We want to help people. It is a common reason why many choose to become professional advisors. Maybe we were told that we are good listeners. Perhaps we have had experience in overcoming psychological problems. Whatever led to advice, we want to use our skills to help people. At some point, we may decide to help people in the military population: soldiers, veterans, and their families. Maybe we want to help military children because we have a few of us, or we were one. Or we want to support military spouses in post-military life because they are underserved and underserved.
It is admirable to place a clinical focus on serving the military population. More importantly, it is necessary. Given critical mental health access shortages in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD), and studies showing that community providers are not as culturally competent towards the military population as doctors in VA and DOD are , it is important to increase the number of patients access to timely and competent psychiatric services by the military population.
Consultants often ask me: How do I do this? I might want to serve veterans and their families, but how do I get there?
Here are some critical points to consider if you are interested in working with the militarily organized population.
Know why you are doing it
Understanding your motivation to serve veterans is critical. More importantly, it's an ethical responsibility for consultants. In order to provide the highest quality of service to those we work with and stay true to ourselves, we need to understand what prompted us to do this and why we want to do it.
What are your personal and professional motives to serve this population? Are you a veteran like myself or (like me) a child of a veteran? Are you a military spouse who has the experience of serving your partner? Or do you have no direct connection to the military but have worked with the population during your clinical training? Regardless of your background, it's important to understand why you chose this particular population.
Photo of U.S. Army Master Sgt. Alejandro Licea / defense.gov
Understand Your Limits
In addition to the reason why you are doing this, it is important to understand your limitations. This could mean that you are familiar with one aspect of military culture, but acknowledge that you are not an expert in all of military culture. Or that you encounter some things in your clinical work that you are not prepared for and you did not know that this would bother you. I remember a session with a veteran a few years ago in which they reported significant racial discrimination during their military years. This discrimination was the cause of her depression rather than PTSD, as most people (including the client) assumed. When I heard the veteran tell her story, I grew angrier until I started to lose focus and therapeutic objectivity. The former non-commissioned officer in me was offended by the experience.
What I did not realize was that this was a psychological response from me to two different things: the apparent disregard for the military values that the veteran's leadership cares about, and my own unresolved emotional response to racial discrimination in my childhood. A classic example of countertransference. Advisers like myself, who identify themselves as military personnel, have to examine and address possible countertransferences. Just because a counselor is a veteran doesn't make him the best counselor for veterans, and we have to be aware of the limits of our personal experience.
Where do you start?
So it is important to understand why we want to serve veterans, and it is also important to understand the limitations we face, but what about the practical aspects of serving this population? How do you help specifically? I often hear how difficult it is for professional counselors to work in the VA (although the department is currently working hard to create more licensed professional mental health counselors). And if you're not in the VA or DOD but want to help veterans, where are you going? How do you find internships, internships or jobs for an approved consultant?
There are several suggestions that I often pass on to counselors who contact me and ask how they find positions in the community that serve veterans. First research in your area. Are there psychiatric clinics that mainly serve the military population? Organizations like the Cohen Veterans Network may be a useful resource for internships or to get your pre-licensing hours, or for clinics like the Colorado Springs Family Care Center that I work for. Even if they are not currently accepting interns, they may have advice for you.
Another potential source of positions is to look for other veteran services in your community that would be willing to add a clinical component to them. For example, the Veterans Village in San Diego, which has been a state-recognized leader in homeless veterans since 1981, has 27 mental health interns as part of their workforce. Organizations that provide veterans with labor, accommodation, legal, and financial resources may be willing to include a mental health component in their services.
And finally there is a national program that can be useful. Give An Hour is a national network of volunteer clinicians serving the military population. I often recommend it as a resource for veterans and family members looking for support outside of my region. It is also a way to get in touch with other like-minded professionals serving the military population. If you want to serve veterans near you, it is a good idea to reach out to those who are already doing so and network with them. You can find a list of doctors near you who work with the military by searching for providers in your zip code and reaching them on LinkedIn or emailing and contacting them. It is likely that you will find one or two who are ready to sit down and speak and give professional advice on what military service looks like at your location.
Serve those who served
It is admirable and not frivolous to dedicate your professional career to serving those who have served and those who care for them. As with many other underserved populations, it is necessary to understand the unique culture of the military and how it affects our customers. Through careful preparation, we can ensure that those who have sacrificed a lot for us receive the best possible care.
****
Duane France, LPC
Duane France is a retired noncommissioned officer and combat veteran from the United States Army who is a licensed professional advisor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is the director of veterinary services for the Family Care Center, a private outpatient psychiatric clinic that specializes in service members, veterans and their families. He is also the managing director of the Colorado Veterans Health and Wellness Agency, a non-profit organization that deals professionally with the Family Care Center. In addition to his clinical work, he writes and talks about veterinary mental health in his blog and podcast on veteranmentalhealth.com. Contact him at [email protected].
****
The opinions and comments expressed in articles from CT Online do not reflect the opinions of the editors or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
