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Kentucky 'Dancing Well' Project for Veterans with PTSD OK'd for Connecticut Study

wkyufm.org

A Kentucky barn dance-style program for military veterans with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury has been approved for a study at a Connecticut university.

Deborah Denenfeld is executive director of "Dancing Well: The Soldier Project." She’s a dance educator and leader who launched the program at Fort Knox five years ago, and since then has held sessions in Louisville.

Denenfeld says data collectors will survey the veterans on non-medical factors that play an important role in their daily lives.

“We’re going to be looking at measures of optimism and hope, feelings of connectedness, trauma symptoms, how much people avoid participating in events and projects that have been meaningful to them in the past,” she said.

Dancing Well events are similar to a barn dance, with the pacing of the live music and activity geared to the specific needs of veterans with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury.

The 10-week study is expected to begin in late January in Louisville.

Rhonda Miller began as reporter and host for All Things Considered on WKU Public Radio in 2015. She has worked as Gulf Coast reporter for Mississippi Public Broadcasting, where she won Associated Press, Edward R. Murrow and Green Eyeshade awards for stories on dead sea turtles, health and legal issues arising from the 2010 BP oil spill and homeless veterans.
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