Recently, there has been much discussion over the role of social work in the reintegration of our service men and women back into society. The wars of over a decade seem to be drawing to a close, and many social work professionals are in the process of becoming culturally competent to prepare for our warriors’ return. Preparation is unquestionably the best practice and will become an imperative as the Department of Defense is projecting that nearly one million service members will separate from the Armed Forces in the next five years. However, it has been my observation that many in the profession are concerned on how to engage this demographic, especially if they themselves are not veterans.
Being a veteran myself, and currently a social work student, I am often asked by those in academia, if a veteran is willing to engage in a helping relationship where the helper is not a veteran. I have also heard consistent concerns among the profession in engaging veterans at various workshops, panels, and discussions I have attended recently. I must admit that I am troubled at some of the responses to those concerns.
There seems to be a suggestion that engaging will be tough, if not impossible, with veterans if you have not experienced combat or military service in general. There seems to be a theme in recent workshops that peer counseling is essential to facilitate future engagement with a helping professional. Essentially, veterans need to be convinced by other veterans that it is ok to seek help. This idea is not only dangerous, but also undermines the practice skills of the social work profession, and in my opinion, is completely unnecessary. I’m not suggesting that peer counseling is not an important piece of veteran outreach, but it should not be used to soften the veteran up for the engagement stage of the helping process.
As a ten year Army Veteran I would like to offer what insight I can for engaging veterans:
- The social worker must be self-aware of their feelings towards war and extreme violence. They must be ready to bear witness to what the veteran will report during sessions. Helpers must make it clear to the veteran that they are ready to listen without judgment and facilitate a safe environment for them to do so (un-conditional positive regard). Does any of this sound familiar?
- Engage veterans no differently than you would engage other clients. Veterans do not want to be handled with rubber gloves and many do not see themselves as victims, do not treat them as such. Is a veteran going to tell you his or her must vulnerable thoughts and feelings in your first session together? The answer is probably not, but what client would?
- Do not get eager for results and rush the process. Engagement and assessment may take longer because of the fear of judgment; however, I would suggest it would take just as long with a veteran social worker if not longer.
In closing I would like to validate the point that initial engagement may be easier veteran to veteran. However, as the helping process moves along, after the ego defenses have been peeled away and the veteran is most vulnerable; non-veteran social workers will be more effective as the real work begins. Most veterans will not want to be vulnerable in front of another veteran for fear of judgment. This is where, in my opinion, non- veteran social workers will be most vital to the helping process. Essentially, if you facilitate a safe environment, provide un-conditional positive regard, and are ready to bear witness, a non-veteran social worker can and will effect real and positive change in a veteran’s life.
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Mike, thank you for your brilliant piece made all the more brilliant by its brevity. I currently work in the VA system with homeless and formerly homeless veterans. My background was working with those suffering from substance use and mental health disorders. Addiction too has always been one of those areas where those seeking help often believe only someone in recovery would truly be able to understand and help. It was my custom to let people know at the beginning of our relationship (be it group or individual) that if they were curious, yes, I was a person in recovery but that I thought that facet shouldn’t matter. I would often follow the statement up by asking,” but what is your next question?” What if my drug of choice was different than yours? What if I grew up in an environment different than yours, what if my skin color, gender, age, education is different than yours? will that mean I won’t be able to help you? Maybe those are questions even more suited for social workers to ask themselves when they worry about treating a population they feel are so alien to them. I agree, unconditional positive regard is probably the most important tool a social worker should be practicing with. We don’t need to have all the answers in order to help. We don’t even need to have any of the answers. We need to be able to listen and learn from our clients. The therapeutic alliance allows us to help each other.
Deirdre,
Thank you for your comments and a special thanks, for the work you do with veterans. There will be approximately one million veterans separating from the service in the next five years alone. So I think it is important that non-veteran social workers understand just how important they are going to be in the helping process moving forward.
Hi Mike,
As a MSW student and a veteran Military Police myself, I really appreciated your article. My future career aspirations are similar to yours.I want to work with the homeless veteran population. I am a VA work study student working in a VA facility right now that deals only with combat veterans and I know, for many, they are guarded. I do think initially it is easier to engage them being a veteran myself. It is often the first question I get asked, if I served. I think the main thing to remember is that not every veteran suffers from PTSD that has seen combat. With so much awareness now about the topic, I think many people are quick to assume that because the soldier served in a combat zone, they have PTSD. Keep up the good work.
Marilyn,
Thank you so much for your service! It provides me great comfort that you are out there in practice and can share with our non-veteran colleagues this information. It is incumbent on us as veterans to spread the word about our culture.
The point you made about PTSD is spot on. It will only be slightly above the national average simply because of re-exposure to trauma. However,many in our profession are being taught to expect much higher rates, which is simply not true. Please keep in touch with me and good luck with your MSW pursuit!
I would like to offer up, in addition to the advice already given here (good as it is), another thing that social workers can do to help in connecting with members of the military.
Now, I don’t work in the social work profession myself, but I do have some experience in VA hospitals and some amount of time working around service members. One thing that is part and parcel to the connection which brings those individuals together is the shared vocabulary that all service members use. Talking in acronyms and using specific types of jargon are an integral part to the military language, and an understanding of that language would help immensely in getting that service member to explain what occurred during their time in the service.
Just be forewarned, each branch uses its own jargon.
Mike
First off great article. Thanks for service to our country. I am like you, I am a 18 year veteran and a noncom with two tours to Afghanistan. Currently work with Talbert House in Cincinnati. Just recently got promoted to a clinical service provider with our homeless veterans program. My goal like yours is to help our fellow veterans.
I totally agree with you view points. Just this past week a friend of mine who is a veteran was robed at gun point inside his home. I got the news from Facebook and later the news channels covered the story
I waited a day or so to make contact. When I did he was very open and vented his feeling and thoughts about the situation. We spoke for about an hour and after our conversation I felt he was feeling much better and he got to process this incident.
Was it because we were friends before this incident?
Or was it because in the past (before I was a SW) and present I always conducted myself as a professional. So was it trust? I believe that if a veteran trust a social worker they can make a connection.
Now does being a veteran and a social worker make you and I better fit? Only time will tell.
Again great article.
Jacob W Kidd BSW LSW