Blackman and Daley set to head to Washington to discuss challenges facing returning soldiers
Sept. 17, 2008 - A presentation last fall by two Indiana University School of Social Work professors on issues facing Hoosier military families has landed them an invitation to appear at the 38th Annual Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Legislative Conference later this month.
Professors Lorraine Blackman and James Daley are scheduled to speak at the CBC’s Veterans Braintrust during the conference on Sept. 26th. The conference will be held in Washington Sept. 24-27 and is the largest annual national gathering of African-American political and community leaders.
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Dr. Daley is a retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel and a Vietnam veteran. His research focus is on international military social work and teaches family and group practices classes. Dr. Blackman was recruited to IU from the Nashville Veterans’ Administration Medical Center where she provided mental health evaluations and therapy to veterans and their families. Currently, she specializes in developing social work practice models for couples and families and is the director of the African-American Family Life Education Institute.
In a letter inviting them to come to Washington, the conference organizers explained a variety of experts were being called on to “discuss the challenges being faced by returning veterans, including health care, economic, and education issues. Most importantly, we will focus on efforts undertaken by Congress, the Executive Branch and the community to address those problems.”
Blackman expects one focus of the meeting will be on single mothers returning from combat duty who now must face caring for their children while dealing with the aftermath of serving in a war. In some instances they will not only have to deal with the trauma of war and being mothers again, but also the fallout from sexual harassment or assaults committed by fellow soldiers while serving their country.
At the National Association of Social Workers Indiana State Conference held in Indianapolis last October, Blackman and Daley pointed out that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t the type of conflicts national civilian and military leaders thought the country might find itself in after Vietnam. Planners thought future conflicts would be fought primarily with long range, highly developed technology.
That thinking led social work education in the last 30 years to decreasingly focus on educating students and practitioners to develop and provide “empowering, culturally and gender sensitive intervention services” to clients affected by combat related post-traumatic stress disorder.
But the country’s recent wars have required close, “hand-to-hand contact between combatants as well as civilians in densely populated urban areas as well as remote rural areas.”
The conflicts have made it necessary to call upon “unprecedented numbers of National Guard troops and reservists, which in turn has caused anxiety among soldiers and their families, which can begin before they are deployed, during the deployment and possibly continue for a lifetime because of the physical and psychological trauma of war.
Blackman sent a copy of their presentation to Ron Armstead, Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust, an advisory group to the members of Congress on issues related to African-Americans and veteran affairs. He in turn requested they be among the experts that convene in Washington later this month.
Blackman said their interest in going to Washington is to help the country’s leaders create policies to better meet the needs of its Armed Forces, particularly the family members of the National Guard and Reserves.
For more information contact Rob Schneider, Indiana University School of Social Work at 317-278-0303 or at robschn@iupui.edu
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