Guitars for Vets: Making music the medicine for Canadian veterans with PTSD

How one organization is using music to help veterans with PTSD Singer-songwriter Séan McCann and Jim Lowther, founder of Guitars for Vets, talks about using music to help veterans with PTSD.

An upcoming concert is aiming to raise money for a program that gives Canadian military veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder the chance to heal though music.

Guitars for Vets  connects veterans with free guitars and lessons. The program was created in 2010 by Jim Lowther, a 15-year army veteran.

“I suffer from PTSD and other disabilities, and playing my guitar literally got me out of the basement, to the point where I was feeling okay enough to get out and volunteer in the community.” Lowther said on CTV’s Your Morning Monday. Singer songwriter Sean McCann, of the band Great Big Sea, is a Guitars for Vets ambassador.

“Like Jim, I had some hard times in my past, and like Jim’s experience it was the guitar that took me out of the basement, the dark place.” McCann, who battled alcoholism in the past, believes music is medicine so he’s organizing an event to raise money for Guitars for Vets. On November 10th he will host a special concert in Ottawa and will be joined by fellow artists Sarah Harmer, Joel Plaskett and Jeremy Fisher. Tickets are $100 each, which is the price of a guitar.