VA Embraces Nontraditional Treatments: Complementary Alternative Therapy Helps People Move The Focus Away From Their Aches And Pains

It seems an unlikely pairing. The practice of traditional - and renowned - medicine on a historic campus and a new program of alternative and complementary healing. Yet the blending of the two may be the best answer for offering enrolled veterans patient-centered care, officials at the Jonathan M. Wainwright Veterans Affairs Medical Center believe...

Such medicine involves a team of providers, with the patient driving care plans as much as everyone else, noted Linda Wondra, associate director for patient care services at the Walla Walla VA. "This concept puts them in the center of the decisions being made about their care, which in the long run gets the veteran more committed in accomplishing the goal of getting well," she said. Chronic and unmanageable pain can put the brakes to healing, however, no matter how well-intentioned the team...