Defense Centers of Excellence - DCoE Blog > You Can Support Military Spouses, Here’s How. "As a military mom, I know how a simple act of kindness can make a difference to a soldier. It is our sacred duty to honor the service of those who sacrifice for our country – and we can all play a role with a simple act of service. " - Dr. Jill Biden Like most people working behind the scenes, they can be hard to spot. They don’t wear uniforms or name tags and the type of service they provide can easily go unnoticed. Yet their support and personal sacrifices are what enable our nation’s service members to stay mission-ready. Today, we recognize their contributions and honor them – and you can help. Give thanks: Thank these men and women for their service. Returning to Work: Enhancing the Relationship with Self and Others | CPP Blog. Managing your transition home – Part 11 By Elizabeth and Katherine Hirsh This is the second of four posts in which we discuss quick tips that are useful to all personality types during the transition from service to civilian life.
In our first post in this series we examined self-care. In this post we cover the return to work. Many find that the experience of serving has altered their work goals and aspirations and, in addition, that the world of work or the career they left behind has changed. Service provided many with opportunities to engage in work that felt vital, important, and even exciting. Additionally, some held positions with a great deal of responsibility. With these factors in mind, here are some simple yet important tips to help you make the most of reentry into the civilian workforce, whether returning to a former position, beginning a new one, or exploring new career fields:* *Source: E. Report: Private Military Contractors Suffer PTSD More Than Soldiers. A new report from the Rand Corp. has found that private military contractors who work in conflict zones suffer higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder than members of the military do.
The number of contractors—armed and otherwise—working for the U.S. government and military ramped up sharply with the invasion and extended involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. As the Rand paper points out, the Department of Defense alone “employed 155,826 contractors alongside 152,275 U.S. troops in Iraq in 2008 and 94,413 contractors alongside 91,600 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010.” And now, as the U.S. has pulled out of both countries, contractors have filled the void, providing security and logistics support for the American and other foreign government officials who remain there.
The report surveyed 660 contractors. Two-thirds of them were Americans, a quarter were British, the rest were from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and elsewhere. Taking Charge of Change | CPP Blog. (Managing your transition home – Part 7) Written by Elizabeth and Katherine Hirsh In previous posts we’ve discussed various aspects of type, and in this post we’ll focus on another aspect called the Quadrants Lens. We’ll examine how knowledge of this Lens can help you cope with change, something you are probably very familiar with on your reintegration journey.
The Quadrants Lens is based on the first and second letters of your type code: E or I and S or N. Each of the four different pairings has something in common with two of the other pairings: IS and IN share Introversion, ES and EN share Extraversion, IS and ES share Sensing, and IN and EN share Intuition. How can an awareness of the Quadrants Lens help you?
People with preferences for IS tend to get their energy from their inner world and focus on facts and specifics. During the reintegration process you may Resist approaches that don’t respect the tried and true Therefore it helps to Resist approaches that don’t offer new insights. CPP Blog | CPP BLOG CENTRAL. Social Justice The Silent Abuse of War: Hearing & Helping Those Who Serve : Center for a Better Life. Courtesy Image: Commonwealth of Australia 2013 I write as the mother of an ex-Army son and a person concerned about our returning military service men and women both here, in Australia, and overseas. It has become apparent to many that the toll on these people has been great. Australia, like America, is experiencing an increase in suicide, depression, alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress upon our children’s, family members’ and friends’ return.
After witnessing it personally and hearing about some of my son’s friends and their problems months after coming home, I could see a direct correlation with my background. I’ve never been to war; but I survived a terribly abusive childhood, which left much damage. Throughout the years, I’ve found ways to heal using many different techniques. In my mind, our Soldiers, Airmen, Marines and Sailors are silent victims of abuse. Verbal abuse is also ever present as it can come from either those we’re trying to help or from authority figures. U.S. A Warrior's Welcome In 'Billy Lynn' Jonathan Evison's latest novel is The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving.
Every two or three years, if I'm lucky, I get my hands on a novel that I simply can't shut up about, a novel I shout from my humble mountaintop to anyone who will listen, a novel that I hand-sell any time I have a literate audience of one or more. In many cases, I'll purchase this novel, over and over and over, and put it in the hands of readers. The last novel that knocked me for this kind of a whammy was Hesh Kestin's criminally underappreciated The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats, which left me breathless with its mastery of character and suspense. 2012 has been a banner year for literary fiction.
I've been crowing about a number of novels this year, from Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins, to Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette, both brilliant and inventive. When 19-year-old Spc. Hide captionJonathan Evison is also the author of All About Lulu. Keith Brofsky. Army program aims to dispel myths about hiring wounded warriors. With post-9/11 veterans facing an unemployment rate of more than 10 percent, a new Army campaign is taking aim at roadblocks many returning soldiers face as they reenter the workplace. The Hire a Veteran education campaign, conducted in conjunction with the Society for Human Resource Management, was unveiled Monday to address the employment needs of the 16,000 disabled veterans expected to return to the work force each year for the next 5 years.
The study showed employers had three major concerns when considering a veteran for a position: concerns about the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury on job performance; the cost of reasonable accommodations for the disabled; and lack of knowledge on how military skills translate to non-military jobs. "The Army rehabilitated and returned 50 percent of our wounded, ill and injured soldiers back to the force to continue to serve, and we are not stopping there," said Brig. Gen. Stories From A New Generation Of American Soldiers. Iraq War veteran Brian Castner opens his new memoir, The Long Walk, with a direct and disturbing warning: "The first thing you should know about me is that I'm Crazy," he writes. "I haven't always been.
Until that one day, the day I went Crazy, I was fine. Or I thought I was. More than 10 years since a new generation of Americans went into combat, the soldiers themselves are starting to write the story of war. Castner was an Air Force EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) officer in Iraq — he defused bombs for a living. "The literal meaning is when you put on the bomb suit, and a single person has to walk up to the IED alone," he says. Back home in upstate New York, Castner found he'd returned to an America untroubled by the war. Castner says his condition began to dismantle his family, and his wife pushed him to write it down. "I wrote this book for my sons. The result is a painful but compelling read, even as Castner finds ways to cope, at least partially, with his long walk back at home. Psychologists are in demand as VA boosts mental health workforce.
Spotlight The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has prioritized a new program to hire approximately 1,600 new mental health professionals. Veterans Affairs is implementing an “aggressive national recruitment program” to add some 1,600 mental health professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and nurses to its workforce. APA member Antonette Zeiss, PhD, the chief consultant for the VA Office of Mental Health Services, described the initiative as an “unparalleled effort” by the VA to expand its mental health workforce rapidly. The VA described the recruitment as a top priority after a review of operations found that some VA facilities require additional mental health staff to meet the growing needs of veterans. The VA has already filled several hundred of the positions, with the number of newly hired mental health professionals increasing daily.
View additional VA employment opportunities. How a Social Network Changed the Game for War Veterans. Name: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) Big Idea: IAVA is the first and largest non-profit for returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why It's Working: The organization provides more than 2.3 million men and women returning from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan with education, job, health care and community-building opportunities — an immensely valuable tool for soldiers readjusting to civilian life. When Paul Rieckhoff came home after a tour of duty in Iraq, he realized that the services for recent veterans didn't meet his needs or or the needs of his military peers. "I got pissed off," Rieckhoff says. "I had commanded 38 guys in central Baghdad for a year, and when they came home there was nowhere for them to go.
" Instead of struggling through the system, Rieckhoff turned to the Internet. "We want be there for everyone who's an Iraq or Afghanistan vet," Rieckhoff says. "We know more than the Department of Labor does," Rieckhoff says. Michelle Obama Exclusive: The Moment I Knew We Could Do More To Honor and Serve Our Military Families. Vets Help Others Move From Combat To College. With thousands of veterans home from the Iraq war and thousands more coming home from Afghanistan, colleges across the country are addressing ways to meet their needs. At Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, student veterans are leading the way to help each other navigate the challenges of college life.
Copyright © 2012 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. Thanks to the new GI Bill, which went into effect in 2009, hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans have the opportunity to go back to school. SEAN BUETER, BYLINE: Tiffany Kravec-Kelly is a student veteran at Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne. TIFFANY KRAVEC-KELLY: Are you getting all your benefits? BUETER: Kravec-Kelly helped answer a need at IPFW that colleges all over the country are scrambling to fill. BUETER: Organizations like this are designed to help incoming veterans with just about anything. MONTAGNE: This is NPR News. Disaster Response Veterans Service Organization | Team Rubicon. Encouraging-young-americans-to. The Sacramento Bee - California News, Local News - Sacramento CA. ‘Operation Immersion’ gives health care providers insight into military life - Warwick Beacon.
On Thursday and Friday of last week, the National Guard teamed up with the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) to co-host the third annual “Operation Immersion,” a two-day, overnight mission for workers from behavioral health service providers throughout Rhode Island and surrounding states. The idea behind the “immersion” is to give providers insight into military life to better prepare them to work with National Guard men and women who have served in the military during wartime.
Fifty-seven volunteer employees trained with the Guard at Camp Fogarty at 2841 South County Trail in East Greenwich in order to experience parts of military life, including receiving platoon assignments, marching drills, “rise and shine,” roll call, physical training, military vehicle convoy training via a simulator, and “Taps” before at the end of the night. Stenning, the director of BHDDH, said he was excited about the event. Newsletter on Substance Abuse and Mental Health | SAMHSA News, Fall 2011. Please turn On JavaScript to make font size changing, printing, e-mailing, and bookmarking possible. Captain Ross Maher speaking to a group of health care providers with Operation Immersion. Photo courtesy of Army Sergeant Peter Ramaglia By Sandy D. Cogan Staff Sergeant David Hollinrake (left) instructs trainee Leland Wilcox about the military way of life during Operation Immersion in Warwick, RI.
"My memories are full of jargon," Senior Master Sergeant Leonard Macari says. Other servicemembers agree that civilian providers, while professionally competent, often lack an understanding of the warrior's way of life as well as their experiences, challenges and language. Fear of Repercussions An active duty servicemember, who asked to remain anonymous, concurs. SAMHSA's Role Ms. Lessons in the Warrior Culture Insight into the military culture is often just a click away. Military Members Access to Care How Community-Based Providers Can Serve Ms. Blog » Blog Archive » Veterans Day: Honoring those who have Bravely Served our Country. Blog » Blog Archive » Veterans Day: Honoring those who have Bravely Served our Country.
Books. My San Diego: Empowering students, veterans helps all of us | SignOnSanDiego.com. Editor's note: This is one in a series of commentaries by members of the U-T Community Editorial Board. Life’s adventures take many twists and turns and my life’s work has led me down the advocacy path for education and veterans. My management style in the Navy, government, nonprofit and private sectors has been based on stimulating and empowering people to be the best they can be. I would ask San Diego to employ this approach in tackling the following critical issues. The path to helping our region’s children is through education. We can learn a lot from Monarch School, a K-12 school for students experiencing homelessness. Our community leaders will bring together educational institutions, corporate leaders and elected officials and will make this a priority to lead the way in the education of our kids.
San Diego has the largest concentration of Navy and Marine Corps personnel in the world. San Diego has a new program in place called REBOOT. Colleges Face Challenges With Influx of Military Veterans. By Sandra G. Boodman When Brian Hawthorne enrolled at George Washington University as a 23-year-old junior after two tours in Iraq, the former Army medic was unprepared for the adjustment. "I felt like I was on another planet," he said of his first semester in 2008. Hawthorne recalled feeling whipsawed by the abrupt transition of "going from an environment where people around you are dying every day and trying to kill you" to a campus where he was surrounded by people who didn't know anyone in the military. Academics provided no refuge. Hawthorne's experience is emblematic of the challenges — social, academic, psychological and medical — facing the rapidly growing population of veterans who are flocking to colleges around the country, and the health demands placed on the schools they are attending.
Many counseling offices don't have a veteran on staff, nor have their workers been trained in these issues, said Ted C. A Tough Transition Suicide Risk Schools are responding in various ways. Predicting the Psychological Risks of War.
The Achilles Initiative - Resilience Training for People in Conflict Zones.