Military Social Work

Many war veterans suffer serious mental health disorders ranging from post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression, which can lead to substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and suicide. This specialized area of study prepares individuals to provide a full range of human services to the nation’s military personnel, veterans and their families, helping them cope with the stresses of military life. The military sub-concentration – which can be integrated with any of the three major concentration areas offered through the Virtual Academic Center – provides a range of placement options for students interested in learning more about working with military personnel, military retirees, spouses and other military dependants. Students will complete 600 clock hours of an internship in various types of approved settings working with veteran populations.

Practicum sites are based on the availability of the agency to accept a student and a field instructor to provide supervision; therefore, no guarantees are extended to students on a specific type of agency that would be arranged. Please note that only students residing on base are candidates for placement on base.

The school’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families (CIR) is collaborating with the USC Institute for Creative Technologies on the Virtual Patient, a new virtual reality training module to help prepare students to interact with real clients, particularly those who have been exposed to combat stress. The Virtual Patient is an avatar-based computer program designed to simulate a specific clinical presentation of a veteran client with a high degree of consistency and realism. The first application of virtual reality in a graduate social work setting, the program is expected to be available in some military sub-concentration classes on-campus this fall and by the end of 2012 for students in the Virtual Academic Center. You can learn more about the development of the Virtual Patient here. Students may also search CIR’s website for opportunities to participate in the center’s research initiatives that serve veterans and military families.

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Curriculum

• Clinical Practice with the Military Family: Understanding and Intervening

The purpose of this course is to understand the military culture within which military families function, the stressors such as deployment that they navigate, and the diversity of military family structures and how a range of diversity filters can impact the military family and military culture. The different military contexts (i.e., active duty, guard/reserve, veteran) are explored. Ethical issues for working in this environment are considered. Theory-based and research-informed strategies to intervene with military families are reviewed. Military family policies are examined and critiqued. Family life cycle interactions with the military demands are discussed. Students completing this course will have a more in-depth understanding of and ability to work with the military and the military families that are a vital part of society.

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• Military Culture and the Workplace Environment

Recent developments in convention, asymmetric, and military operations other than war have created new problems and requirements for social workers and a shortfall of qualified clinicians to work with the military and a constituency needing service. The competencies required for social workers working with the military, veterans and active duty members, families, and organizational decision-makers, represent both a distinctive niche and critical expansion of talent. Without military-specific knowledge and skills, social workers could be seen as outsiders, potential threats, and poorly prepared practitioners who may inhibit the dictums of the social work profession. Therefore, it is imperative that these social workers have a clear frame of reference for understanding the military context, relevant cultural dimensions/levels, and a historical framework for military social work to apply to today’s military.

This frame of reference includes a general understanding of cultural dimensions and levels and the relevance and application of culture to the military. Culture is defined by Kluckhohn (1951) as patterned ways of thinking, feeling, and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values. Using the core features of a culture (Laungani, 2007) the military will be examined from perspectives including its background and organization, social systems, core values and traditions (norms for personal, familial, and social conduct, patterns of socialization, and gender roles), artifacts, language, and socially acceptable practices.

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• Clinical Practice with Service Members and Veterans

This course addresses the needs of active duty, retired, and deployed servicemembers and veterans at different developmental phases of the military life course, both holistically and within the context of their families and communities. Military social work students (per CSWE-2010 guidelines) will be prepared to facilitate clients ways of coping with a range of physical health, mental health and psychosocial issues. Students learn to identify these concerns along with the risk and protective factors associated with navigating deployment and combat stressors. Those servicemembers who are bolstered by their resilience and protective factors often return from deployment with a healthy transition, while others exposed to high intensity combat exposure and repeated deployments may develop injuries to their physical health, mental health and psychosocial coping.

While the course specifically highlights mental health and psychosocial needs of the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Veterans, it also addresses the treatment needs of combat Veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, and Somalia Conflicts. Students will also learn to understand and apply evidence-based clinical approaches that address signature injuries noted. Managing transference/countertransference phenomena and attending to secondary trauma are central. Attention will be paid to issues of diversity including specific issues relevant in work with culturally diverse client groups. Addressing stigma and barriers to service will help students establish alliances with their clients effectively. Finally, students will learn to use the range of practice models in a phase-oriented approach that values the therapeutic relationship, cultural responsiveness and theoretical grounding.

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