NEVER TOO LATE UCF’s Manette Monroe, M.D., will be the only physician in the country studying the effects of equine therapy on veterans.
HOOVED HEALERS UCF’s Equine Therapy Program Shows Promise for Ptsd. By Bill Shafer
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quine therapy programs around the U.S. use interactions between patients and horses to treat posttraumatic stress disorder in war veterans. Yet, despite considerable anecdotal success, there’s never been a definitive scientific study done to document how or why it seems to help. The University of Central Florida College of Medicine is about to change that through a new program headed by Manette Monroe, M.D. She’ll be the only physician in the country studying the effects of equine therapy on veterans. “I started looking into some of the treatments done for those with PTSD and traumatic brain injury and was surprised by what I found,” she explains. “There was virtually no empirical research, no evidence at all based on studies.” Monroe always believed that horses could change lives because they’ve been such a big part of hers. She began riding as a toddler and grew to become nationally competitive in dressage, cross country and show jumping. She earned a degree in animal science from the University of Tennessee in Knox8 GROWING BOLDER
ville, and enjoyed training horses and giving riding lessons. Then Monroe’s life took a different direction. She returned to school at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she earned a master’s degree in education. She then became a teacher and an education coordinator at a blood bank. She loved teaching, but in midlife yearned for more. In her 40s she decided she wanted to be a medical doctor. “But I heard that they didn’t take old people in medical school,” she recalls. “In fact, I was told that if you were over 26, your odds of getting in were very, very slim.” Nonetheless, she enrolled in a physician’s assistant program and did so well that, at age 43, she was accepted as a student at East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine. Monroe earned her medical degree and achieved her dream. But still she wasn’t entirely satisfied. She wondered if there was a way to bring her three greatest passions together. How could she teach, practice medicine and work with horses all at the same time? That’s when the UCF College of Medicine
came riding to the rescue. In her 50s Monroe joined the medical school’s staff as assistant dean of students and assistant professor of pathology. But her career was about to come full-circle. “The dean encourages us to pursue our passions,” Monroe told Growing Bolder. “I said, ‘Hey, I have one I bet we could work together on to better the community.’” Deborah German, M.D., dean of the medical school, approved the idea almost immediately. The resulting equine therapy program has already been able to document improvements in depression scores. And Monroe says it’s just the beginning. “This gives me so much hope that people who are struggling with isolation and loneliness and overreaction to stimuli and all the things that go along with PTSD can look forward to the kinds of improvements that will allow them to rebuild their lives, all because the UCF College of Medicine encourages us to follow our passion.” By believing that it’s never too late to accept new challenges, to reinvent herself and to follow her passions, Monroe is happier now than she’s ever been. She loves her life and loves her work. “Every day I’m involved in medicine, teaching and horses. How could I not love life?”
GB EXTRA Visit GrowingBolderMagazine.com for more from our conversation with Dr. Manette Monroe and to hear from some of the first soldiers to go through her program. Hear first-hand how equine therapy is dramatically changing the way they live with PTSD. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015