Revisiting The Green Road at Walter Reed
“Wild nature will heal PTSD”
The dedication of what’s now officially named “The Green Road Healing Woodland Garden” occurred late Monday morning, September 26th.
The sky was overcast. Tree cover across the Green Road Garden was plentiful. A family of deer looked for food at one edge of the site. The hub-bub of the 12,000-person Naval base could not be heard in this oasis. Rather, peace lay in the air.
The occasion was momentous for our nation’s wounded military servicemen and women suffering from PTSD, their families, all uniformed services and government medical researchers. I last blogged the vision and reality of this amazing place 18 months ago.
Maryland’s senior U.S. Senator, Barbara Mikulski, and others of notable accomplishment were present at the brand-new Communal Pavilion for speech-making and the ribbon-cutting in front of about 140 of us. In addition to Sen. Mikulski were: Brian Burman, MD, founder of The Institute for Integrative Health (TIIH) and master of ceremonies; Dr. Fred Foote, retired Navy neurologist, project visionary and developer; and, philanthropists Tom and Kitty Stoner, co-founders of TKF Foundation and Nature Sacred. Naval Support Activity Bethesda was represented by the base commander and chaplain.
In the audience were other notables and tireless supporters of the project, including: the Hon. Everett Alvarez, Jr., a Vietnam War hero, author and successful post-military-service businessman; and, Bill Hopkinson, TIIH Board of Directors member.
This is a healing place…a wooded ravine of about 2 acres. In Fred’s words, it’s “…the nation’s largest wild healing garden [where] wild nature will heal PTSD.”
Since I last visited, a 7′ wide asphalt pathway has been added for wounded service members in wheelchairs and/or with leg prosthetics, and just plain easier walking around for families and others. It directly connects two well-appointed mid-rise apartment-style facilities for wounded service members and their families at either side of The Green Road Garden.
It also loops close to Stoney Creek which stream has been been rehabilitated and its bed stabilized by large boulders added at a tight bend in the creek. Standing there, I heard its calming white noise and saw rushing water coursing around and over river rocks and pebbles.
There are sights and symbols to experience along The Green Road Garden. This pix shows what spoke through my eyes as a work of art; of religious proportion, for me. Man and nature intertwined.
The grayed steel rails are embedded into the root structure of the tree and could not be removed without taking the tree down. Fred told me in an email 2 days later: “We tried burying them but it made them look like a grave. So we decided to leave them and add a memorial wall.”
Per TIIH, the Green Road Garden research team will utilize three measurement approaches: combined biomarkers of the stress response; qualitative analysis of journals and stories using natural language processing; and advanced genomics.
The last speaker for the ceremony was Tom Stoner, co-founder of TKF Foundation and Nature Sacred. TKF is the major funder of The Green Road Garden.
In each of the 130 or so Nature Sacred installations, the focal man-made feature is a beautiful (and anatomically perfect) wooden bench with yellow community journal stored in a waterproof sleeve beneath the seat. There are two at The Green Road Garden.
As Tom told the audience: “We put them there so users could write and record their thoughts while seated in this healing nature space. I will leave you now with [several] journal entries from people who have rested on these benches. Please listen to their voices:
“Today my questions and fears are answered and released. It is amazing the peace you can find when you quiet your mind and become one with nature.”
“May those who walk here be able to let go of anger, negativity and hatred at least for a little while and feel some inner peace.”
“As I sit here with the soft wind guiding my hand, I think of the places I could have been right now. But I am here. Healing. Mending. I am alive and here for a reason.”
♥
What’s more– The latest version of LEED for Healthcare (v4) includes an elective credit called “Places of Respite.” Its intent: “To provide patients, staff, and visitors with the health benefits of the natural environment by creating outdoor places of respite on the healthcare campus…equivalent to 5% of the net usable program area of the building.” Also: “The area is located where no medical intervention or direct medical care is delivered.” Lead on!
Big Media– Following is a clip of the dedication by NBC-TV, Washington. Another video has Fred explaining how the Green Road contributes to holistic healing for serious wounded combat veterans, and the metric-based research that will be conducted there in support of similar facilities being built at other U.S. military installations.