Media Presentations
Wednesday, October 31, 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Invisible Wounds of War: Breaking the Silence
A Documentary About Bridging the Gap: Community Based Non-Profit Integrative Intensive Retreats for Service Members and Their Families in Collaboration with the DOD/VA
Victoria Bruner, LCSW-C, BCETS, National Veteran’s Wellness and
Healing Center, Cabin John, Maryland, USA
Captain Joshua Mantz, BA (Hons), U.S. Army, Ft. Riley, Kansas, USA
Harold Kudler, MD, VA VISN, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Primary Keyword: Media
Secondary Keyword: Military/Peacekeepers/Veterans
Presentation Level: Intermediate
Region: Global
Watch the Trailer
This documentary by Lisa Ling for Oprah Winfrey Network explores an innovative modality, National Wellness and Healing Centers which utilize empirically supported therapies with complementary and alternative interventions in a community setting. According to a recent Pew Research Center Study some 84 percent of post-9/11 veterans say the public does not understand the problems faced by those in the military or their families. The public agrees, though by a less lopsided majority- 71 percent. Communities and universities have created retreat modalities by forming non-profit organizations to bridge the gap between service members, their communities and supplement the DoD/VA efforts.
Retreats are designed to assist warriors/families affected by combat by using holistic, supportive, and educational approaches structured to provide reconnection to self and peers, family and community, thus providing vital resource information and serve as a pre-clinical, post-clinical and encourage help seeking. The documentary highlights numerous reintegration challenges for both active duty and veterans and their families. A unique requirement of attending is that a spouse or significant other must accompany the service member. The treatment unit is the dyad. The VA Hotline is featured as are a Navy couple struggling with post-traumatic stress, depression and moral injury. Outcomes data will be presented.
Wednesday, October 31, 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
RETURNED: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army
Brandon Kohrt, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The George Washington University, USA
Primary Keyword: Global Issues
Secondary Keyword: Disaster/Mass Trauma Survivors
Presentation Level: Introductory
Region: South Asia
RETURNED: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army tells the personal story of Nepali boys and girls as they attempt to rebuild their lives after fighting a Maoist revolution. Through the voices of former child soldiers, the film examines why these children joined the Maoists and explores the prevention of future recruitment. The children describe their dramatic recruitment and participation in the Maoist People’s Liberation Army during the eleven-year civil war between the Maoist insurgents and the Hindu monarch of Nepal.
The girls’ stories demonstrate how voluntarily joining the violent Maoist struggle became their only option to escape the gender discrimination and sexual violence of traditional Hindu culture in Nepal. With the major conflict ended and the Maoists in control of the government, these children are now discarded by the Maoist leadership and forced to return home to communities and families that want nothing to do with them. For many of the children of Nepal’s Maoist Army, the return home can be even more painful than the experience of war.