Provide a brief history of military social work, ending with an overview of the status of social work involvement in the military of today.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Since Civil War times, social work professionals have been involved with helping service members, veterans, and military family members. In 1943, the Army designated psychiatric social work as a separate job category. Today there are uniformed social workers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Then and now, social workers have had to know how to render clinical and other psychosocial interventions for the veteran, couples, and the family, because change, separation, and stress were and are apparent phenomena experienced by all military families. History reveals that three organizations, (1) the Wartime Committee on Personnel of the American Association of Social Workers, (2) the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, and (3) the War Service Office of the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, were instrumental in getting a social work branch established in the United States. Commissioned status for social workers in the U.S. Army was accomplished in 1945 when Major Daniel I. O'Keefe became the first chief of the Army's Psychiatric Social Work Branch. After the demobilization following World War II, urgent recruitment of master's-prepared social workers, especially males, was enacted to help Army veterans. The Air Force's military department of social work was created in 1947 and expanded from the original 6 commissioned social work officers in 1952 to 225 social workers by 1988. The Navy Relief Society was one of the largest social service agencies to give social support to families. In the Vietnam War era, the number of military social workers in the Navy expanded greatly. During this time, the Red Cross stopped providing psychosocial services despite the great need for mental health counseling, as many prisoners of war (POWs) were missing in action. In response, naval treatment facilities began to employ numerous social workers to help coordinate community services and facilitate the transitioning of repatriated POWs and their families. During the 1970s, Navy drug rehabilitation centers, family advocacy programs, and family service centers were developed; yet only 29 civilian social workers were then employed in naval hospitals. Meanwhile, the other branches of the armed services had well-functioning social work programs. The paucity of social workers caused problems in treating sailors and marines, so the Navy got a boost in 1979 when the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was approved to recruit and commission 13 social workers in the Medical Service Corps. For the most part, however, the evolution of the professional role of social work has taken place within the VA, and social workers now have treatment responsibilities in all client-care arenas. For example, social workers at VA hospitals and clinics promote psychosocial and vocational rehabilitation and help VA patients and families cope better with the new realities of their lives. As members of multidisciplinary teams, social workers both develop and implement treatment approaches for armed services members, veterans, and military families. Military social workers also assist with discharge planning and provide ongoing case-management services.