VA to Hire More Alumni of Graduate Counseling Programs

VA to Hire More Alumni of Graduate Counseling Programs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run system that administers benefit programs for veterans, their families, and survivors. The VA treats patients for a host of physical wounds and conditions brought on by life in combat zones, and operates and administers many outpatient clinics and nursing homes, as well as over 150 hospitals nationwide. Counseling services can be provided at all of these locations. The VA relies on Graduate Counseling Programs to train the highly qualified professionals that will go on to treat veterans and their families.

The VA ensures that soldiers are able to see counselors dedicated to addressing veteranspecific needs. What's life like for a soldier when he or she returns home? Will he struggle to find a job? Does he have a support network? Will societal understanding come from the right places, and in sufficient quantities? These are questions faced by alumni of graduate counseling programs who go on to work for the VA. Beyond helping veterans reintegrate into civilian life, Graduate Counseling Programs teach students to provide rehabilitative care. If a veteran is discharged after being injured, this may include physical rehabilitation counseling: a veteran must learn to accept his or her disability, though it can have an affect on everything from mobility to societal acceptance. This can spark emotional stress. Graduate counseling programs may also offer advice on how to intervene in substance abuse cases. Counselors can provide care to a veteran with physical addictions acquired during or after military service.

Mental health is also a major concern. Between September 2001 and August 2011, 2.3 million American military personnel were deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, or both. Of that total, 712 thousand were admitted for treatment by the VA between 2002 and 2011. As suicide rates among service members have risen to alarming, thirty-year highs -- the number of soldiers who committed suicide in 2012 surpassed the number of combat casualties 창EUR" it's more important than ever for mental health issues to be similarly addressed. The VA has recently released an ambitious plan to hire 1,600 counselors and mental health professionals by the spring of 2013, an eight percent addition to the 20 thousand professionals already on staff.

Those hired will have gone through graduate counseling programs and learned crisis diversion methods and effective plans for mental health treatment.

Graduate counseling programs additionally address family counseling techniques. Service members' loved ones may have questions and concerns about deployment, term of duty, and the risks associated with soldiering. Spouses seek counseling to cope with emotional stress and fear of loss, and children need to learn appropriate ways to channel separation anxiety. Family counseling will also be essential if the loved one loses his or her life in the line of duty. Students of graduate counseling programs will help survivors through the grieving process.

As it becomes more apparent that a person's mental health is equally important to overall wellbeing as physical health, counseling services gain wider favor among the general population. The hyper-masculine military has similarly learned that some problems can't be "walked off" or ignored. With skills developed in graduate counseling programs, counselors employed by the VA help veterans and their families receive the emotional healing they need.