Local group aims to help veterans with PTSD
With thousands of men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and veteran suicide a growing problem, Decatur psychotherapist Kaye Coker decided something had to be done — and fast.
So in 2007, she and 11 other volunteers — including several vets with PTSD — got together and formed Veteran’s Heart Georgia, which aims to help returning vets and their families find ways to work on their war-caused problems, free of charge, starting with a website, http://www.veteransheartgeorgia.org/.
Coker and other founders, who earn their livings from their own therapy practices, support the non-profit organization from donations, and fees from other psychologists, mental health professionals and clergy who attend the group’s workshops, where they are taught about the unique needs of veterans and their families.
Coker, an expert trained in a type of therapy called mindfulness-based stress reduction, was contacted a few years ago by Dr. Douglas Bremner, director of the Emory Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit, who wanted to investigate the effectiveness of the method on men with PTSD.
“It seems to work, based on an analysis of symptoms,” he says.
He used PET scans (positron emission tomography) to look at how brain regions reacted to various forms of stimulation. Then he did the same after the men had been taught about mindfulness-based stress reduction. He’s still analyzing the results.
“You don’t dwell on the past and you don’t dwell on the future,” says Coker of mindfulness therapy. “You stay in the now.”
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Center more than 35 years ago. Since then it has evolved into a common form of complementary medicine.
Bill Nixon, 71, a co-director with Coker of Veteran’s Heart Georgia and a former Marine captain who fought in Vietnam, was diagnosed with PTSD 40 years ago.
“Nobody in our group gets paid anything,” he says. “We are all volunteers. We bring people together in a safe environment. They can make connections with us on the website. And we can refer them to trained people who can help them.”
He says mindfulness techniques have “helped me a lot.”
“Once a month we have a ‘just listening’ meeting,” he says. “There is no charge. We operate on a shoestring and are looking for corporate donors.”
Dr. Blaine Everson, clinical director of the Samaritan Counseling Center of Northeast Georgia who recently taught at a Veteran’s Heart seminar, says he’s not sure PTSD can ever be cured “but the symptoms can be managed through the reduction of the excessive reaction to subsequent daily events and the development of improved coping techniques.”
One of the soldiers who took part in Bremner’s study is Donnie Apted, of Conyers, who served in Iraq. Coker says mindfulness therapy has helped him significantly.
Veterans Heart helps veterans of all wars, but many contacting it now served in Iraq or Afghanistan, Coker says.
She says trying to help men and women with PTSD “is the passion of my life.”
Coker says the Department of Veterans Affairs is doing a “great job” but that PTSD and other invisible wounds of war also can be addressed at the community level.
