I just got this in an email at work. I work for a county alcohol, drug and mental health services

[county worker]

department. We are supposed to take so many hours of training in diversity and other things like the one offered below. My first instinctive response is this, if they would end the fucking wars there wouldn't be a need for training of this kind for us!


Presented by CPT (CA) xxxxxx xxxx, LMFT
Behavioral Health Outreach Liaison
California National Guard
Description:
The United States Department of Defense has experienced a significant change in its
approach to behavioral health needs of members of the military. Increased rates of divorce,
suicidality, psychiatric diagnoses, and overall stress have highlighted the benefit of mental
health treatment. Unfortunately, neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of
Veteran Affairs has an adequate number of behavioral health professionals to provide services
to those who are in need of assistance. Increased military personnel and veterans will be seen
by community mental health providers. As with any therapeutic interaction, behavioral health
professionals need to be culturally competent when serving military personnel and
veterans. The military is a distinct sub-culture in the United States with its own rituals and
characteristics. For mental health treatment to be effective, it is essential that the providers
have a basic understanding of the nuances of the military culture.
Objectives:
Upon completion of this program, the behavioral/mental health service providers and staff will
be able to:
1. Offer enhanced culturally competent services to military personnel and veterans.
2. Identify additional referral resources and further training on working with the military.
This course meets the qualifications for two hours of continuing education credit for MFTs and/
or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

[Po_d Mainiac]

1. +1...And the unrec trolls have been busy n/t

[elocs]

2. You posted 6 minutes after the thread was posted. Do you just sit and hit refresh to watch Recs?

You don't have anything better to do? I'm sure though that if there are UnRec trolls they do appreciate your using the very first post to point out their actions. Then again, how important is the thread to you if you made the very first response to it and used it to point out UnRec trolls.

I always wonder about those who consider that anyone who gives an UnRec to a post with which they agree must somehow be a troll and not simply someone who has a different opinion.

[Po_d Mainiac]

5. My rec failed to register..then I posted

I volunteer with the VA through project "Healing Waters"

I know 2 ex-servicemen who have committed suicide.....

Any other comments?

[Curmudgeoness]

3. It is truly sad that this will be dumped on communities.

"neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veteran Affairs has an adequate number of behavioral health professionals to provide services to those who are in need of assistance". What is wrong with this picture?

[county worker]

6. I am also a Vietnam veteran, and when I got back the only people who understood

what I was going through were other vets. We formed self help groups and met to talk to each other weekly or more often. I don't see how people who were not in Iraq or Afghanistan can treat these military people adequately.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. Thank you for your service. I can imagine you are right.

But is looks as if we are not getting adequate help from the government right now. As it was when you came back. You may have to form a new group to help these young soldiers deal. If not, they will have to lean on themselves, or will have to struggle with what the community mental health organizations can do. I am sure they will do their best, even if it isn't enough.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. Sorry, I didn't notice you were the originator of this thread.

I guess you will be able to help at the community level. Oops.

[county worker]

10. You are very kind and I appreciate your views.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Vietnam Era Vets too, you do get it.

and you speak truth.

Personal experience. Hubby is a USN Chief Retired, and while on duty he found himself in the wrong place at the right time at least twice. Read in the middle of shoot outs.

Unlike many vets he will gladly tell the story to people, a coping mechanism. But we share that joy. As a Red Cross Medic in Tijuana I went to a few shootouts, very intense shootouts, we still both jump at fire works too and AK-47 do have a very distinctive sound to them, as well as a nice star pattern if you are in direct line of fire. So I get it, some of it. Though as I like to say it... getting it is not necessarily an honor, but good enough to know that at times he don't sleep, at times he jumps out of his sleep, and at times you do not touch him to wake him up.

I don't have the last one... even if I crawled into shootouts to get casualties out. Yes, people DO SHOOT at the Red Cross, especially at the Red Cross... but lord knows I remember those events like yesterday. The fear, the shaking hands, the time slowing to a crawl. And these two wars have another added joy, the supply chain is very broken, even now. At least I did not have that problem... and if I ran out of bandages I could send a runner with 100 bucks to buy over priced bandages at the local pharmacy. Oh and I could go home at the end of the nightmare, allowing for recovery time.

Yeah there are some things that are particular to this. I mean urban warfare has it's own joys, but in many ways it is not that different from jungle warfare. Yep, you mostly hear it... but seeing who is shooting at you... and of course those damn cold nights of the desert or the high mountains. But a vet will get the fear... the throat going like cotton, and the hands shaking after for some silly reason, you actually made it. They will also get it if you admit to peeing yourself... and I know more than one person who's done that...

So yes, this generation of vets, I hope, don't go through some of the crap Vietnam Era vets went through when they met their counterparts from the last good war... and you know what I am talking about. Funny, they are having some trouble, even now recruiting vets... and you know who I mean.

And you might be able to reach to them in ways that even the civies hired by the VA don't and will never be able to do.

[county worker]

14. I think you are the only person who ever put it that well to me in the 42 years since I got home.

Thank you.

We had some Red Cross women in Vietnam who were still teenagers. They worked in our day rooms. When you were wounded but not so serious that you are sent home, you spend the time in day rooms waiting for them to change your dressing everyday. I asked one of the Red Cross women who was only 17 why she was there. She said that she wanted to do something for her country and only men were going to combat so she volunteered to go to Vietnam for the Red Cross. I asked her what she got for volunteering, (I meant how much money she would make). She said she gets a new uniform. That was it. She organized pool tournaments and gave the winners cigarettes. I have so much respect for her.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Welcome home

:hug:

Oh and let me add for the reading public, Red Cross Volunteers around the world are just that, volunteers. We serve but not for pay.

In my case, well Mexico allowed my dad in after the end of WW II. He is a holocaust survivor. I wanted to give back.

I just got some nightmares in the bargain.

[crikkett]

16. what's wrong with the picture is that we're in our 10th year of war

and have yet to instate a draft. Soldiers are seeing their 5th, 6th tour of combat duty. The army isn't set up to be used this way.

[EFerrari]

4. I've been thinking about repurposing myself to work in that field

and work with vets in particular. Because there will be a market there, we know that.

[datasuspect]

7. they're grooming the next generation of homeless people

[w8liftinglady]

11. thank you for pointing this out...at least your county-

recognizes this.Mine turns it 's back while wearing a "support the troops" T-shirt.

[Po_d Mainiac]

13. [phone]