Dear Friends:

This begins my regular Blog on poetry, holistic medicine, and healing our Nation’s Wounded Warriors! In future postings, I will highlight both the spectacular powers of holistic medicine, and the inspiring stories of many healers and organizations who have applied them to help our Troops. Please join in with your comments on these important topics, to build our healing outreach to our beloved Warriors and Veterans. Holistic care is not only the work of hospitals: it can be practiced by families and communities for support of the Warriors and Veterans on their midst.

Over the past few years, the military has pioneered holistic care in treating the “invisible wounds” of the Iraq and Afghan wars, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and PTSD. The new multimillion dollar Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, has been the biggest focus of these efforts. While conventional care, such as medications and surgery, are sometimes of little use, that does not mean these wounds are incurable! Holistic care modalities are helping our Warriors every day at Walter Reed, and evidence for their powerful effects is growing by leaps and bounds.

The term “holistic care” means any treatment that affects the entire body (rather than just one organ or body part  as with conventional care). Holistic care includes “healing environment” buildings; family-centered care; integration of care (a single care plan instead of many); and basic and advanced wellness. This Blog will focus somewhat on basic wellness (nutrition, exercise, stress management, and alternative medicine); but especially on advanced wellness: the use of nature, art, and spirituality in treating TBI/PTSD. Large scale programs in all these areas have been developed to heal our Warriors, at Walter Reed and across the country.

Future installments will discuss some of the ways of  healing Wounded Warriors through the arts and nature, and how we may spread community-based initiatives in these areas across the State of Maryland and beyond.

Peace, Fred Foote

 

 

  1. Frederick Foote says:

    Dear Friends: After 3 months and 30 events, Medic Against Bomb book launch is completed! We will continue events at end-JAN 2015, and go on through the year, to spread the message of healing arts for Warriors and Vets!
    The book is winning a growing list of honors and awards. See http://www.medicagainstbomb.com to view these, as well as upcoming events.

    December also saw the launch of the Warrior Arts Café at Alfio’s Restaurant, 4515 Willard Ave, Chevy Chase, MD. Two Wednesday evenings a month, Alfio’s will provide a warm and friendly haven for Warrior and Veteran artists (and their families and friends)of all disciplines. Featured performances begin at 6.30 p.m. and are followed by an open mike. Hope to see you at Alfio’s on WED 21 JAN and WED 28 JAN, the opening events for 2015.

    The Warrior Arts Café is the first of a projected statewide network of arts and garden projects for Veterans, to be propagated across Maryland in 2015-16.

    Happy holidays to all! Peace, Fred

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    • Mr. Hahas, Welcome Home.A fellow Vietnam Vet met you at a renect reunion, and knowing of a little project I’ve renectly started, sent me a copy of your book. Absolutely fantastic. I’ve flipped through looking at the pictures to see what memorials I’ve already seen, and making a mental to see list. On my guestbook website (listed in the website box above), you will find the first to pieces of the project I referenced writing up visits to war memorials in the little towns and villages that dot our nation. Honoring Heros in Small Town USA. Thus far, I only have two written up, but once I retire, that may become my quest. You may find them interesting and can find them by accessing the above website, and on the right hand side under the You might like this too line, you’ll find the two articles on Honoring Heros in Small Town USA. Thanks again for your commendable project, I look forward to visit as many of the memorials as I can.regards,- duaneMSG, USA (R), RVN 1971-72

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