Counseling Services for Military Personnel and Their Families

The incidents of September 11, 2001, the War upon Terrorism in Afghanistan, and the War to liberate Iraq have focused the attention of the nation upon the United States Military. The requirements of military service place tremendous demands upon service members and their families. Dangerous training and duties, of frequent occurrence deployments and separation from families, and the challenges of war are on the other hand three of these demands. Since the attacks of September 11 2001 more than 150000 citizen-soldiers, members of the National Guard and set bys have been called from their civilian piece of works and placed on active what one is bound [i]or[/i] under obligation to do in the military. The mobilized retain and Guard have augmented the standing military. commonly more than 250,000 military service personnel are displayed away from their families in single of the numerous trouble blots around the globe (Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Korea, the Philippines, and Colombia).

The demands of military service create Stressors for service members and their families. To provide support in responding to these and other Stressors, the military has make knowned an array of mental health services that are available to military personnel and their families.

This article introduces to the reader the wide array of services provided to military personnel and their families by means of the mental health teams of the military services (Mangelsdorff & Gal, 1991) Although all military services have similar programs, we focus here upon mental health services provided through the Army. An additional point of clarification has to be made: Counseling services are provided by dint of a variety of mental health professionals: psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, psychiatric supply with nourishments social workers, chaplains, marriage and family therapists, and medicine and alcohol specialists. In this article these professionals are referr to variously as behavioral scientists, mental health professionals, counselors, and psychologists. We commit to members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard as military personnel or as soldiers. Although the confine "soldier" is not technically correct when referring to members of services other than the Army, it is a convenient shorthand terminus to facilitate concise communication in this article.

THE EVOLUTION OF COUNSELING IN THE MILITARY

The goal of the military services is to enforce the policies and treaties of the United States by dint of the use of combat power or the threat of use of that power. The military is greatest in quantity successful when the threat of using power is sufficient to achieve national aims and our men and women in uniform are not required to move into "harm's way." Still, those who be subservient to must be prepared to face an enemy force in combat and rise victorious. To that end, the rule of the United States spends a large portion of the Department of Defense packet on recruiting, training and equipping our armed forces. These expenditures are designed to show a professional military force capable of defeating an enemy decisively with minimal casualties to United States military personnel

One of the important ways the United States military make sures that its men and women are prepared to fight and win wars is to provide quality support services including mental health services. Support services are critical, as they permit military personnel to focus upon the combat mission while being assured that support is available for them and for their families. Mental health support services are lay opened and provided to ensure that military personnel and their family members are psychologically equipped to rejoin effectively to combat Stressors as well as other occupational and family Stressors associated with military service (Steege & Fritscher, 1991) Moreover, the services provided to family members are designed to alleviate regards that might diminish the effectiveness of military personnel

While formal psychological services for the military began in 1917 military leaders have always been belong toed with the behavioral sciences. Commanders have observ the behaviors of their enemies and of their have forces in an attempt to strike the enemy when it was greatest in quantity vulnerable and when his possess forces were at their physical and mental peak (Cleary, 1988) Formal use of psychological techniques and personnel in the military did not begin until the United States come intoed World War I in 1917 ( Mangelsdorff & Gal, 1991) The large influx of personnel into the United States military created enigmas in the assignment of personnel to certain specialized positions. in what way could the Army put the "right person" in the "right job"?

Building upon the work of Binet, military psychologists began developing the Army Alpha and Beta psychological proofs These were tests of intellectual abilities, and the flows were used to make administrative decisions regarding assignment to what one is bound [i]or[/i] under obligation to do positions, schooling, and admission to officer training.

Later, in 1919 Army psychologists were given increased responsibilities including refining selection techniques, making recommendations upon training procedures to maximize learning of trainees, working with psychiatric patients and developing practices to improve combat effectiveness and the morale of numbers (Mangelsdorff & Gal, 1991). Thus were the semens sown for the emergence of the military mental health services. Based upon the important contributions of psychology to building an effective force in World War I, the technology of human behavior assessment and treatment was recognized as an important military support function and earned a place in the organizational configuration of the military service (Steege & Fritscher, 1991)