less stressed, decrease pain, feel happier, and perform better. To veterans, musical intervention is an effective technique that is fun and effortless in the treatment of different psychological and physiological disorders. Listening to music and creating it triggers sections of the brain associated with emotions, memory, and the intensity of the traumatic event in a contained manner.
Physical Rehabilitation
The instruments can be used in the rehabilitation processes, especially for those ex-combatants who sustain physical injuries. Thus, by rehearsing music, children achieve better motor control, and coordination, and even make their muscles stronger. Music therapy may also help to control pain since it will come as an opportunity to divert attention from the pain as well as ensure that the patient is relaxed.
A Broader View of Intervention with Music
Enhancing Mental Health
There is evidence that demonstrates a positive interaction between music-making and the mental health of veterans. It is therefore vital that clients attend music therapy sessions on a regular basis in order to benefit from the reduced symptoms of PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Thus it assists the veterans in addressing such issues as stress, mood swings, and overall emotional well-being to enhance. Music and its impact on the improvement of the quality of life of some veterans create a powerful therapeutic process not only in the lives of the individuals themselves but in their relationships as well.
Promoting Social Reintegration
Coming back to civil life is one of the biggest challenges most of these veterans have to go through. Speaking of music as an instrument, it can really become a kind of link to the social reintegration process, which means that veterans will be able to continue their lives and create new social bonds. Simulations, drama, group work, and collaborative productions allow the actors, especially the veterans, to showcase their abilities to express their experiences and be understood by the community. Such activities assist veterans to feel valued, hence improving the veteran’s sense of place, or in other words, community belongingness.
Supporting Long-Term Recovery
Consequently, music therapy is not a single intervention that can be applied as an isolated treatment, but rather a gradual process that contributes to the patient’s gradual rehabilitation. People readjusting to life after their term in the military can also feel the further incentive to pursue cooperation with musical interventional programs. Music therapy becomes useful for individuals who engage in music as a hobby, career, or just a way of expressing themselves. Prolonged activeness in music parades will be a booster for the mental health of the veterans in the future.
How to Get Involved
This is not about treatment, this is about helping those who have served their country to find a new purpose in life and integrate both in communities and in musical pursuits. Thus, as more people are familiar with the positive effects of music therapy for injured soldiers, more programs and facilities shall be established to help military men in the process of their rehabilitation.
For Veterans
The sources available for veterans interested in the reception of musical intervention are many. VA hospitals and clinics that are situated in local areas provide music therapy. Other charitable organizations that exist to help veterans include Music Corps, Operation Song, and Guitars for Vets which can offer extremely affordable or even free services to the veterans. Participating in such programs can be the initial stage in conquering a particular ailment and discovering a calling. Thus, the author encourages veterans to find such opportunities and at least begin the process of incorporating music into their lives.
For Supporters
The information given above demonstrates that it is rather valuable to fund veteran music therapy courses. Friends’ contributions support salaries for the instruments, lessons, and recording sessions of non-profit organizations. Indeed, going to veteran music events and performances indicates that people are interested and supportive. All the time or skill that can be contributed in the form of musicians, teachers, or a supporter plays a big role in changing the lives of the veterans. Thus, people may provide assistance in these matters and contribute to the salvation through music for veterans.
For Musicians and Therapists
The musicians and music therapists could help by availing themselves and volunteering for veteran services. Simply writing songs with veterans, composing with them, teaching them, or just being able to listen to them may have a great effect. According to the type and degree of the disability, professional music therapists can volunteer with the organization or can fight for music therapy for veteran health services. There are many simple ways musicians and therapists can help increase the use of music therapy for veterans and everyone in need.
Conclusion
New strategies for helping veterans, including Live Musical Intervention, are changing the paradigm of dealing with difficulties faced by nations’ heroes. Music can relieve stress, facilitate physical therapy, and ensure that the discontinued social roles of such offenders are replaced with new constructive ones. For instance, Warrior Sprit Band and similar entities are changing the lives of veterans by finding their voices and regaining their value. Thus supporting these efforts we can guarantee that the veterans are taken care of as they should be. Altogether, we must try to become reunited and do something to pay tribute to the heroic deeds of our heroes working in favor of their recovery by using the language that is comprehensible for everyone – the music language.
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