Maine women publish booklet for veterans

A booklet that began as a senior graduate school project soon will be released nationally for veterans or family members of those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I just think there’s such a need for it,” said Stephanie Lanham, 48, a psychiatric mental-health nurse practitioner. Lanham co-authored the booklet, “Veterans and Families’ Guide to Recovering from PTSD,” with Melissa Charette while both were finishing masters degrees in psychiatric nursing at Husson College. The booklet took about nine months to complete, and the first edition was published in 2003.

Lanham, who hails from Camden originally, and whose father, Gil Laite, was a master sergeant and medic during the Korean War era, has since made several revisions to the first edition, with editorial assistance from her husband, Sam Lanham Jr., and mother, Karen Laite. One hundred thousand copies of the 2004 edition are targeted to be published and released to vet centers nationwide, thanks to funding from the Military Order of the Purple Heart, under direction of national service officer Neal A. Williams, a local member of the order.

“Neal became familiar with the booklet at the vet center and saw its impact with the veterans and believed it had to go on … he took it to the MOPH and encouraged the project forward,” Lanham said.

The idea for a booklet arose while she and Charette were doing a clinical rotation at Bangor Vet Center during their senior year as graduate students at Husson.

Lanham described the people at Bangor Vet Center as “fabulous unsung heroes of Maine.” She and Charette fell in love with the staff and clients at the center. They also saw a need to provide information that would help veterans who were dealing with post-traumatic stress, as well as their families.

The booklet came together under the guidance of Lanham’s husband, Husson professors, team leader Joe DeGrasse and advance practical nurse Ralph Grover – both of Bangor Vet Center, and with considerable “unbridled input” from veterans, Lanham said.

Lanham sent several letters requesting funds to help publish the first printing of the 2003 edition. Within 24 hours veteran Bonnie Sawyer and husband Tom Sawyer of Bangor responded. The funds they contributed resulted in the printing of 500 copies of the 94-page booklet.

The 2004 edition is more than 100 pages long and includes graphic designs and photographs. As in the 2003 edition, the 2004 booklet begins with a memoriam to Robert “Trey” Clukey, a serviceman born in Bangor who was lost in the Adriatic Sea during a training mission in November 2002. But the 2004 edition has an added feature – his picture.

Also new to this edition is input from women, including wives of veterans and from a Vietnam army nurse. Lanham’s father-in-law, Sam Lanham Sr., was a former machine-gunner in Germany and Europe at age 17. His account of liberation from a concentration camp is featured in the booklet.

“It’s incredible,” Lanham said of her father-in-law’s experience.

The book was designed to educate, expose, enlighten and open the minds of those suffering from PTSD and help them “realize you’re not alone,” Lanham said. The information is presented in a way that will be inviting to veterans and families to help them begin to heal, she said.

Lanham, who lives in Bangor with husband, Sam Jr., and their youngest son, has been a nurse since 1976, where she works at Acadia Hospital’s outpatient ambulatory clinic. Her background includes working with adolescents at Acadia Hospital and implementing biofeedback at that facility. Charette, in her late 20s, now lives in northern Maine with her husband, Steve, and their two children. She holds two jobs – teaching at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and working as a psychiatric nurse.

“She is a trailblazer,” Lanham said of her former classmate and co-author. While she would have enjoyed being a part of the 2004 edition, Charette’s geographical location, work and family responsibilities made participation “not logistically doable,” Lanham said, adding that if the project is reproduced again, Charette will be welcome to participate.

Both women juggled jobs, clinical rotations, marriage and children throughout their graduate school experience. Charette even gave birth to her second child while working on the booklet.

Lanham, the mother of three sons, has written several children’s books she hopes to publish. She also hopes to expand the PTSD booklet every few years, re-editing it with more stories and input from veterans and families.

“I’d like to see it grow,” she said.

To obtain information about the booklet, visit sunriseseminars.com, or call Bangor Vet Center at 947-3391.