Handbook of Military Social Work

Allen Rubin, Eugenia L. Weiss, Jose E. Coll, Allen Rubin, Eugenia L. Weiss, Jose E. Coll

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781118330227
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The need has never been more crucial for community health providers, programs, and organizations to have access to training in addressing the unique behavioral health challenges facing our veterans, active duty military, and their families.

Handbook of Military Social Work is edited by renowned leaders in the field, with contributions from social work professionals drawing from their wealth of experience working with veterans, active duty military, and their families.

Handbook of Military Social Work considers:

• Military culture and diversity
• Women in the military
• Posttraumatic stress disorder in veterans
• Traumatic brain injury in the military
• Suicide in the military
• Homelessness among veterans
• Cycles of deployment and family well-being
• Grief, loss, and bereavement in military families
• Interventions for military children and youth

Offering thoughtful advice covering the spectrum of issues encountered by mental health professionals working with individuals and families, Handbook of Military Social Work will contribute to the improvement of efforts to help our military personnel, veterans, and their families deal with the challenges they face.

Part I
Foundations of Social Work With Service Members and Veterans

Chapter 1
A Brief History of Social Work With the Military and Veterans

Allen Rubin and Helena Harvie

Since World War II social workers have been playing an increasingly significant role in the provision of behavioral health services to military personnel, veterans, and military families in a variety of settings. Today, the military and the Veterans Administration (VA) continue to be prominent sources of employment for social workers. Licensed social workers can work full time as uniformed military officers or as civilians for the VA and vet centers. They also can serve on a part-time or on a full-time basis as civilians who are contracted by the armed forces or the VA. In addition, they can work with military families and the veteran population as private practitioners through the military’s TRICARE health insurance plan or an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that contracts for brief therapy services for active duty military personnel. Also, military service personnel and their families, including the National Guard and Reserve, are seen by civilian social workers in community mental health agencies that contract with the VA. If you Google keywords about social work in the armed forces, you can find websites from different armed forces branches that describe what military social workers do, the prerequisites for becoming a licensed social work officer, and so on. You can find similar information about serving as a social worker in the VA at its website at www.socialwork.va.gov. The VA employs more than 13,000 social workers (Partners for Public Service, 2010) and offers a clinical training program for social work students that trains approximately 900 students per year (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2010, p. 1).

In light of the extent to which military organizations currently value social workers, you might be surprised to learn that it was not until the end of World War II that social work was officially recognized by the U.S. armed forces as a military occupation. However, the historical roots of military social work date back to much earlier times, just as the roots of the social work profession predate its emergence as a profession, as concerns about charity and how to deal with poverty have existed throughout history. Likewise, the roots of military social work in the United States can be traced back as early as 1636, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth County stated that the care of disabled veterans was the responsibility of the colony, and the first legislation about caring for veterans was enacted (Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d.).

The more recent roots of military social work in the United States are associated with the Civil War (1861–1865), when Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, not only helped wounded soldiers medically but also assisted soldiers with finding community resources and getting information to and from family members (American Red Cross, 2011). Volunteers also visited with Union soldiers to provide support and relief during the Civil War (Raiha, 2000). However, the American Red Cross would not become an official organization until after the Civil War.

It was not until the Spanish-American War of 1898, however, when the American Red Cross as an organization provided services to members of the American armed forces at war (American Red Cross, 2011). Although the Red Cross provided mostly medical care to service members, it also provided a nonmedical service—carrying on a limited means of communication services that handled inquiries from families. The year 1898 also witnessed the birth of professional social work education, as the first social work course was offered at Columbia University (National Association of Social Workers, n.d.). Many Red Cross services were provided by social workers during the Spanish-American War; consequently, the term military social work can be conceived as originating at that time. Before 1898, citizens might have been performing social work duties, but it was not until the profession emerged that professional social workers per se did so.

WORLD WAR I AND ITS AFTERMATH

Recognition of the need for psychiatric social workers grew during World War I, when nearly 100,000 service members and veterans were admitted with neuropsychiatric disorders to military hospitals (Harris, 2000). The first psychiatric social workers had been employed in neurological clinics in 1905 as part of interdisciplinary clinical teams. Their primary role was to obtain collateral information needed by psychiatrists, relative to family background and past life experiences. Later, psychiatric social workers were in charge of preparing families for the return home of mental patients (O’Keefe, 2009). The value of psychiatric social work to the military became showcased by the Red Cross in 1918 when the first social worker was employed at the special hospital for neuroses at the U.S. Army General Hospital #30 in Plattsburgh, New York. The social worker’s duties were “to assist the medical officers by obtaining information regarding the personal, family, and community background of the soldiers under treatment, as an aid in diagnosis, treatment, and plans for aftercare” (O’Keefe, 2009, p. 1). The success of this project not only led to the increase of psychiatric social workers at this hospital, but also to the Red Cross assigning medical social workers (i.e., social workers who work in medical settings) to all hospitals.

After the war was over in March 1919, the Surgeon General asked the Red Cross to establish a social services program in federal hospitals similar to already existing psychiatric programs in civilian hospitals (Harris, 2000). While the U.S. Public Health Service had been made responsible for the care of veterans, the Red Cross assumed full responsibility for outlining the social service program, formulating policies, recruiting personnel, and assisting in the organization of the work. By January 1920, there were social service departments in 42 federal hospitals, which mostly served veterans and service members (O’Keefe, 2009).

The Red Cross continued to carry the full responsibility for these psychiatric social services until the Veterans Bureau established its own social work department on June 16, 1926. The Veterans Bureau General Order established the social work program and outlined its organization and functions (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2010). The first year staffing consisted of 14 social workers who were placed in psychiatric hospitals and 22 who were placed in regional offices throughout the country. The first director was Irene Grant Dalymple, a pioneer in providing social work in medical settings (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2010). The early stages of the program were centered on patients suffering from psychiatric disorders and tuberculosis. Eventually, Dalymple was instrumental in getting social work services incorporated into the Veterans Bureau instead of having social services contracted by an outside organization, as had been the practice following World War I (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2010).

WORLD WAR II AND ITS AFTERMATH

With the anticipation of World War II, the U.S. armed forces started to expand in 1940 and 1941. The contributions of social workers, however, had been mostly forgotten, and the social work specialty was not included in the expansion (O’Keefe, 2009). This was due to social work not being considered an integral part of the military medical organization.

Some of the responsibility for this state of affairs must be placed on the field of social work which had established no working relations with any of the branches of the Armed Forces before Pearl Harbor. One indication of the situation was the fact that the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel of the National Resources Planning Board did not list social work as a profession. Since psychiatry at this time also did not receive adequate recognition within the Army, psychiatric social work had neither leadership nor high-level support in the mobilization period of World War II. (O’Keefe, 2009, p. 1)

Due to this lack of recognition, the Red Cross was tasked with supplying all social workers at the beginning of World War II. “Between 1942 and 1945 about 1,000 American Red Cross psychiatric social workers were assigned to named general and regional hospitals in the United States and overseas” (Harris, 2000, p. 3).

It was not until 1942 that the military allowed service members to work as psychiatric social workers. Six enlisted soldiers in the U.S. Army who were professionally qualified as psychiatric social workers were assigned to the newly formed Mental Hygiene Consultation service at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. “This is the first time military personnel who were trained as psychiatric social workers were utilized as psychiatric social workers in a military unit” (Harris, 2000, p. 4). On October 18, 1943, the War Department published the Military Occupational Specialty 263 for Psychiatric Social Work Technicians. This position was defined as:

• Under supervision of a psychiatrist, performs psychiatric casework to facilitate diagnosis and treatment of soldiers requiring psychiatrist guidance.
• Administers psychiatric intake interviews, and writes case histories emphasizing the factors pertinent to psychiatric diagnoses.
• Carries out mental-hygiene prescriptions and records progress to formulate a complete case history.
• May obtain additional information on soldier’s home environment through Red Cross or other agencies to facilitate in possible discharge planning.
• Must have knowledge of dynamics of personality structure and development, and cause of emotional maladjustments. (Harris, 2000, p. 5)

Even though there was a great need for psychiatric social workers, professionally trained social workers who were already enlisted soldiers could not automatically expect to be awarded the psychiatric social work occupation specialty. Most of these soldiers were drafted into the U.S. Army and already were in positions that needed to be filled, which made receiving reclassification very hard (O’Keefe, 2009). However, a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army could apply for reclassification as a psychiatric social worker. Ironically, the memorandum also acknowledged that Army commissioned officers or any person in the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Seabees, or Women’s Army Corps (WAC) could not apply for reclassification. “Between 1942 and 1945, 711 enlisted men and WACs served in the role of the psychiatric social worker. These service members were assigned to induction centers, named to general and regional hospitals, station and evacuation hospitals, and combat divisions” (Harris, 2000, p. 5).

Two major professional organizations were responsible for getting a social work branch established into the U.S. Army. These organizations were the Wartime Committee on Personnel of the American Association of Social Workers and the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. The latter organization worked on behalf of social workers during World War I in collaboration with the Surgeon General (Harris, 2000). On October 19, 1942, the War Service Office of the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers was established and continued its operations until December 1, 1945 (O’Keefe, 2009). This office was under the direction of Elizabeth H. Ross, the former secretary of the association. Through her guidance and leadership, the War Service Office became the central contact point and source of information for social workers in the military serv...