Brothers and Sisters Like These - Part One
A Creative Writing Program for Veterans
TITLE: Brothers and Sisters Like These: a creative writing program for veterans
AUTHOR: Bruce Kelly
SOURCE: American Osler Society website. The American OslerSociety is a group of physicians, medical historians, and members of related professions united by the common purpose of keeping alive the memory of William Osler, and keeping its members vigilantly attentive to the lessons found in his life and teachings. The course of William Osler's life (1849-1919) took him from a parsonage in the Canadian wilderness, the youngest of a clergyman's children, to a prestigious post at Oxford University, a baronetcy, and the reputation of being the world's greatest living physician.
PERMISSION to publish granted by Bruce Kelly and the American Osler Society
Writing programs for veterans have existed since the Second World War to help veterans make sense of their military experience and honor the voices inside calling to be heard.
Quoting Ron Capps of the Veterans Writing Project, “not everyone is a story teller, but everyone has a story to tell”. He reminds us that for veterans with PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] “either you control the memory or the memory controls you”.
Writing about the experiences and impact of combat can help organize what’s banging around inside, softening the grip that holds power over those who’ve seen the horrors of war.
It didn’t take me long as a primary care physician at our VA [Veterans Administration hospital] to realize how many veterans in my care were still carrying wounds from service in Vietnam. It was hard to accept knowing they were but a fraction of the estimated 250,000 men still living with PTSD from their time in country some 50 years later.
They told me what the war had done to their emotions, behaviors, sleep, dreams, and moods … to their relationships with family, friends, to their careers … about their avoidance and addictions … how it was still hard to go out in public, to have normal conversations.They told me it was hard to trust that the world was a place where they could feel safe … where they could love and be loved.
They told me about battles fought, comrades lost, regrets they couldn’t shake … about anger at being on the losing end of a war despite winning all the battles. They spoke to their treatment on returning home … the shame and rage that was triggered by an ungrateful nation who sent them to serve on its behalf.
I learned from a 2015 VA study that despite available treatment most Vietnam veterans with PTSD showed “surprisingly little improvement” in their symptoms. I came to learn about moral injury, defined as “extreme guilt and shame from something done or witnessed that goes against one’s values."
I wondered why it would ever surprise us that sending moral individuals to a world defined by death and destruction would lead to emotions coming unglued, to neurons going awry. Iwondered how anyone could come through unscathed, and came to understand few really did. It was just a matter of degrees.
As I listened to these veterans it was now up close and personal, sitting to my left … the men oftenavoiding eye contact, their voices cracking, often holding back tears. They were often afraid to speak what was on their minds, rightfully feeling abandoned to carry their wounds alone with little hope beyond the reality they’d been forced to live.
Listening to their stories I came to understand the weight of the burdens they carried, each in their own way but with so many common threads. Most out of necessity had buried what they carried, having no way to reconcile or leave the war behind.
I wasn’t the only one who felt an obligation to do more. Former North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti, a Professor at Appalachian State University, spent two years leading writing workshops for veterans across the state. He understood as I the importance of veterans being able to tell their stories in a safe, non-judgmental setting. We both believed the work had the potential to help heal what remained wounded.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the author:
Bruce Kelly is a retired physician after 42 years of practice in Asheville, North Carolina. He's worked in a wide variety of settings including private practice, hospice/palliative care, and adult developmental medicine, among others. He completed his career at the Charles George VA Medical Center as Assistant Chief of Primary Care. He led a host of arts and humanities initiatives locally and beyond at Charles George, steadily referencing Osler's strong belief in their value to the practice of medicine. In 2014 he created and co-led with Joseph Bathanti, former North Carolina Poet Laureate, a creative writing program for Vietnam veterans with PTSD.
His only regret is not being able to implement his (approved) proposal for a formal Charles George Medical Humanities Program before retirement, one of countless casualties of the pandemic. The launching point was to have been monthly literature-based "Osler Rounds" for the medical staff to honor Osler's legacy and help reclaim the soul of our profession. If interested in helping start a medical humanities program in North Carolina, reach out to Dr. Kelly at brucekelly52@gmail.com.