Veteran Services
- LAST REVIEWED: 13 January 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 13 January 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0127
- LAST REVIEWED: 13 January 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 13 January 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0127
Introduction
The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are part of the Overseas Contingency Operations, have resulted in more than two million combat-related deployments, many of which have involved service members engaging in repeated deployments. Although it is estimated that 80 percent of returning military personnel are expected to have minimal mental health problems, military personnel, veterans, and family members experience a number of post-deployment reintegration challenges. One of the biggest challenges veterans face after deployment is reintegrating back into their communities and having access to culturally competent services. While many civilian organizations and professionals are eager to work with veteran populations to help ease this transition, a cultural divide exists between military-impacted populations and their civilian counterparts. Particularly with regard to warrior psyche and the experience of combat trauma, civilian clinicians lack the means to fully comprehend these paradigms and the implications that they have on the lives of veterans and their families. As a result, military-impacted individuals, already reticent to seek services or mental health treatment, encounter well-meaning clinicians who are ill-prepared to accommodate them and their families in providing assistance with respect to appropriate mental health and medical care, employment readjustment, training support, educational and financial guidance, and other critical services and transition supports. In addition, the transition from military to civilian/veteran life can be difficult and is not always negotiated successfully. The stressors encountered by our veteran populations are ongoing and are likely to remain so. Today, tomorrow, and in the future, veterans will cope with the mounting burden of repeated combat deployments and community reintegration challenges that, if not addressed, will jeopardize the continuation of our all-voluntary military force and our national security. Therefore, it is essential that behavioral health professionals engage, assess, and treat in a manner that shows a sensitive awareness of military culture and employs the most effective interventions available. This reference guide is one of the many resources available to address these challenges. This resource list is by no means exhaustive, but rather a primer that begins with a sample of articles related to improving military cultural competency, which is an essential skill for behavioral health providers who treat military populations.
Military Cultural Competency
A number of recent reports clearly indicate a shortage of mental health professionals competent to meet the demands of those returning from war. A new understanding of factors affecting resilience and recovery has been accumulating swiftly due to an outpouring of federal research funds aimed at assessment and intervention. Military cultural competency is an essential skill for community-based behavioral health providers. Beder 2012; Blaisure, et al. 2012; Flynn and Hassan 2010; Hazle, et al. 2012; Moore 2011; and Reger, et al. 2008 provide various overviews of military culture from different perspectives. Wilcox and Rank 2013 describes the military deployment cycle and challenges associated with transitioning through the deployment cycle and provides considerations for clinicians. Daley 1999 provides general information regarding social work with military populations.
Beder, J., ed. 2012. Advances in social work practice with the military. New York: Routledge.
This textbook describes the military culture, clinical challenges with military populations, and unique challenges for providers.
Blaisure, K. R., T. Saathoff-Wells, A. Pereira, S. M. Wadsworth, and A. L. Dombro. 2012. Serving military families in the 21st century. New York: Routledge.
This text provides a family-focused overview for military populations, beginning with a brief introduction to military culture. Both military and civilian resources for military families are provided.
Daley, J. G., ed. 1999. Social work practice in the military. Binghamton, NY: Haworth.
This book provides an overview of practice with military populations specifically for social workers. Chapters include content on the historical contexts of practice, the military practice arena, and unique issues of military social work.
Flynn, M., and A. M. Hassan. 2010. Unique challenges of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Journal of Social Work Education 46.2.
This article provides an overview of challenges that are unique to military personnel who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Hazle, M., S. L. Wilcox, and A. M. Hassan. 2012. Helping veterans and their families fight on! Advances in Social Work 13.1: 229–242.
This article provides an overview of challenges that military populations experience when reintegrating back into the civilian world after military service.
Moore, B. A. 2011. Understanding and working within the military culture. In Treating PTSD in military personnel: A clinical handbook. Edited by B. A. Moore and W. E. Penk, 9–22. New York: Guilford.
This chapter provides an overview of the military culture.
Reger, M. A., J. R. Etherage, G. M. Reger, and G. A. Gahm. 2008. Civilian psychologists in an army culture: The ethical challenge of cultural competence. Military Psychology 20.1: 21–35.
DOI: 10.1080/08995600701753144
This article summarizes challenges and opportunities that non-veteran civilian providers experience when working with military populations. It also provides an overview of cultural and ethical considerations for working with military populations.
Wilcox, S. L., and M. G. Rank. 2013. Transitioning through the deployment cycle. In Military psychologists’ desk reference. Edited by B. Moore and J. Barnett, 306–310. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
This chapter provides an overview of the deployment cycle and clinical considerations for those working with military populations at each stage of the deployment cycle.
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Article
- Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work
- Abortion
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- Adolescents
- Adoption
- Adoption Home Study Assessments
- Adult Protective Services in the United States
- African Americans
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- Aging
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- Alcohol Problems: Practice Interventions
- Alcohol Use Disorder
- Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
- Anti-Oppressive Practice
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- Behavioral Health
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- Children
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- Conflict Resolution
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- Development and Infancy (Birth to Age Three)
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- Disasters
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- Ecological Framework
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- Ethics and Values in Social Work
- Ethnicity
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- Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs
- Families
- Families with Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Parents
- Family Caregiving
- Family Group Conferencing
- Family Policy
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- Family Therapy
- Family Violence
- Fathering Among Families Served By Child Welfare
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
- Field Education
- Financial Literacy and Social Work
- Financing Health-Care Delivery in the United States
- Forensic Social Work
- Foster Care
- Foster care and siblings
- Gay Men
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- Generalist Practice and Advanced Generalist Practice
- Grounded Theory
- Group Work
- Group Work across Populations, Challenges, and Settings
- Group Work, Research, Best Practices, and Evidence-based
- Harm Reduction
- Health Care Reform
- Health Disparities
- Health Social Work
- History of Social Work and Social Welfare, 1900–1950
- History of Social Work and Social Welfare, 1950-1980
- History of Social Work and Social Welfare, pre-1900
- History of Social Work from 1980-2014
- History of Social Work in China
- History of Social Work in Northern Ireland
- History of Social Work in the Republic of Ireland
- History of Social Work in the United Kingdom
- HIV/AIDS
- HIV/AIDS and Children
- HIV/AIDS Prevention with Adolescents
- Homelessness
- Homelessness: Ending Homelessness as a Grand Challenge
- Homelessness Outside the United States
- Housing
- Human Needs
- Human Trafficking, Victims of
- Immigrant Integration in the United States
- Immigrant Policy in the United States
- Immigrants and Refugees
- Immigrants and Refugees: Evidence-based Social Work Practi...
- Immigration and Health Disparities
- Immigration and Intimate Partner Violence
- Immigration and Poverty
- Immigration and Spirituality
- Immigration and Substance Use
- Immigration and Trauma
- Impact of Emerging Technology in Social Work Practice
- Impaired Professionals
- Implementation Science and Practice
- Indigenous Peoples
- Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Supported Employmen...
- In-home Child Welfare Services
- Intergenerational Transmission of Maltreatment
- International Human Trafficking
- International Social Welfare
- International Social Work
- International Social Work and Education
- International Social Work and Social Welfare in Southern A...
- Internet and Video Game Addiction
- Interpersonal Psychotherapy
- Intervention with Traumatized Populations
- Interviewing
- Intimate-Partner Violence
- Juvenile Justice
- Kinship Care
- Korean Americans
- Latinos and Latinas
- Law, Social Work and the
- LGBTQ Populations and Social Work
- Life Span
- Mainland European Social Work, History of
- Major Depressive Disorder
- Management and Administration in Social Work
- Maternal Mental Health
- Measurement, Scales, and Indices
- Medical Illness
- Men: Health and Mental Health Care
- Mental Health
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- Mental Health Needs of Older People, Assessing the
- Mental Health Services from 1990 to 2023
- Mental Illness: Children
- Mental Illness: Elders
- Meta-analysis
- Microskills
- Middle East and North Africa, International Social Work an...
- Military Social Work
- Mixed Methods Research
- Moral distress and injury in social work
- Motivational Interviewing
- Multiculturalism
- Native Americans
- Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders
- Neighborhood Social Cohesion
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- Nicotine Dependence
- Occupational Social Work
- Organizational Development and Change
- Pain Management
- Palliative Care
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- Pandemics and Social Work
- Parent Training
- Participatory Community Based Research
- Personalization
- Person-in-Environment
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- Postmodernism and Social Work
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- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Poverty
- Practice Interventions and Aging
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- Practice Research
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- Productive Engagement of Older Adults
- Profession, Social Work
- Program Development and Grant Writing
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- Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Theory
- Psychoeducation
- Psychometrics
- Psychopathology and Social Work Practice
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- Qualitative Research
- Race and Racism
- Randomized Controlled Trials in Social Work
- Readmission Policies in Europe
- Redefining Police Interactions with People Experiencing Me...
- Refugee Children, Unaccompanied Immigrant and
- Rehabilitation
- Religiously Affiliated Agencies
- Reproductive Health
- Research
- Research Ethics
- Restorative Justice
- Risk Assessment in Child Protection Services
- Risk Management in Social Work
- Rural Social Work in China
- Rural Social Work Practice
- School Social Work
- School Violence
- School-Based Delinquency Prevention
- Services and Programs for Pregnant and Parenting Youth
- Severe and Persistent Mental Illness: Adults
- Sexual and Gender Minority Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylu...
- Sexual Assault
- Single-System Research Designs
- Social and Economic Impact of US Immigration Policies on U...
- Social Development
- Social Insurance and Social Justice
- Social Intervention Research
- Social Justice and Social Work
- Social Movements
- Social Planning
- Social Policy
- Social Policy in Denmark
- Social Security in the United States (OASDHI)
- Social Work and Islam
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- Social Work and Social Welfare in Europe
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- Social Work Luminaries: Luminaries contributing to the fou...
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- Social Work Research Methods
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- Strategic Planning
- Strengths Perspective
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- Suicide
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- Syrian Refugees in Turkey
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- Task-Centered Practice
- Technologies to Improve Social Work Practice and Education
- Technology Adoption in Social Work Education
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- Terrorism
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- Transdisciplinary Science
- Translational Science and Social Work
- Transnational Perspectives in Social Work
- Transtheoretical Model of Change
- Trauma
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Triangulation
- Tribal child welfare practice in the United States
- Unions
- United States, History of Social Welfare in the
- Universal Basic Income
- Veteran Services
- Vicarious Trauma and Resilience in Social Work Practice wi...
- Vicarious Trauma Redefining PTSD
- Victim Services
- Violence
- Virtual Reality and Social Work
- Welfare State Reform in France
- Welfare State Theory
- Women and Macro Social Work Practice
- Women's Health Care
- Work and Family in the German Welfare State
- Workfare
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- Young and Adolescent Lesbians
- Youth at Risk
- Youth Services