Many counselors and psychologists who are treating veterans for PTSD and other service related conditions don't know an ACU from a CHU because they have themselves never served in the military. So News Radio 1200 WOAI reports they are getting a crash course in the military mindstate from the Military Family Clinic at Endeavors, a northwest side counseling service.T
The Texas Veterans Commission is also helping with the training, which is free to all counselors.
"If you are better able to understand certain things they go through, as well as acronyms and the military lifestyles and the different changes and moves that they have, you are better able to serve and assist them," Alanah Lavinier of Endeators tells News Radio 1200 WOAI.
She says the counselors in this program treat everything from PTSD to traumatic brain injury, to military sexual trauma and moral injury.
"It is extremely important to understand the different dynamics that military families go through," she said.
As more is known about PTSD, the more importance is placed on the trained counselors who are helping Post 9/11 veterans deal with it. But if the counselor and the patient are essentially speaking different languages, it makes the treatment far more difficult.T
here are 155,000 U.S. Military veterans living in Metro San Antonio, and 26.3% of them served Post 9/11, according to the Texas Veterans Commission.
(BTW, an ACU is an Army Combat Uniform. A CHU is Containerized Housing Unit. THANKS Sgt. Sanchez!)