October 30, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
War affects more than just the men and women who experience it directly: When members of the military return home from the battlefield, the stress caused by their experience can carry over to family, friends, even the doctors and nurses who care for them, says Alaine Duncan, executive director of Crossings HealingWorks, a nonprofit group in Silver Spring, Md.
Ms. Duncan founded the group in 2004 to provide soldiers, their family members, and others who care for them stress-reducing treatments such as acupuncture and massages. The goal, she says, is to “bring peace to the experience of war.”
The charity’s therapists provide treatment every Wednesday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The stress-reduction services are free to the hospital’s staff members, some of whom have served in Iraq and Afghanistan themselves, and participants say they feel more at ease and peaceful and that they get along better with co-workers and family members after attending the clinic. “They always say that they sleep better on Wednesday nights,” says Ms. Duncan.
Crossings HealingWorks, which grew out of a similar for-profit business, has an annual budget of about $350,000, some 40 percent of which comes from foundation grants and the rest from donations provided by individuals. The group also provides therapy sessions to soldiers and their families at a reduced cost at its headquarters, in addition to the clinic at Walter Reed. The group treats veterans of any war, not just current conflicts.
“We understand the soldier brings the trauma of war home with them and that their family is affected, and that their caregivers are affected,” says Ms. Duncan. Here, she places an acupuncture needle in a staff member’s forehead, a method she says “settles the mind.”
