Ashland screens film on challenges for veterans coming home

Ashland University’s Ashland Center for Nonviolence and the Ashland County Mental Health and Recovery Board co-sponsored a film screening of “Is Anybody Listening?” followed by a discussion of the film, which deals with war veterans' re-entry into their communities.
 
Paula Caplan, the filmmaker, facilitated the Thursday discussion.
 
Caplan developed the Welcome Johnny and Jane Home Project to ease veterans’ entry back into their communities. The project focuses on allowing veterans to tell their stories and have them heard on a one-on-one basis. This strategy stems from Caplan’s belief that veterans returning from war do not necessarily require psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs associated with psychological disorders. Alternatively, Caplan proposes, veterans should be welcomed back into their communities and given an opportunity to have their stories heard one-on-one.

At the film screening and discussion, Caplan will explain how these conversations should be conducted. She hopes that they will trigger the healing process for veterans and lead to a national discussion on the realities of war.

The project is currently recruiting veterans to take part.