A long time getting home: Vietnam Veterans' experiences in a community exercise rehabilitation programme

Purpose: We aimed to qualitatively evaluate the experiences of a group of 14 Australian Vietnam Veterans, including five who stated being diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, participating in a 40-week exercise programme. Method: The veterans provided prospective feedback on perceptions, attitudes and opinions related to the programme via a series of three focus groups. A content analysis using the grounded theory approach was used to categorize the main themes to emerge from the transcribed data. Results: The main findings included (a) the group's perceived lifestyle prior to participating in the programme, such as working long hours, social isolation and low motivation levels, (b) lifestyle and psychological changes as a result of the exercise programme, such as decreased anger levels, increased mental awareness, energy levels and daily resilience, and (c) increased social support. The veterans nominated the interaction and support arising from the classes, in addition to participation in the exercise per se , as being associated with the perceived benefits in personal lifestyle. Conclusions: The findings suggest that physical activity programmes set up within the community specifically for Vietnam Veterans may benefit them psychologically as well as physically.