STH and the School of Social Work Partner on Trauma Response for Military Chaplains
The work of the School of Theology and School of Social Work in the area of Trauma Studies, which is led by STH Assistant Professor Shelly Rambo and SSW Associate Professor Ellen DeVoe, was recently featured in the 2009 BU Research magazine. See a portion of the feature below, or follow this link to find the entire article.
Faith’s First Responders
Military chaplains, who are exempt from documenting soldier visits, are often more likely than clinicians to receive requests for help from service members experiencing symptoms of trauma. But unlike clinicians and other health professionals, chaplains are rarely offered the training they need to administer assistance.
Seeing a need, Shelly Rambo, an assistant professor of theology, and Ellen DeVoe, an associate professor of social work, have partnered with military chaplains to design resources and coursework to help chaplains-in-training address the spiritual and religious implications of trauma. These resources will combine Rambo’s work on trauma in a religious context with DeVoe’s research on trauma and clinical practice, offering military chaplains an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about psychological injury.
“I think it’s a very logical kind of marriage, if you will, because when people are traumatized, so often what comes up are questions of faith,” says DeVoe. “The mental health side of trauma work doesn’t always address spirituality and faith questions very well.”
Rambo and DeVoe are now in the process of meeting with chaplains to determine the range of topics that are most pressing for chaplains, who are often the first people to whom service members turn when coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts, or family crises. This partnership is an extension of the many resources BU offers to meet military needs. “The academy and the military have a very conflicted relationship,” Rambo says. “I think what’s interesting about BU is its faculty really take military issues seriously.”
DeVoe is also launching a program to help military families with young children cope with a family member’s return from deployment. The initiative, called Strong Families Strong Forces, has received four years of funding from the Department of Defense.
“The impact of these wars is going to be around for a long time,” DeVoe says of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I think that it would serve us well and it would serve our students well to get up to speed on how to work with the millions of people who have been and will be affected by the wars.”