Vets for Vets: Harnessing the Power of Vets to Heal - Hardcover

Alpern, Gerald D., Ph.D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1622179277 ISBN 13: 9781622179275

Publisher: Psychological Development Pubns, 2016

Synopsis

Dr. Gerald Alpern, Ph.D., a Korean War veteran, began treating WWII and Korean military personnel as a neuropsychiatric technician at Valley forge Army Hospital in 1954. He spent fifteen years as a professor at Indiana University Medical School, where he authored a number of professional books, articles, and psychological tests. Since moving to Aspen, Colorado in 1975, he has maintained a private psychology practice, which has included a multitude of U. S. veterans.The Huts for Vets program has been a perfect fit for Dr. Alpern's major interest in the healing powers of wilderness and the therapeutic needs of returning veterans. He joined the HFV board a the outset and has participated as a volunteer for every HFV trip to provide any mental health support that might be needed. During the hut trips, he has led seminars offering practical psychological guidance and self-administered psychological tools for the participating veterans.Dr. Alpern's methods for treating post-9/11 veterans are to do so with an emphasis on peer-to-peer counseling, in the same way that Alcoholic Annonymous and cancer support groups have successfully used similar peer-to-peer therapy techniques. His book offers guidance to vets, loved ones of vets, and mental health professionals on how to maximize vets' healthy return to civilian lives.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Dr. Alpern's book is based on decades of work with veterans. It provides innovative new and practical treatment techniques for veterans. Each chapter offers the three targeted groups of readers (veterans, family and friends of veterans, and mental health professionals) insights and practical tools for a healthy transition from warrior to citizen.

About the Author:

Dr. Gerald Alpern began treating veterans at Valley Forge in 1954 while serving in the military as a neuropsychiatric technician. His current passion for helping vets has been fueled by his post-service knowledge that his military job of administering insulin shock therapy was both "inhuman and ineffectual." This conclusion had been published years earlier in the most highly respected medical journal, "The Lancet".Following his Korean War service, Dr. Alpern began his professional career at Indiana University Medical School, where he spent fifteen years doing clinical work, teaching, and research. He left his tenured full professorship, moved to Colorado in 1975, and began a private clinical practice and continuing research.Dr. Alpern's practice over the next thirty-five years included the treatment of a number of psychologically wounded vets. Until 2012, his results with vets, similar to that of his colleagues, were, at best, only minimally successful and, at worst, simply failures. Then things changed. This book tells the story of that change.This book is the result of Dr. Alpern's extensive post-2013 experiences and research with veterans. It explains why so many treatments offered to vets fail and why they continue to be used, especially by various large government agencies and university clinics. The book then offers innovative treatments that have been tested and found to be extremely effective, cost little, and can be implemented within local communities or even by veterans' families without federal government or sanctioning universities' support.

About this edition

• Publisher: Psychological Development Pubns
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1622179277
• ISBN 13: 9781622179275
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 187