Civilian providers are increasingly called to meet the behavioral health needs of servicemembers, veterans, and military-impacted family members, many of whom return to civilian communities that lack resources designed to address the specific needs and challenges of these populations. The increasing tide of military-impacted persons returning to their communities has highlighted the need for increased capacity and competency in behavioral healthcare providers.

In order to address this need, more mental health professionals prepared to competently assess and treat reintegrating servicemembers, veterans, and military families are required. Unfortunately, most currently available training programs have not been oriented toward content crucial for work with military-impacted populations, and civilian providers often have minimal understanding of “military culture.”

To address this deficiency, CIR has developed a comprehensive, evidence-based continuing education curriculum designed to train behavioral healthcare professionals for working with servicemembers and their families.

Also, the USC School of Social Work offers a sub-concentration in Military Social Work and Veteran Services for Master of Social Work students interested in treating military-impacted populations. CIR plays a critical role in supporting this academic program by providing it with curriculum and specialized content, new and innovative teaching technologies, and sophisticated evaluation and research strategies that seek to improve learning outcomes, increase provider effectiveness, and ensure capacity and quality of behavioral healthcare for military-impacted populations.