May 13, 2008
Graduate students enrolled in St. John’s University’s new
master’s program in Mental
Health Counseling traveled to Washington, DC in April to meet
with doctors and other professionals at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center and learn about the emotional, social
and developmental aspects of traumatic injury.
The educational trip—which entailed wading through a great
amount of “red tape”—was planned by Andrew Ferdinandi, Ph.D., an
Assistant Professor in The School of Education who teaches the
program’s inaugural course, Orientation to Mental Health
Counseling. Dr. Ferdinandi, who accompanied his students,
says the trip was intended to “help students make connections
between the theoretical framework of the classroom and the
practical experience of the ‘worldroom.’ As part of St. John's
global perspective, we have to bring new, vibrant, and meaningful
experiences to our students that broaden and deepen their
learning.”
Dr. Ferdinandi chose to approach Walter Reed, “the Home of
Warrior Care,” with his request to visit because it’s where some of
the most severely injured soldiers and Marines evacuated from Iraq
are being treated on both an inpatient and outpatient basis. He
explains that he wanted his students “to learn first-hand the
issues, treatment strategies, and process that goes into helping an
injured person (and his or her family) who has experienced a
life-changing injury. I also wanted to get students to meet with
those who are dealing on a daily basis with these kinds of
life-changing, catastrophic injuries.”
According to Geraldine Castelli, Assistant Director of Academic
Support Services at St. John’s and a student enrolled in the Mental
Health Counseling program, “the experience at Walter Reed Hospital
provided an in-depth look at counseling on the front lines for the
men and women who fought on the front lines. It's one thing to
study theory from a textbook, but theory can only translate into
practice when you visit a place like Walter Reed.”
The group spent about two hours with the Chief of Psychiatry for
the Northern Atlantic Region and a psychologist at Walter Reed,
both Army officers. In the space of that time they learned that it
matters which body part is lost, and if it’s an arm or a leg, it
matters whether the loss is above or below the elbow or knee. They
also learned that there are gender differences in how the injured
experience their wounds but that both men and women soldiers have
concerns about the emotional aftermath of their wounds. How will
they be perceived by their children, their spouses, their families
and friends?
“One of the most traumatic injuries we learned about was that of
a female soldier—the first woman admitted from the Iraq War—who had
one of the most catastrophic wounds the doctors had seen,” Dr.
Ferdinandi says. ”She had lost both arms as well as her eyesight
from an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). The first concern she
expressed was that she would never be able to see or touch her
child.”
“This story and the images I witnessed were beyond anything that
a textbook could present,” Castelli adds.
The number of those with catastrophic injuries, including the loss
of one or both eyes, made a tremendous impression on the students.
So did the very young age of the wounded.
“The soldiers looked so unbelievably young,” says Jesse Adamo
Grimes, Assistant to the Vice President of Student Affairs and also
a student in the program. “When you see a 20-year-old sitting in a
wheelchair, a really young face and body juxtaposed with these
traumatic injuries, it’s a very powerful experience. We hear a lot
about the statistics—the Administration estimates there are 300,000
coming back from Iraq with mental health issues—but when
you’re there and you see the injuries, it really humanizes the
experience and humbles you.”
Hearing about the long-term effects, particularly in the case of
traumatic brain injury, was equally disturbing to the future mental
health counselors. These can include an altered emotional state, an
impaired ability to properly mother or father, and/or an inability
to attach to others.
Another outfall of these traumatic injuries is the emotional
impact on the children and/or spouse of the injured. In fact, while
the divorce rate for the general population is around 50 percent
over a lifetime, says Adamo Grimes, “the divorce rate for returning
veterans is 50 percent over four or five years.”
“The physical, mental, and emotional damage caused by war is a
real dose of reality,” notes Castelli. “Colonel Bradley
reminded us that it's not always fathers, brothers and sons that go
off to war but also mothers, sisters and daughters. The word
‘trauma’ takes on a whole different meaning when you meet women
who, because of an explosion, could never bear children again. That
to me was an eye-opener.”
Adamo Grimes thinks it’s important that future students in the
program are provided with this experience. “It’s really important
for those who are going into the field to treat those 300,000
[returnees from Iraq suffering with mental health issues]. You can
talk about it, you can read about it, but you don’t really get it
until you get through those doors.”
The students showed great compassion and posed thoughtful, very
intelligent questions to the military men, Ferdinandi says. “It was
emotional on so many different levels. It was a profound experience
for the students.”
For more information about the new M.S. in Mental Health
Counseling, contact The School of Education’s Department of Human
Services and Counseling at 718-990-6455 to arrange to speak with a
professor. Click here
for Frequently Asked Questions.