Article archive / November 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 3. Source pages: 1, 5, 6.
Alexandria VA
While many in the community are scratching their heads about how to integrate mind and body health care, psychologist and innovator, Dr. Denise Batton has jumped out ahead of the crowd with her “Healthy Women Are Active” Program for women veterans at the Alexandria VA.
The new program is a comprehensive, creative approach for helping the veterans served by the Alexandria VA Medical Center and the surrounding Community Based Outpatient Clinics.
Evolving since August last year, the program is a holistic approach, where combinations of activity groups, social groups, and therapy groups help lead clients toward a balanced mental and physical life. She includes the “Spiritual, Cultural, Intellectual, Physical and Psychological,” aspects of health, says Batton, and calls it “SCIPP.”
“Come SCIPP your way to better health,” she says to potential participants.
Dr. Batton is the Psychologist for Women’s Health at Alexandria VA Health Care System. Her training is strong in education as well as psychology, having earned her first masters in education from Indiana State, and then going on to earn another masters and doctorate in clinical psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been driven by her desire to make a difference in lives by designing programs that help the group and population. Her previous efforts include Program Director for Cambria County Mental Health in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Founder and Director for the Mothers and Sons Youth Development Programs in Watts, Compton, Los Angeles, she her work with Departments of Corrections in both California and Florida.
“Since my areas of clinical expertise are designing salient programming from a systems perspective to address both micro and macro problems within a system or population,” said Batton, “I examined the surrounding environment to determine what resources it could offer to address these health problems and symptomology of the population it is serving.”
Ferreting out invigorating and inspiring activities to support broad therapeutic goals of the program is something for which Dr. Batton seems to have a particular knack.
Once she conceptualized the needs and found the resources for the program, she collaborated with Women’s Health, Psychology Service, Recreation Therapy and Voluntary Service at the Alexandria VA. Then she pulled in local community resources and also national VA programs to form “Healthy Women Are Active.”
“It started out in the beginning to be just one or two activities,” Batton told the Times, “but over time it took on a life of its own and grew to approximately seven programs and seven therapeutic group offerings.”
“I noticed that the women were isolated,” she said, “so I thought, ‘How do I get them out of the house and connected to other women veterans with similar life experiences? I know that once they feel that connection of sharing their experiences and perspectives on life, it will bring about the natural curative factors of catharsis, support, commonality and acceptance.”
“I thought they would be more comfortable with other Veterans,” Batton explained, “and so I started looking around, thinking, ‘I’m going to go out and find who else is doing what’, and see if they wanted to participate in forming this women’s program.”
For example, she discovered a greenhouse and gardening spots on the VA grounds, and thought, “’Ah, I’m going to get them interested in gardening and producing their own healthy food.’” Then she linked up with the Alexandria Food Bank and discovered that community gardens were one of the Food Bank’s services.
“They go around helping to start and supply community gardens,” she said. “They were more than happy to assist the women veterans in learning seasonal planting and provided them the starter plants. We had watermelon, squash, green beans, tomatoes and flowers.”
Within the Pineville and Alexandria community, Batton noticed residents riding horses and she remembered how Equine Therapy had made a difference in patients she had seen in Indiana. So, she contacted Crossroads Riding Center in Alexandria, and working with the VA Recreation Therapy staff, wrote a grant for the Equine Therapy Program. “Within two months that program was funded along with an Art Class to boot,” she said.
She started a fishing group after noticing a pond on the VA grounds. “There we go, now we have fishing, we having horseback riding, we have gardening and an art class,” she said. “It seemed like everywhere I looked there were VA resources available just for the asking and local community vendors more than willing to volunteer one or two hours a week to serve our veterans, free of charge or at least at a large discounted rate.”
Batton was also creative when it came to the funding. “In order to make sure this endeavor did not cost the VA any direct funding, I recruited volunteer individuals to facilitate groups in their area of expertise,” she explained. The Alexandria Food Bank offered gardening lessons and starter plants, the local gym offered yoga instruction, the VA Pond and Recreation Therapists offered the fishing, and Local Do Joi offered martial arts/self- defense.
“All in all, it is a win-win situation,” she said. “My women veterans enhance their perspectives of what healthy means because they work hard toward it in therapy and in the programs and the VA increases their numbers of success stories. After all that is what it is all about, ‘Serving Those Who Served For Us.’ You can’t loose with that type of respect for others,” she said.
What has emerged was a multilevel approach that includes Art Classes (“Face of A Veteran”), Equine Therapy, Fishing, Gardening, Martial Arts – Self Defense, Golfing, and “The Connection” Potluck. These programs are linked with the therapeutic groups, which include Couples Group, Military Sexual Trauma Group, Silver Veterans Over 50 Group, and the Understand Mental Health Group.
“As you know, groups are one of the best clinical experiences,” Batton explained, “because it is a ‘social microcosm’ that provides key curative factors.” She noted that these factors include instillation of hope, interpersonal learning, self-understanding and insight, existential learning, and catharsis. “When you add commonality of problems, camaraderie of service and an ability to experience joy while acquiring mental health assistance, that is a recipe for curative success,” she said.
Batton also wanted to change the paradigm about what it means to be healthy. “Healthy Women Are Active” suggests that healthy means, “… well balanced across several dimensions of a woman’s “personhood,’ she explained.
“In other words,” she said, “striving to be healthy on the 360 for 24/7 across the arenas of, Spiritually, Culturally, Intellectually, Physically and Psychologically.”
When Batton took her position at the Alexandria VA, she immediately saw the need for integrative and innovative approaches. “My caseload of patients are women veterans who are diagnosed with Military Sexual Trauma, primarily, and other mental health disorders…” But Batton also noticed many other issues for her clients. “Physically many of the patients have high blood pressure, diabetes, severe obesity and chronic pain,” she said.
Batton understood that the combined problems manifested in lack of motivation, low energy, sleeping and eating disturbances, and other problems, but also in “… separation and isolation from society at large and from family support systems also,” she explained. So, “I began to design groups that would provide the women with opportunities to experiences unique therapeutic activities.”
The kick-off to the program was at the Women’s History Month Event championed by Batton for Psychology Service and Women’s Health last year. The event was highlighted with skits, guest women VA employee speakers, and women veterans performing. The program had been growing since that time.
Most recently, the program added the component with participation in the National Adaptive Sports Clinics that is held across the United States. Dr. Batton coordinated with the VA Recreation Therapist, Ms. Janice Riggs, who partners with the National group to support local activities.
The National Adaptive Sports Clinics includes Summer and Winter Sports Clinic, Golf Tournament, Valor Games, Golden Age Games, Wheelchair Games, Para-Olympic Experiences, and the National Arts Festival. Women from the “Healthy Women Are Active” program have participated locally in the arts festival and two women from the area have even brought home national honors from the national arts festival, one in Oratory Arts and another in Ethnic Dance.
“Another woman veteran was chosen to participate in the Summer National Veterans’ Sports Clinic in San Diego this September. Now we want women to enroll for all the National Adaptive Sports Clinics to learn sports they never dreamed of…thus expanding their own life dreams of “accomplishments”…. see how a dream can become infectious!” Batton told the Times.
“Once the women participate in a few programs,” Dr. Batton explained, “their mental health issues began to decline, they acquire more energy, volition and feel confident enough to be more amenable to opening up in a therapeutic group. And eventually have no need for treatment at all, just living her life with new hobbies and a healthier lifestyle,” she said.
Even for those not completely ready to participate in the full range of therapies, Batton explained, the women gain from whichever groups they choose to engage, and this can open the door for future participation and “full actualization,” she said.
“I just want the women veterans to know that we care about their needs, we are ready to serve them and all they need to do is step forward and we’ll walk the rest of the way toward their goals with them. You did it for us,” she said, “now let us do this for you.”
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.