The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Rural Health (ORH) has chosen the medical center as one of ten pilot sites nationwide for the Agriculture Training/Behavioral Healthcare Services program. Marshall University will provide veteran self-care and family care training and the WV Department of Agriculture will teach the agricultural training classes.
Dr. Kim White, assistant professor of social work at Marshall, and her graduate assistant, Keigan Aabel-Brown, developed a six-hour behavioral health workshop, which will be offered once every eight-week cycle through December 2019.
“Through the workshop, veterans and families will learn mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques to label internal and external stressors (e.g., physical pain) and identify current methods of coping and the effect of those methods on their health and family dynamics and intergenerational styles of coping,” White said. “After identifying current coping we’ll venture into exploration of mindfulness benefits and practice building mindfulness skills in the workshop and in the garden as part of the agriculture program. We’ll also explore resilience and develop new behavior patterns using mindfulness strategies that draw upon the veteran and family’s strengths and protective factors.”
White, a U.S. Navy veteran, said social workers have a long history of assisting veterans in the community.
“My experience as a veteran helps me understand the effect of military service, the many transitions and adjustments, on an individual and family. Though our experiences may differ, the baseline understanding through some common experiences helps establish rapport and credibility with veterans. More important than my own veteran experience is my experience as the child of a combat veteran who suffered for 40 years with PTSD,” White said. “Working with the VAMC provides students access to an integrated care system charged with meeting the physical, emotional, mental, behavioral, and relationship needs of clients. This exposure is invaluable and once students learn how integrated care systems treat the whole patient, they take that information out into the private sector and advocate for wider access to integrated care.”
As a Master of Social Work graduate student, Aabel-Brown said this project has offered a fantastic opportunity to transfer classroom education to real world capacity.
“As Dr. White mentioned, social workers have a history of working with veterans and other groups wherein mental health is stigmatized. Opportunities such as this training create space for social workers to provide mental health education in a person-centered and non-directive environment,” Aabel-Brown said. “I hope the families involved in this program are able to discover new, or adapt old, methods of stress regulation and coping skills that are sustainable, mindful, and healthy.”
Representatives of the medical center said they believe the VA FARMS program will be an answer for veterans in western West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Ohio who wouldn’t mind a little dirt under their fingernails if there were less stress in their or their family’s lives.
The first program begins April 8 and will take place Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., for six weeks. These six weeks of training will be at the medical center’s main campus.
Interested veterans may contact Fran Burgess at 304-429-6741, ext. 2661.