Social Work and the Military Essay

At community level, the social worker plays the role of advocacy. She is persuasive, assertive, and patient in her day-to-day encounter with patients. She is a community organizer; she coordinates financial aid to long-term residents without sponsorship and serves as a liaison to some of the patients she cares for. It is vital for the human service professional to provide information about social issues that are likely to affect the public (O'Hagan, 2007).

I have often exaggerated the workplace and lifestyle of a social worker. After meeting with a fellow social worker, I am now able to understand their busy lifestyle. A social worker has to consider the struggles clients have experienced and hear their narratives. At the same time, these social workers need to keep their life in order in a professional and healthy way. A social worker I had the chance to meet, has endured four years of training at Thompson Rivers University: he received a bachelor degree off social work with a child welfare specialization, and two practicums, as well as regular training introduced by the government; that broadened his understanding on domestic violence, child welfare, and interview training. He stated six particular duties: provide child safety, child welfare, family care, community development, assisting individuals and being a go-to person to fellow clients (personal communication, January 27, 2016).

Social workers in the healthcare field can be very beneficial to an interdisciplinary team. Throughout the semester we have looked at how social workers bring their professional and distinct skill set and beliefs to these teams. There are many stereotypes and biases surrounding social workers and other professionals on interdisciplinary teams. Social workers also have different views than other healthcare professionals and use their skills in communication to help the clients they serve, along with various other skills that are unique to social workers differing from other professional in the healthcare field. A social worker’s skill set can be extremely useful when working with specific populations at risk. The relationship between health

Veterans face many challenges when transitioning from the service. Those that have served shift from a fairly structured and ridged way of life to the less structured and more chaotic civilian life. Many veterans, especially those that have been in combat or have had to personally deal with catastrophic situations, have a very hard time adjusting and often require significant levels of assistance. Sadly many veterans fail to get help, either because they do not wish to appear weak or they are simply turned away.

This meek beginning social work had progressed into a professional service with treatment obligations in all patient care areas, helping patients ←and→ families to attain their highest level of adjustment/coping in society, endorsing vocational ←and→ psychosocial rehabilitation. Social workers developed implemented treatment approaches which addressed individual social difficulties work with acute/chronic medical conditions, dying patients, bereaved families. VA social workers were liable for ensuring continuity of care through the admission, evaluation, treatment, follow-up processes this consisted of coordinating discharge planning providing case management services based on the patients clinical community health social services

When I first started to research about how the American society helps discharged soldiers, I first wanted to know what type of help society offer to them. The article “10 Organizations that Help Veterans Transition to Civilian Life” published by Vista College helped me view a plethora of organizations that offer help to veterans. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) organization helps “connect veterans to one another and educate them on,” issues and benefits they could get when transitioning

Once Veterans meet criteria, they will be assigned a MHICM social worker. ?He or she will meet with the Veteran at the clinic, plan home visits or meet at a place in the community. ?Depending on the Veteran?s needs, social workers can help with learning about mental illness and learning how to solve problems including: learning how to manage money, keeping medical and mental health care appointments, learning about medications, finding safe independent housing, and finding activities that are meaningful for our Veterans.

Social services within the outpatient and inpatient programs are facilitated by the social workers. The social workers host group therapy sessions, complete treatment plan, facilitates the aftercare planning meetings between the patient and their family members or friend, locate housing centers for homeless patients as well as those that are in unsafe living conditions, determine patient eligibility for program services, conduct biopsychosocial assessments, conduct CDC with patients, evaluate patients support systems, physical and emotional functioning of the patient’s, financial stability, safety, suicidal/homicidal ideation, implement treatment and discharge plans that coincide with the patient’s medical treatment, and offer referrals to residential housing and community resources.

A veteran healthcare advocate must be in a position to establish effective collaborative relationships with the veterans and the special interest groups in order to influence decisions. The advocate must and the interest groups must have common goals to work on

What are returning veterans really experiencing?Did their stress get released or may they still suffer. Many of our returning veterans faces a lot of problems from problems ranging from PTSD to no jobs.These problems are important because some veterans commit suicide because they can’t get help.Homelessness is among the most urgent problems facing our veterans and simply the easiest problem to fix.Upon returning home, they may struggle to find employment, obtain felicitous health care or secure treatment for war-related mental illness and this is the problem when the government failed to help the returning veterans

With the withdrawal of U.S. military troops from Iraq and the reduction in force due to federal budget constraints, thousands of military members are returning to civilian life. For some military service member the adjustment to civilian life is challenging. During the reintegration period, veterans face a variety of issues from relating to friends and family, moving to find work, entering the work force and creating a new structure within their daily lives. Not all problems can be solved, but as a step forward every veteran should be assigned a social worker and provided with better job preference within federal, state and county sections. Reintegration process has come a long way from previous years, but there are still visible issue that

government provides veterans with health care services and benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs (abbreviated VA). These vary person to person depending on need, injuries, rank, and familial situation, among other factors. In doing this, the goal is to help veterans deal with trauma and altogether manage their lives (Wallechinsky). Politically, this has been discussed and altered depending on parties in office, and hence has gone through many iterations in terms of budget, range, and public support. At the point it has reached today, the government aims to give veterans support in terms of health, education, and finances, although the policies are not always enforced consistently. Factors such as poor hospital regulations and misdiagnosis plague VA facilities, leading to thousands of dollars being denied to the retired due to unreported ailments (Wallechinsky). These health issues can be caused by traumatic events such as 9/11, which are a large cause for mental health trouble, and combat injuries. In a study of 1.853 veterans, emotional and physical trauma were the two leading factors of difficulty readjusting to civilian life (Morin). Because of the realities of war and its results, these two aspects are unavoidable, leaving the U.S. to take care of veterans to the furthest extent

T. Stecker, J. Fortney, F. Hamilton, and I. Ajzen, 2007, address that mental health symptoms have the likelihood to increase within post deployment for military veterans, especially for the ones who have seen combat. An estimated quarter of recent war veterans who are currently receiving care in the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Health Care System have reported mental health problems. Soldiers who have served in Iraq come home suffering from depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Statistics of Iraq soldiers meeting the criteria for depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is greater than the soldiers who served in Afghanistan. The mental health symptom rates for soldiers who served in Iraq were as high as 20% for PTSD, 18% for anxiety, and 15% for depression.

A Social Work Officer is not just a Social Worker or an Officer. It is the embodiment of a leader and caregiver; an individual whose career is dedicated to the taking care of soldiers, their families, and the Army itself. This concept may tear at the ideology of the NASW, as several of the ethical guidelines may be skewed as the requirements of the Army culture differ from the civilian counterpart (Tallant & Ryberg, 1999). Principally, a Social Worker strives to take care of the client at all times (National Association of Social Workers, 2008). A major influence and difference for Army Social Workers is the need to take care of the organization primarily. A Social Work Officer will do everything they

Medical social workers collaborate with other human service workers to help severely ill patients, suffering from physical and psychological issues. Throughout the many challenges of patients, medical social workers and other professionals meet the common and severe needs of people with physical and mental illnesses. Andrews, Darnell, McBride, & Gehlert (2013) state “Social workers are familiar with the complex and overlapping systems that must be negotiated to ensure that the social, psychological and economic needs of individuals and groups are addressed in a way that underscores optimal health” (p. 67). Once the patient discuss their core issues with the medical social worker and other medical staff members at the hospital, physicians, nurses, and medical social workers can give patients ' positive feedback the concerns their health and well-being. Medical social workers interact with each other for the patient’s safety.