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For many veterans and service members returning from deployment, not having their "team," their battle buddies around is very difficult. Everything seems to be about the individual. Capitalizing on this team unity mentality, providers at the Road Home Program understand that more healing will happen when people are working on individualized therapies as well as group therapies and activities. Once again, they have each other's backs.

The use of psychedelics for PTSD is an example of a therapeutic intervention that the medical field has, until lately, put to the side. There was no funding, nor research on the topic; now, medical professionals and researchers are looking into its potential use for PTSD and believe that, with specific focus, it may have a great benefit.

Treating service members and veterans with TBI and PTSD often includes complex and unique interventions and treatments. Based on their evidence-based guidelines and experiences working with thousands of people in their two-week immersive program, Home Base also focuses intentionally and systematically on assessing what the population needs once they leave the program and return to their communities. The more Home Base can help connect their participants with clusters of experts in their areas, the more long-term healing will occur.

Does success translate into riding a horse again, returning to your pre-military job as an accountant, or coaching your kid’s Little League team? Staff at the Home Base Program understand that what success looks like for one military member with TBI and/or PTSD may look 180-degrees different from that of another. Using evidence-based guidelines to drive their therapeutic regimens as well as applying lessons learned from helping thousands of people in the program, Home Base providers are not only fine-tuning what they do each day but also learning and creating the next generation of effective therapies.

Home Base’s two weeks of assessments and individualized therapies focused on treating veterans and services members with TBI and PTSD seems to be the “sweet spot” of time for this kind of immersive program. Staff in the program have seen lives changed, lives saved. They understand that the veteran experience is a unique one, hard for civilians to fully comprehend. Providing these men and women with the tailored interventions and therapies they need to enhance function in their day-to-day life is often as important as the bonding aspect of being with others who have had and continue to have similar experiences, challenges, and forward steps.

The Home Base program, which includes comprehensive assessments and a two-week immersion into therapies and treatments for TBI, PTSD, and other conditions, is created anew for each veteran or service member who joins. Whether engaging in physical or cognitive therapeutic interventions, learning how better to communicate with family and friends, or delving into art therapies, each individual becomes part of a strong and supportive community of people who understand their experiences, though everyone’s experiences and issues are unique and treated as such.

The jury is still out on the exact ways that repeated blast injuries affect the brain. Some believe that the blast waves travel through the organs, producing a change in the gray-white matter of the brain. Others believe that blast-related injuries produce a unique pathology while others still think that the pathological signals from these injuries result in behavioral disturbance. But all researchers seem to agree that repeated blast-related injuries affect a person’s brain in the short-term as well as in the long-term with the risk of neurodegenerative disease.

A family member or support person at home plays a key role as part of the treatment plan for a service member or veteran. An adjunct in their loved one’s care, the family member collaborates with the team of providers to help their loved one follow through with appointments, medications, and health regimens. They often serve as the more impartial eyes and ears to their loved one’s challenges and improvements.

The Road Home Program has had great success treating both female and male survivors of military sexual trauma. Through cognitive processing therapy and other therapies like mindfulness and therapeutic arts—working with providers and alongside peers who have had similar experiences—survivors of military sexual trauma can transform their feelings of powerlessness into a stronger sense of self.

Part of Rush University Medical Center’s efforts around helping people with trauma and/or PTSD is working with the community—whether screening children more effectively during pediatric visits, working with families, or advising schools. Ongoing adverse events in inner city communities can cause young children, adolescents, and adults to experience trauma and PTSD, but these issues are treatable with professional interventions.

Two-week intensive outpatient programs that implement a comprehensive, holistic approach to treatment, The Road Home Program includes two treatment arms for veterans and their families—one for veterans who experience battlefield PTSD, the other for survivors of military sexual trauma. Their data reveal high success rates during the program and in the long-term, post-program.