Funding Arts, Health, and Well-Being Across the Military Continuum
Adopted at the 86th%20Annual%20Meeting in 2018
WHEREAS, creative arts therapies and artist-directed programs have the potential to positively impact the healthcare spending concerns, quality of care issues, and healthcare needs of active military and veteran populations; and
WHEREAS, advocates and practitioners has grown through Americans for the Arts' National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military (NIAHM) with 200+ National Directory members in 46 states and Canada and nearly 3,000 NIAHM Arts and Military Connection participants; and
WHEREAS, public/private collaborations, such as U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation and Americans for the Arts have provided training for healthcare professionals in 22 local VA Health Care facilities since 2016, resulting in at least 55 new and expanded community arts partnerships and more than 1,764 Veterans served; and
WHEREAS, creative arts therapies interventions, such as those provided through the Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, are demonstrating to be effective for aiding in the recovery of our wounded, ill, and injured service members suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress (PTS); and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, The United States Conference of Mayors reaffirms its support of its "Arts, Health, and Well-Being Across the Military Continuum" policy resolution that it adopted in 2014 urging federal officials to include the arts and creative arts therapies in healing, health and well-being across the military continuum; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors urges Congress to support HR 102, Expanding Care for Veterans Act, sponsored by Representative Julia Brownley (D-CA) to improve access to evidence-based complementary alternative treatments for veterans, including creative arts therapies and support for a three-year program through the VA's Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation to assess feasibility, and identify and resolve barriers to integrating the delivery of complementary and alternative medicine services with other VA health care services, and;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors supports continued funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense for creative arts therapies services and artist-directed programs for veterans and active military.