Serving Veterans and Military Families: Best Practices for Human Service Professionals

Abstract: Since 2001, more than 2.6 million troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Their reintegration back into civilian society can often be met with difficult transitions, such as depression, health challenges and unemployment. Alone, they are unique struggles to overcome, but, as is often the case, many of these challenges overlap and can have an adverse impact on a veteran’s functioning and quality of life. Securing gainful employment has been seen as a key goal to a successful transition from military to civilian life. Not just for the financial stability it creates for a veteran, but also for the social secondary benefits it engenders for the veteran and the community at large. Veterans are leaving a military culture that promotes unit cohesion, leadership and mentorship. In the civilian workplace, veterans are looking for teamwork, structured work schedules and social activities, all of which can promote a successful transition and improve their quality of life and well-being. Nonetheless, despite numerous efforts, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans remains stubbornly high. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in February 2014 the jobless rate for this population was 9.2 percent, 2.3 percentage points higher than the national rate. Obstacles exist in educating civilian employers about the strengths and challenges facing veteran workers. Once hired, veterans would also benefit from employee assistance programs and social workers in human service agencies who can understand and mitigate some of those challenges. Serving Veterans and Military Families: Best Practices for Human Service Professionals was presented by the University of Washington Tacoma Social Work Program, in partnership with Prudential and the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) at the USC School of Social Work. This is the second collaboration between Prudential and CIR aimed at bringing together front-line workers to discuss best practices to help transitioning veterans find and retain meaningful employment.