This article aims to elucidate an understanding of military culture and experience, so as to better frame the services offered by civilian clinicians. Service members indoctrinated into such an influential culture can experience adjustment problems upon reentry into the larger society, and thus professional counselors and social workers must be ready to address the reintegration process with veteran clients. Furthermore, this article highlights a few of the major mental health concerns that are prevalent in combat veterans, especially for those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and presents a brief overview of treatment modalities implemented both within and outside of the military. Practical therapeutic suggestions for clinicians with little or no knowledge of the military are discussed. The objective is to educate and prepare civilian mental health practitioners to administer culturally sensitive prevention and intervention services to meet the unique needs of this population.
In recent decades, it has become evident among mental health practitioners that the military is a unique culture that is comprised of distinct ethics, core values, codes of conduct, and strict hierarchical roles. In light of the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, veterans and their families are seeking mental health services due to a variety of psychosocial issues; however, mental health practitioners are lacking military-specific knowledge in understanding individuals within the military subculture. In addition, they are ill-equipped with interventions aimed at supporting the military family. Historically, the genogram has been an effective tool in delineating intergenerational family patterns that influence the functioning of the presenting client and his or her family. Therefore, this article proposes a military-specific genogram as an assessment and treatment instrument for the social worker to use with the client and his or her family to provide a comprehensive understanding of the military service member and his or her family. The application of the military genogram will be conducted in this article to demonstrate its utility and value. Furthermore, the genogram will encompass a solution-focused approach that promotes a strengths-based and resiliency perspective to be used with service members and their families.
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differences in worldviews between academic advisors and their advisees (both traditional and non-traditional students) impact students' use of and satisfaction with the advising process. This study surveyed 115 students and 5 advisors from a four-year liberal arts university in southeastern United States. Analyses of the data revealed no significant differences among traditional and non-traditional students' worldviews. However the degree of match between advisees and their advisors on two components of worldviews (self-worth and meaningfulness) was related to students' use of and satisfaction with the advising process. There was a significant difference (F = 4.398, p < .0148) between students' self-worth and their perception of whether their advisors understood them. There was also a significant difference (F = 4.172, p < .0183) between student self-worth ratings and their commitment to actively seeking advising. In addition, there was a significant difference (F =3.57, p < .0336) between student perceptions of "meaningfulness" and how students perceived the importance of advising. These findings suggest that a) students who have a similar selfworth value as their advisor have a sense that they are being understood, b) students who scored high or were within the means of their advisors selfworth tended to actively seek advising, and c) students who scored high or above their advisors mean score in meaningfulness, felt that advising was an important activity tor them. Implications for how understanding students' worldviews might improve academic advising are also discussed.
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