Writing at the School for Better Living

At the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, I developed and led a transitional learning center, the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC). Its goal was to help veterans with serious mental illness to reintegrate into their communities by focusing on the biological, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions in their lives. The veterans called it the School for Better Living and were partners in its development.

A Recovery Plan

Each veteran developed a recovery plan and worked toward personal community integration goals – to get a job, go back to school, do volunteer work and create art through gardening, cooking, writing, painting, dance, etc. Many remarkable recoveries occurred as veterans worked on what gave their lives purpose and meaning.

Creative Expressions

Given the therapeutic benefit of writing, we developed a class entitled “Creative Expressions.” We focused upon the tenets of recovery and worked to enhance positive mood states with writing assignments. We opened each class with 10 minutes of free writing. The class then would move on to instruction on poetry and story writing. The veterans learned many forms of poetry, as well as folk and short-story writing. We read examples of a form of writing, and then veterans tried their hand at the form. At the end of the class, veterans read their pieces aloud, sharing their creative accomplishments.

Steps to Create a Recovery Plan

Veterans can create their own recovery plan. Steps include: 1) surveying satisfaction with your life activities, 2) determining your overall vision of recovery, 3) listing the specific goals to achieve your vision and 4) assessing the strengths that will help achieve your vision. It is particularly important to find someone to be an accountability/ recovery coach to periodically review your recovery journey. Part of the recovery plan should include at least one way to creatively express yourself.

The sense of self-esteem when we create is part of a very human need—to be in touch with something bigger than ourselves.”

Dr. Donna Ames is a psychiatrist who served at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System for 33 years. She also is professor emerita of psychiatry in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. While serving at the VA, Dr. Ames fostered veterans’ artistic expression to help them achieve their mental health recovery goals.