Military museum collections and art therapy as mental health resources for veterans with PTSD

ABSTRACT

Background

A veterans’ mental health charity and Hampshire Cultural Trust collaborated to facilitate art therapy groups for veterans with service-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Aims

The project aimed to improve the wellbeing of participants by tapping into their existing military knowledge, skills and expertise as a resource for mental health. Also, to explore how items from the museum collection might stimulate a sense of belonging that could moderate the isolating effects of PTSD, and later the COVID-19 lockdown.

Methods

Data was collected through established evaluation measures to rate wellbeing and loneliness, and through surveys tailored to the project. Focus groups and participant observation provided further data. Descriptive statistics of the quantitative data were then combined with thematic analysis of the overall data to provide the findings.

Results

Although military experiences were the cause of the veterans’ mental health problems, and traumatic memories became stirred through recollections triggered by the museum items, the evidence suggests that participants experienced a sense of belonging which promoted self-confidence and social interaction, and improved wellbeing.

Conclusions

Through familiarity with the function of the artefacts, in-depth contextual knowledge, and shared military experience, the veterans were able to connect through an exploratory process. This was the case when the group was museum-based and when held remotely.

Implications

Military museums are potential mental health reservoirs for veterans. Digital art therapy sessions offer a way of involving and supporting socially avoidant or isolated veterans who cannot physically attend groups, as well as those who live out of the area.

Plain-language summary

During 2019, a veterans’ mental health charity and Hampshire Cultural Trust collaborated to run art therapy groups for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with their military service. PTSD can have long-lasting consequences, such as social isolation and heightened anxiety. The project aimed to improve the wellbeing of participants by tapping into their existing military knowledge, skills and expertise as a resource for mental health. It was hoped that reconnecting with a range of memories from service life would counter-balance the weight of the distressing memories of military experiences that continued to have a detrimental effect.

Each session involved looking at specific items from the museum’s collection; making a creative response through image-making or creative writing; and discussing ideas. The informality of the meetings where participants were encouraged to share their military knowledge, took the focus away from having mental health problems. Simultaneously, the effects of their psychological injuries were lessened by recognition and use of their specialist abilities.

Results were promising. Although military experiences were the cause of the veterans’ mental health problems, and traumatic memories became stirred through recollections triggered by the museum items, the sense of belonging and camaraderie between veterans moderated the isolating effects of PTSD and enabled shared recollections. Further museum-based sessions were planned for 2020. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group transferred to an online platform. This paper provides a comparison between in-person and remote working in this context. Digital art therapy sessions offer promise as a way of involving veterans who cannot physically attend groups for reasons such as distance or agoraphobia. It is hoped that this study might encourage other military museums to consider similar projects to support socially avoidant or isolated veterans.

KEYWORDS:

• Veterans
• PTSD
• online art therapy
• COVID-19
• museum
• telehealth

Acknowledgements

Co-facilitators of the groups were Charleigh Rivers, Emma Rosemeyer, Sean Bonner, Paul Mannering, Sarah Dhanjal, and Emma Sutcliffe.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Janice Lobban, art psychotherapist and Churchill Research Fellow, has specialised in veteran mental health since 2001. She has had a number of related papers published and edited the book ‘Art therapy with military veterans: Trauma and the image’. Janice has lectured and provided training on art therapy with veterans in the UK, St. Petersburg, New York, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Athens. In 2016, she spent six weeks in the USA researching art therapy with veterans and serving military members on sites across the country to gather evidence of the unique contributions of art therapy within military mental health, in order to strengthen clinical understanding of practice and inform further research. Currently, she is exploring the potential use of military museum collections to access and support socially avoidant or isolated veterans.

Dominic Murphy is a Clinical Psychologist. He joined Combat Stress in 2013 where he established and now leads a research department specialising in veterans’ mental health. The Combat Stress research department is co-located within the King's Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) where Dominic continues to be a member. Dominic is part of the Forces in Mind Trust mental health steering group, editor for a number of journals and member of several international military mental health research consortiums. In 2019, he was elected the President of the UK Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS) and onto the executive board of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS). Dominic has specialised clinically and academically within the field of PTSD and military mental health and is widely published with over 100 articles to date.

Additional information

Funding

The project was supported by Deborah Neubauer and Kirsty Hoyle, Hampshire Cultural Trust. The paper was written with the full consent and support of all veteran participants.