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Support For Veterans

Here@Home is the new name of the Veterans Outreach Program, a pro bono/low cost psychotherapy service that began in 2005, dedicated to serving veterans and their family members of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I directed the program when it began, and have agreed to that role again, in a re-dedicated effort with new energy behind it.

Personal History

I did not serve in the military. When I was 18 years old, the war in Vietnam was still raging. The Selective Service had just transitioned from a general age based draft to a draft lottery. If you were selected in the lottery (about 30% of eligible men were), you reported for induction into the Army. The ability to qualify for a deferment was greatly reduced.

I will never forget the day of the lottery, waiting for pure luck to radically alter one’s life, or leave it virtually unchanged. Some dorm residents packed their bags that day, others applied to enter the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) to defer their service and stay in college.

The fact that this country struggled and too often failed to honor its Vietnam veterans is one of the more painful ordeals of history I’ve seen in my lifetime. Although I was against the war, like many others, I was proud of my father’s service during WWII. I knew that I bore no soldier any ill will. I still feel some responsibility to do something that might help those wrongs to never be repeated.

Cultural competence

A big part of the work running this program is to train all of these civilian clinical social work therapists to be able to understand and work therapeutically with combat veterans, and their family members. Social workers have long understood the necessity of working with clients whose life experience is radically different than their own.

Challenge to Civilian Therapists

But the men and women who have experienced military-level trauma, chronic levels of debilitating anxiety and a blood bond with comrades, represent a unique challenge for therapists without those life experiences. At the same time, veterans must strive to re-integrate back into the civilian society that they risked everything for, and clinical social work is a valuable resource toward that goal.

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