Q&A
Ellen Greeley discusses the need for military cultural competency training for mental health professionals
1:15:50
·
152 sec
Ellen Greeley, Assistant Commissioner for Policy & Strategic Partnerships, emphasizes the critical need for training mental health professionals in military cultural competency. She highlights the current deficiency in this area and suggests various approaches to address it.
- Identifies the lack of military cultural competency training as a major deficiency
- Suggests incorporating this training into educational programs for mental health professionals
- Discusses the importance of extending this training to city agencies and health hospitals
- Mentions the Military Family Advocacy Program as a potential source of insights into family-level issues
Ellen Greeley
1:15:50
ONE OF THE MAJOR AREAS THAT I THINK IS VERY DEFICIANT IS TRAINING MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN MILITARY cultural competency.
1:15:59
And I think that I mean, we have Lauren.
1:16:02
She's the only person who is doing it.
1:16:05
And hopefully, she will be reaching, you know, five hundred people tomorrow, but that's just just just a small, you know, small in a huge bucket that's really required.
1:16:16
So that takes many forms.
1:16:18
Okay?
1:16:18
It takes an incentive for mental health professionals to want this training in many cases.
1:16:26
Cases.
1:16:27
We're not asking for a requirement, but it also takes some upstream training when they're going for their MSWs and for their medical degrees and their nursing degrees.
1:16:40
I mean, all of this should be really not only a continuing education credit, but it should be built into their programs.
1:16:47
I think that's really important.
1:16:49
Some medical professionals do intern at the VA, and I think that's really helpful.
1:16:55
In terms of their career development and their understanding, but so many of them don't go back to the VA to actually practice.
1:17:03
So I think that's a major piece for us.
1:17:06
It means, you know, it is is if, you know, again, is the ability for us to be able to duplicate and replicate Lauren, okay, in in so many I'm a twin so I can talk about that.
1:17:19
I understand replication.
1:17:22
I also have twin brothers, so I can talk about that piece of it too.
1:17:26
So those are those are some some pieces from from what our needs are.
1:17:31
Part of it is is building in this military cultural competency at our city agencies.
1:17:35
That's really, really important.
1:17:36
We've, you know, we're making an attempt to get Lauren out to the health and hospital hospitals.
1:17:46
I think there are about 25 of them at at this point in time.
1:17:50
And that's hard to do when there's so many other things.
1:17:53
We have the military family advocacy program group that I think is gonna do amazing amazing demand on Lauren's time also, but it will give us a really understanding day to day of what it looks like on a at the family level in many cases.
1:18:10
I mean, those are just a couple of things in terms of being able to really develop our military cultural competency piece of it, as well as the military family advocacy program.
James Hendon
1:18:22
I'm gonna piggyback on I'm gonna piggyback on Ellen.
