2012.02.07
In-patient PTSD program aimed at female veterans
In October the Salem Veteran Affairs Medical Center held an inpatient recovery program for female veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
For six-and-a-half weeks nine women met with psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other clinicians to address their PTSD. In gearing the program for women veterans, the Salem VA sought to have female clinicians make up the majority of the program’s counselors and nursing staff.
“They cried about the past; they held one another and talked about how their lives had run on parallel tracks; they gained a new perspective on themselves,” said Dr. Robert Guthrie, a psychologist and coordinator of the Specialized Inpatient PTSD Unit said in a recent VA newsletter. “They began to stop allowing trauma to get in the way of their having a valued life. One woman said, ‘I have chosen to stop suffering.’”
The program was modeled after a similar program that has been in place for men since 1990. But the October session was the first time the Salem VA offered the program exclusively for women.
It was a success, said social worker Kay Montgomery, who is the clinical admissions coordinator for the Specialized Inpatient PTSD Unit.
Now, the Salem VA is ready to offer the program again. Two sessions have been scheduled, one in the spring and another in the fall. Thirteen spaces are available for the upcoming female sessions.
The male in-treatment program will continue, as well, with three sessions scheduled.
Interested veterans should contact Montgomery at 540-982-2463, Ext. 2548.
