Military social workers play an integral role in helping veterans, active-duty service members and military families connect to the care and support they need. These specialized social workers support military personnel facing deployment and help active-duty individuals and veterans cope with a host of physical and psychological issues, including deployment, combat readiness, and military sexual trauma (MST).
Military social workers provide support to military families facing emotional and financial stress, and military-impacted schools and communities.
Our engagement in past, present, and future wars continues to drive the need for highly skilled social workers who can provide therapy, treatment and services for veterans, active-duty service members and their loved ones.
The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work offers a Military Social Work track where students explore evidence-based methods for helping those who have dedicated their lives to protecting ours. As the first program of its kind to be offered by a civilian research university, the Military Social Work track is designed to complement any department in the MSW program and prepares students to:
- Care for service members, veterans and their families dealing with an array of physical, mental and psychosocial issues
- Better understand military culture
- Learn about the systems of care in place for military personnel before, during and after deployment
- Help returning service members find health and employment services
- Work with local agencies to identify and serve military populations in their communities
Social workers trained in the Military Social Work Track work in a range of settings and offer services such as:
- Mental health therapy for a variety of issues, such as physical illness, disease, substance abuse, family issues and traumatic experiences
- Military-to-civilian life reintegration support
- Crisis intervention
- Individual and family counseling
- Resource navigation, such as financial, housing and benefit assistance
- Aging veteran support and advocacy