Fall 2025 Issue

Military Social Work: Meeting a Critical Need
By Keith Loria
Social Work Today
Vol. 25 No. 4 P. 12

A look at how military social work certificates prepare social workers for the front lines of care.

The demand for strong, competent care for service members, veterans, and their families grows more and more each year, prompting universities to turn to specialized military social work certificate programs to fill the gap. These programs not only provide academic grounding in trauma, resilience, and systems of support but also translate directly into real-world practice, equipping graduates with the skills to navigate military culture, address complex behavioral health needs, and integrate into the broader network of care. For social workers on the front lines, the training has become more than an academic credential; it is a pathway into a field where recruitment, retention, and readiness are tied to meeting one of today’s most critical mental health needs.

Anthony Estreet, PhD, MBA, LCSW-C, CEO of the National Association of Social Workers, says the data shows more students are entering into the space, especially at the graduate level, with a greater number of schools of social work offering certificate programs and postgraduate certificate programs that are specifically specialized in military social work.

“At our last update, there were 18 schools offering specialization in military social work programs, which include a lot of different topics,” he says. “But really, it focuses on how to address different topics such as the needs of service members, veterans, their families, and it can include a wide range of things.”

For instance, the programs will offer guidance in things such as what families do during deployment, what to do about reintegration, and addressing mental health issues like posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and suicidality. “It covers the whole gamut of working with the specialized population of military service members and their families,” Estreet says.

“Through the landscape of social work education, these schools are accredited by the Council of Social Work Education, and within that, they must follow our EPAS (Educational Policies and Accreditation Standards), which are educational standards.”

“Within that, they can create these specializations within those specializations, and they can focus on mental health, they can focus on macro-level practice within the military setting,” Estreet says. “This is focusing the education on military families in active duty but also military families that are retired or discharged from service.”

He adds that there’s a specific culture of honor, duty, and respect that has to be embedded in the coursework so people understand what all of this action means with being involved in the military.

The VA is one of the largest employers of military social workers, and social workers are embedded in all different levels of care—from inpatient to outpatient and working with service members’ families, as well.

Carl A. Castro, PhD, professor of social work and psychology and director of military and veteran programs at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, who is a retired Army Colonel, was involved in developing the last two iterations of the CSWE Commission on Accreditation, which is authorized to accredit baccalaureate and master’s social work programs across the United States and its territories.

“If you’re going to work with veterans, this is something you need to know, obviously,” he says. “A lot of it depends on what you plan to do with veterans. If you’re going to provide mental health care, you need to be competent in whatever behavioral health innovation you’re going to do.”

The big one everyone always talks about, Castro notes, is being culturally confident and being aware of what it’s like to be in the military, those who served in the military, and how the military can affect someone who’s served. “In some ways, that will help to build a rapport with whoever the veteran is that you’re trying to help,” he says. “It will help in trust building and all aspects of rapport building.”

USC offers a social work track that allows specialization in military social work and focuses on the things people need to know to be successful. “We take an integrative approach, so anyone who takes the military social work track in our school will learn about the microlevel stuff from the clinical, the individual, the mental health and physical health issues unique to veterans or more prominent in veterans,” Castro says. “They will learn about working with families, with communities, systems of how the VA functions, how nonprofits function—so you get this very holistic view from the micro to macro level.”

A lot of those who take part in the program have served in the military, so they have an understanding of some level of experience, but Castro warns that just because someone served in the Army, it doesn’t mean they recognize issues that those in the Navy, Air Force, or even at the VA regularly deal with.

“What we try to do is get people who think they know how things work to appreciate that there’s more than just what they’ve experienced,” he says. “And for those who have never served, we provide the foundational things they need to know, and they can build on those throughout their career.”

In all courses at USC, the question is asked: What is a useful theoretical or conceptual framework for thinking about the issue?

“For example, when dealing with PTSD, there are several evidence-based interventions for treating it, but how effective are they? What is the underlying theory as to why these interventions should work?” Castro asks. “The reason we do that is because I know from decades of experience that the evidence-based interventions, when they are being delivered, there’s a drift in what we call the fidelity of how it’s delivered. So people modify all these interventions to enhance the effectiveness with their clients. But more often than not, they do it because they don’t like a particular aspect of the intervention. So what I emphasize is why the intervention is working.”

The Cohen Veterans Network, which provides accessible, high-quality mental health care to post-9/11 veterans, service members, and their families, is one of the key organizations benefiting from and partnering with universities that train social workers equipped to address the unique challenges of military life. Anthony Hassan, EdD, LCSW, president and CEO of Cohen Veterans Network, retired from the Air Force in 2009 after 25 years as a mental health officer with experience being deployed to warzones. He built this nonprofit 10 years ago, and it currently has 22 clinics across the country, serving more than 75,000 military personnel and their families.

“We are providing them a high-quality mental health care choice, important for those who serve our country,” he says. “If you’re in the military community and looking for help, you’re going to get that with us.”

What makes someone marketable to be involved in this population, Hassan says, is to have some solid foundational work with those in the military. “That’s what military cultural confidence courses do for someone,” he says. “An internship coupled with classes in a certificate program is a great complement to be effective in this space.”

Hassan, who helped develop the courses at USC before leaving for the Cohen Veterans Network, believes any military social work program should start with the hallmark course of military culture 101. “Then it’s really about the uniqueness of our service and the lifecycle of military service and where things get disrupted and where clinical interventions are needed,” Hassan says. “Is it when you’re moving your family overseas and they’re having a hard time adjusting? Then there are unique experiences around trauma that need specialized, evidence-based practices and making sure we are delivering those to the military population.”

Grad Programs
While a grad-level military social worker certificate is not required to work with veterans or those in the military, many who are seeking education in the field are going for the higher-ed certificates, and more programs are being offered around the country.

Samuel Odom, PhD, MPH, MSW, ACSW, associate professor of practice and coordinator of the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work at Simmons University’s School of Social Work, notes the school’s program has been in the hopper for a few years and finally went live in the spring of 2024.

“Our graduate certificate consists of three required courses and one critical elective of a student’s choosing,” he says. “Our graduate students for this program learn about the significant challenges, profound impact, and integral role that both uniformed and military social workers play in providing services and treatments to our servicemen, veterans, and their families.”

Many of the university’s social workers and graduates later become specialized, which is really what this certificate is all about. “We need to support our servicemembers who not only deploy to combat environments, but also on humanitarian missions within the continental United States and outside the continental United States, as well. A graduate certificate in military social work like ours provides MSW students with the capability and dexterity to address both physical and behavioral health issues in a myriad of ways.”

With that in mind, the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work prepares MSW students to become specialized social workers to support service members facing deployment in coping with a host of physical health and behavioral health issues, including but not limited to deployment, combat readiness, moral injury, military sexual trauma, and PTSD. This includes approaches to providing psychotherapy, treatment, and services.

“It’s important to understand that uniformed and military social workers provide a variety of support for families as well as the service members and dependents who contend with emotional as well as financial stressors,” Odom says. “A vast number of our MSW students and MSW students in general who pursue the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work engage in past, present, and future conflicts and wars. “We primarily prepare our graduate students to work with this very unique and protected population at all stages of their military service and in any military environment,” Odom says. The courses that Simmons’ students must enroll in to complete the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work are Social Work 516 (Introductions to Systems, Culture, Health and Social Issues); Social Work 517 (Therapeutic Interventions and Military Cultural Context); Social Work 454 (Understanding Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention); and one clinical elective chosen by the MSW student. “Our Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work is distinct [from traditional social work MSW programs] in the sense that MSW students are prepared uniquely to serve this protected class, which requires military cultural competence, unlike traditional MSW programs,” Odom says. “It’s designed to help MSW students understand military culture and theory, military demands and the impact on behavioral health, prevention and intervention in the military, language and military occupational specialties […] and many factors in the assessment and treatment of service members, veterans and their families.”

By focusing on evidence-based treatment modalities, Simmons’ program explores what works for military service members and the rest. “Those modalities are going to look very much like the clinical modalities for your traditional client; the difference is, they are aimed at the military,” Odom says. “The same way that Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Solution-Focused Therapy as a modality is utilized, it’s essentially tailored to treat the service member and the veteran.”

The professors at Simmons work tirelessly to marry a student’s request to be assigned to a practicum that provides service and treatment to veterans—many of whom are associated with the VA or an agency or placement that is connected to active-duty service members. But it’s not just active service members that certificate program graduates will work with.

“The military is, in many ways, a family,” Odom says. “If a service member is married, their family is exposed to many of the benefits, challenges, and issues the service member himself or herself faces. For example, service members undergo a permanent change of station every two to three years on active duty, which is a unique developmental and emotional challenge that families endure annually, generally during the summer months.”

Helping families cope with this major challenge is an important component of what both uniformed and military social workers will be tasked with, and the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work at Simmons University is designed to train emerging social work professionals to mitigate and work through some of the issues that service members, veterans, and families are exposed to while serving the nation.

“In some cases, not only are we talking about issues that lead to stress. Isolation and other mental health or physical health issues impact both the service member and the family,” Odom says. “When we talk about a certificate course like the one we offer, we look at the separation, we look at financial strain, we look at spousal employment, we look at access to health care.”

After graduating from Simmons University with the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work, one of several careers an MSW student will pursue is that of a commissioned officer in uniform as a social work officer, be it the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or the Public Health Service. Furthermore, there are also career opportunities for professional social work civilians in the Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force in the Family Advocacy Programs, both stateside and abroad. This career opportunity extends to and includes employment with the US Department of Defense as a General Schedule 11-15 under the Social Work Series 0185 as a professional social worker located at https://www.usajobs.gov/.

“Finally, the other career opportunity for social workers is the VA, given that it is the largest employer of social workers in America, with [close to] 21,000 social workers, according to a July 2024 VA News report,” Odom says. “The career employment opportunities are infinite for our graduates in the profession of social work.”

At the University of Texas at Arlington, the Military Social Work Graduate Certificate directly supports the growing demand for clinicians trained to serve military populations. With courses ranging from military trauma and stress, crisis and coping, to treatment with military populations, the program equips social workers with trauma-informed clinical skills tailored to the unique needs of service members, veterans, and their families.

Current Challenges
Certificate programs in military social work, whether stand-alone professional certificates or part of graduate training, are helping to build a workforce ready to meet the needs of service members, veterans, and their families. But even as interest grows, programs face significant hurdles: ensuring consistent quality and standards across institutions, securing enough field placements and practicum opportunities specific to military populations, and equipping students to handle the complex realities of trauma, transition, and family strain. These challenges highlight both the promise and the pressure facing certificate programs as they work to prepare the next generation of military social workers.

“One of the biggest issues is always going to be addressing mental health,” Estreet says. “We are the largest provider of behavioral health services among all the professions, so mental health amongst our service workers is always going to be a top priority.” Another part of that, he says, is ensuring there are adequate benefits to cover service members and that enough social workers are gaining these all-important military certificates.

The NASW continues to advocate for more workforce integration and more workforce support, which can include fellowships to increase the pathway for social workers to enter the field. “Thinking about public loan forgiveness, thinking about different fellowships, and thinking about increasing funding so there’s not such a huge debt when social workers leave school that they can’t go into these fields,” Estreet says. “The other part of it is working closely with the VA and the military to make sure the social work roles are clearly defined, and that there’s a pathway for students once they’re credentialed to enter into these roles.”

Qualified Candidates
Beyond coursework and certificates, success in military social work often comes down to the person doing the work. Faculty and practitioners agree that effective social workers bring more than clinical skills; they embody qualities such as cultural humility, adaptability, resilience, and the ability to build trust quickly with clients who may be wary of opening up. These traits can’t always be taught in a classroom, but certificate programs are designed to help students recognize, strengthen, and apply them in practice.

“As social workers enter into this space, we want to have the best trained, most diverse population that we possibly can to make sure we are meeting the service members’ needs,” Estreet says. “People who have served will certainly make great military social workers because they understand the culture.”

Filling the Gaps
As military social work certificates continue to evolve, it’s also important that the training that prepares social workers for these roles advances. Experts point out that while today’s certificate programs cover core areas such as trauma, PTSD, and family reintegration, there are gaps that need greater attention. Emerging priorities include moral injury, military sexual trauma, substance use recovery, suicide prevention, and the unique challenges faced by women, LGBTQ+ service members, and increasingly diverse military families. Building courses and training around these issues will be critical if future certificates are to equip social workers with the full range of skills required in practice.

“I definitely think understanding diversity sensitivity and understanding that not only is the military its own culture, but understanding active duty vs. veterans and what that actually looks like [is crucial],” Estreet says. “I see an opportunity in working collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams similar to social work in the health sector, who work with psychologists, psychiatrists, and other health care professionals. You’re going to interact with other professionals in the military social work setting.”

Technology is also expected to make a difference in military social work in the future, and certificates will most likely include tools such as AI and telehealth in military social work interactions. Castro notes changes have been happening, and in the last five years, telehealth has definitely been more prominent in military social work care.

“One of the positive things about the pandemic is all of those people who thought it wouldn’t work, it blew that group out of the water,” he says. “No one now is saying a lot of good can’t be delivered on Zoom. There is a set of skills and experience you need in delivering care remotely, and I think most programs are concentrating on teaching those skills now. Remote health care is the wave of the future, and everyone has to learn to do it effectively.”

As certificate programs expand and adapt to the evolving needs of service members and their families, they are not only preparing social workers for the front lines of care but also ensuring that those who serve our country have access to the culturally competent, trauma-informed support they deserve.

— Keith Loria is a freelance writer based in Oakton, Virginia.