Citation

Mamon D, McDonald EC, Lambert JF, Cameron AY. J. Loss Trauma 2017; 22(8): 669-680.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15325024.2017.1382653

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There is a growing disconnect between the Veteran and civilian communities related to their understanding of war-related trauma, postdeployment reintegration difficulty, and the experience of Memorial Day. A therapeutic way to bridge this divide is through community storytelling. This paper describes a program development project at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center that was created to increase the connection between these communities. Using storytelling, six Veterans shared their personal experiences with a civilian audience in honor of Memorial Day. Qualitative data on the impact of the program is reported, and suggestions for future application and research are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); veterans; reintegration; Memorial Day; military-civilian gap; storytelling