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Self-Care Through Singing: Trauma, Resilience, and Representation in Musicals

Stacey Shade-Ware smiles at the camera with music stands, a microphone, and others in the background

I will admit when I first watched Encanto I was not terribly impressed, though the songs in Miranda’s signature style are quite catchy. I have two little girls, 3 and 5, and for those of you with children or grandchildren, you know that they must watch something like Encanto again and again and again. So, suffice it to say, I had the opportunity to really listen and pay attention to the story more than once.

Life After Brain Injury: No One Recovers Alone

David Grant and his wife wearing sunglasses, smiling in front of a tropical lagoon

It’s not a stretch to say that without my sife, Sarah, I never would have made it. While I can be overly dramatic — as she can attest — I need to get serious for a moment. No kidding around: the early years after my brain injury sucked. In fact, they were the worst years of my life.  

New Year! New Me? Ha! Not with PTSD

Russ Ware (left) and Grandpa Russ Ware (right) in an antique car museum

In the past, Russ and I would celebrate across oceans and time zones, sometimes a half hour off. Yes, really. Afghanistan is nine-and-a-half hours ahead of the east coast, 10-and-a-half from Texas. It was wild trying to sync up schedules but I would never turn down a 3AM-my-time video chat. I am grateful we don’t have to contend with that any longer. But Russ being home hasn’t made the transition from 2021 to 2022 any easier. 

Brian Klassen, PhD: The Stunning Resiliency of Veterans and Service Members in Therapy

Free Military Traumatic Brain Injury Apps

If I could tell civilian providers working with veterans and service members with PTSD and other mental health challenges one thing, it would be that this population includes some of the most resilient people on the planet. I think we do a disservice to them by fragilizing them, treating them as if going through these intense therapies—cognitive behavioral therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, and discussions around moral injury and military sexual trauma among others—will break them. On the contrary, during Road Home's two-week intensive program, I have seen undue strength and resiliency demonstrated, which often lead to significant healing.

Mary Alexis Iaccarino, MD: The Evolution of Home Base TBI Treatment into a Holistic Approach

Originally, the Home Base program focused primarily on the brain injury, itself, of service members and veterans. With time, experience, and research, the program now approaches treating brain injury from a holistic method as other issues affect brain health—neurological, cognitive, and psychological functions—like sleep deprivation, chronic pain, or co-occurring substance abuse. Treating the whole person with an individually tailored plan has provided far better outcome.

Mary Alexis Iaccarino, MD: TBI in Military Service Members and Civilians Is Not the Same

Once upon a time, researchers and doctors treated all traumatic brain injuries the same, but they now know that the mechanism of injury plays a key role in diagnosis and treatment. There are many parallels for civilians and service members who sustain a traumatic brain injury, but the people are very different. Athletes who sustain a TBI most likely will not have the overlapping emotional challenges that service members may who sustained their injury in combat or in a more threatening setting. Helping service members and veterans often includes treating them for both TBI and PTSD simultaneously.

Alexander Balbir, PhD: Wounded Warrior Project Aims to Help Vets Who May Need Long-Term Care

A traumatic brain injury or repeated brain traumas can sometimes lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, astrogliosis, or other neurogenerative conditions. Since researchers are still learning about the progression of these diseases, which can stem from repeated TBIs, providers are currently trying to plan and address how to change their model of care to best help veterans and their families in the long term.

Alexander Balbir, PhD: WWP Offers New Initiatives for Caregivers, Added During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The many months of the coronavirus pandemic have added a new burden on top of a caregiver’s current caregiving requirements for their loved one with TBI or other physical or mental health issues. The Wounded Warrior Project’s Independence Program offers not only a $3,000 grant to caregivers to help support their own health and well-being, but also aid in the form of more mental telehealth care, meal prep, and other resources to help caregivers take care of themselves while juggling the many people and parts of family life.

Alexander Balbir, PhD: Wounded Warrior Project’s Independence Program Offers Services and a Safety Net

The core services of Wounded Warrior Project’s Independence Program include case management, resource management, care coordination, home health aide, alternative therapies, and more, with the primary goal of helping service members and their families rebuild a normal routine, plan for and succeed in the long-term, independently. But the program is always there as a safety net if new challenges arise.

Alexander Balbir, PhD: WWP Offers Vets with TBI, Physical, Mental Health Issues Individualized Care

Wounded Warrior Project’s Independence Program does not have a protocol to work with service members and their families when they transition home from a clinical facility, but they do have a highly successful formula for independent programing that caters to the individual needs of their clients whether those needs arise from the vet’s neurological trauma or from emotional or psychological challenges that result from that trauma.