<img aria-descriptionby = "caption-attachment-21606" data-attachment-id = "21606" data-permalink = "https://ct.counseling.org/2019/07/from-the-president-what-is -Your mission / Paul-Sakuma-photographer-www-paulsakuma-com / "data-orig-file =" https://ct.counseling.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/big-heathertrepal_headshot.jpg "data-orig-size =" 427,640 "data-comment-opens =" 1 "data-image-meta =" {"aperture": "0", "credit": "Paul Sakuma Photography", "camera" : "Canon EOS 7D", "Caption": "Paul Sakuma Photographer www.paulsakuma.com", "created_timestamp": "1553690719", "copyright": "", "focal_length": "110", "iso": " 400 "," shutter_speed ":" 0.005 "," title ":" Paul Sakuma Photographer www.paulsakuma.com "," Orientation ":" 0 "}" data-image-title = "Trepal" data-image-description = "
Heather Trepal, the 68th President of the American Counseling Association
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Heather Trepal, the 68th President of the American Counseling Association
O One of my favorite things to do as an ACA president is the opportunity to meet our members and learn more about their work. Military mental health is rightly receiving increasing attention. This month I would like to highlight three ACA members that I got to know better over the past year. Each of them does an excellent job in our nation's military and is committed to mental health.
Tanya Workman is the licensed professional mental health instructor at Frank Tejeda Outpatient Clinic in San Antonio. She works in the field of integrating primary care and mental health. Recently, her facility was awarded a grant from the Mental Health Education Expansion Initiative by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This scholarship offers two consultants at master's level special training, supervision and internship funding for working with veterans in the clinic. When I visited the clinic, I was impressed by the choice of integrated care services.
Tanya is passionate about identifying and eliminating differences in care in terms of gender, ethnicity and services. It has made some outstanding progress. Tanya has been teaching a trauma-handling class at the facility since 2015 and found that women were absent. So she started a group exclusively for women, and now she has a lot of recommendations and women to take care of trauma education. Tanya regularly attends our annual ACA conferences and reports that this gives her the opportunity to connect with other licensed professional consultants (LPCs) who work within the VA.
The second ACA member I would like to highlight is Duane France, an LPC, the veterinary services director for the Family Care Center and executive director of the Colorado Veterans Health and Wellness Agency. Duane is also one of this year's co-chairs of the ACA Public Policy and Legislation Committee and a member of the ACA Advisory Board on License Agreements. His website (Veteranmentalhealth.com) contains a variety of resources, including links to his monthly column “From Struggle to Counseling”, which he writes for CT Online.
I had the opportunity to hear one of Duane's sessions at the Colorado Counseling Association conference last August. He spoke passionately about standing up for the military population, including topics such as strength-based well-being and reducing stigma. Another important area Duane is committed to is to increase the number of professional advisors serving the military population.
The last ACA member I want to introduce to you is Justina Wong. She is a master candidate in clinical psychological counseling within the Chicago School of Professional Psychology online program and a clinical intern at the United States Veterans Initiative. Justina is also the founder of the Veteran Suicide Prevention Initiative.
Justina's interest in military advice began in 2009 when one of her childhood friends ended a four-year admission to the Marine Corps and had a difficult time reintegrating into civilian life. At the time, Justina knew nothing about the military, but she witnessed the effects of a first-hand combat trauma. A year after her friend left the military, he tried to commit suicide, although Justina found out about the attempt a few years later because affected mental health in the military community. At that point, Justina vowed to commit herself to life, to help military veterans reintegrate into civilian life, and to reduce the number of veteran suicides.
Justina was asked to attend the Los Angeles County Suicide Prevention Summit to receive additional training for her field job. During the event, she had the opportunity to network
with other people who are committed to reducing the suicide rate among veterans. The idea for the Veteran Suicide Prevention Initiative came after a conversation Justina had with one of the people she met at the summit. The initiative focuses on creating a network of mental health professionals who come together to share their knowledge of effective techniques for working with military veterans.
These ACA members do a fantastic job of reducing stigma, eliminating inequalities in care, and working to increase the number of professional advisors serving the military and military-related clients. As a profession, we must continue to do more to serve those who have served our country.
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Follow Heather on Twitter @HeatherTrepal
