With the recent drawdown of the U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, more and more military service members are returning to t
heir homes and communities. A significant number of those individuals have sustained traumatic physical and psychological injuries that necessitate extended care beyond the immediate treatment they may have received during or after their deployment. Recreational therapists (RTs) play an important role in the treatment of service members and veterans (referred to in the remainder of the article as veterans). RTs work in a variety of settings, and use a wide range of therapeutic tools to address the complex needs of veterans who have experienced injuries. Among these tools, nature-based approaches are increasingly utilized in RT programs for veterans. Many nature-based approaches incorporate strengths-focused concepts; however, limited literature has drawn connections between these concepts within the military population. The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of naturebased interventions and present a model for using nature-based interventions as a strengths-based approach to RT treatment for military veterans. In the United States, there are approximately 1.4 million individuals serving in active duty roles in the U.S. military, with a population of roughly 22.6 million living veterans of our various wars and conflicts (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2013). While an RT could potentially work with a service member at any point during their military service, veterans most often participate in RT following their discharge from the military, which is frequently a result of traumatic injury. These injuries are complex and varied, and could include blast injuries, spinal cord injuries, limb loss, and emotional/ psychological/cognitive injuries such as post-traumatic stress (PTS), traumatic brain injury (TBI), depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. Complicating factors in these injuries include alcohol and substance use/abuse, and exposure to environmental contaminants and diseases (i.e., Agent Orange) during deployments (Townsend, Hawkins, & Bennett, 2015). Polytrauma is a term used to describe injuries that are both physical and emotional/psychological (typically a mild TBI with comorbidities of PTS and auditory/ vestibular injuries), and research indicates that approximately 49% of veterans returning from our current wars have screened positively for polytrauma at Veterans Health Administration (VA) Polytrauma Care sites (Mernoff & Correia, 2010).
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