Reflective Essay: A Career In The Medical Field

Life had an unusual way of helping me realize my passion, which I discovered in an unlikely place: a military airfield hangar. I was working for a military program, providing non-medical counseling to service members. My experience until then had consisted of working with at-risk youth. I was in unfamiliar territory, but as a military spouse, I’d learned to be flexible when it came to employment. I’d been on the job for 4 weeks when I received a call from the base chaplain that an airman had died by suicide. He requested my colleagues and me to be present at the hangar, where the news was released to the squadron that an airman had died. As the news broke, looks of sadness spread over everyone’s faces. I did as requested, providing support while trying to help make sense of this tragedy. Standing among the airmen in the hangar, a sense of purpose awakened in me: I would devote my career to serving military members and veterans.

In less than a year, this scenario repeated twice more; two more airmen died by suicide. These tragedies compelled me to search deeper into issues affecting this population. I discovered some

Addressing the mental health needs of this population provides the opportunity to bring these core values to life. This topic is important to me for two reasons. First, the social work profession has the responsibility to identify social issues and address them through intervention and advocacy efforts. Second, lest we forget that the current military is an all-volunteer force, those who have volunteered to sacrifice their liberties for the security of our country should not have the additional burden of not being able to access adequate services for their mental health needs when their tour of duty has