The Press Democrat
by Mary Callahan
11 Nov 12
When the phone call came, Eric Arvizu had all but given up on the idea of continuing on.
An infantry machine gunner whose 4½ years in the U.S. Marine Corps included urban combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, Arvizu was back in the safety of the United States, but he was “literally falling apart.”
He suffered debilitating panic attacks that would last three and four days, was gripped by ever-present fear and anger, and could not go out into the world without breaking down and retreating back inside.
“I was weeks, if not days, from taking my life,” he recalled.
Then a fellow Marine who had found his way into an innovative North Bay combat-related stress program called Arvizu and extended a lifeline.
“He said, ‘Eric, this place is for us,'” said Arvizu, 31, now a Florida resident.
And it was.
The Pathway Home in Yountville, north of Napa, has provided just what its name suggests to more than 300 soldiers like Arvizu. It seeks to provide a treatment model for the hundreds of thousands of men and women returning from recent wars but unable to transition back to civilian life on their own.
Graduates of the four-month residential program say they leave with the tools they need to cope with the future, the strength to drive their own recovery and a sense of hope — something many said they never expected to experience again.
Over and over and over again, they say the program saved their lives.
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It was developed by its executive director, Fred Gusman, a Vietnam veteran who created the first post-traumatic stress residential treatment programs for Vietnam-era soldiers.
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Many have mild or moderate traumatic brain injury, or TBI, an invisible injury that has become the signature wound of modern warfare, where troops are repeatedly exposed to percussive gunfire and blasts from improvised explosive devices. TBI symptoms often mimic and overlap with post-traumatic stress.
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As a nonprofit, The Pathway Home can be more progressive and flexible than the hugely bureaucratic VA. It tailors treatment to the individual and eschews the rigid approach that some VA programs use to address emotional problems. Where the dropout rate is about 40 percent at the top VA programs, The Pathway Home loses less than 1 percent, Gusman said.
Participants say the VA's approach emphasizes prescription medications, and say The Pathway Home's eclectic, innovative treatments are more than refreshing: they work.
Opened in January 2008 with a three-year, $5.6 million grant, the program builds on what the VA provides with a comprehensive, holistic approach to healing its members and helping them reintegrate into society.
In addition to individual, group and family therapy and intensive trauma counseling, members are educated about post-traumatic stress and how it shapes their thinking and behavior.
They practice specific tools to help them cope in a crowd, some as simple as deep breathing. Participants are taught to use sensory grounding techniques to feel safe, and learn to moderate their emotions and anticipate stressors before they trigger difficult episodes.
They examine how their upbringing and values affect their reactions to the violence of war, and discuss moral and spiritual questions that arise from what they've experienced.
In addition, the program addresses their physical health and the wear-and-tear of war through massage, chiropractics and yoga, as well as recreational sports like biking, hiking and running.
Where necessary, members receive guidance on financial issues, housing and education, or any other logistical “barrier to quality of life,” Gusman said. Some stay longer than four months to work on their transition to the outside.
But when they leave, they're part of a system that provides for early intervention if continued support is needed for the challenges that lie ahead.
“We don't abandon you,” Gusman said. “It's that sort of code. We don't leave anyone behind.”
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http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...CLES/121119979
