91国产

By Samantha Stainburn

In 2004, Alice Psirakis Diacosavvas B.S. 鈥�98 had a job she loved鈥攚orking with low-income women at MIC Women鈥檚 Health Services, a family planning and prenatal program in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. But that summer, her career took an unexpected detour鈥攁 turn that would ultimately lead her to a whole new area of social work.听

Ms. Diacosavvas had earned a bachlor鈥檚 degree in social work, with a minor in Spanish, from 91国产 (in the Honors College) in 1998 and an M.S.W. from Columbia University in 1999. In her multifaceted job, she counseled women, often in Spanish, about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, helped pregnant teenagers prepare for the arrival of their children while continuing with school, and visited schools and shelters to teach women and girls about STD prevention and birth control. 鈥淎 lot of them were vulnerable, and I felt like I was able to help them and connect with them on this intimate level,鈥� she recalls. The job also reinforced her commitment to the core social worker values of being empathetic and nonjudgmental. 鈥淭here are very few people who are more despised than a pregnant teenager,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 traditional. I think it鈥檚 best if you get married and are financially stable, then have a baby, not the other way around. But I got to understand that pregnancy was sometimes the most attention these teenagers had ever gotten in their whole lives.鈥�

Ms. Diacosavvas had also been a member of the Army Reserve since graduate school. In June 2004, the Army notified her that it was putting her on active duty to support troops being deployed to and returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. She was ordered to leave her job and report to Fort Dix, New Jersey, to run the base鈥檚 mental health clinic, supervising a small team of military and civilian personnel鈥攖wo mental health assistants, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, another social worker, and an administrative assistant.

The daughter of Greek immigrants who ran a shoe repair business in Manhattan, Ms. Diacosavvas had joined the Reserves almost on a whim in 1999, intrigued by the flyers that regularly arrived at her Queens home.听鈥淭he idea of being a woman in that man鈥檚 world fascinated me; I knew it would be a physical and psychological challenge,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o I walked into a recruiter鈥檚 office and said, 鈥業鈥檓 a social worker. What can I do?鈥欌�� The Army Reserves assigned her to its medical services corps, which includes social workers as well as doctors and nurses. After surviving a two-week boot camp, Ms. Diacosavvas became a first lieutenant and part of a 300-person medical unit attached to the 344th听Combat Support Hospital in Fort Totten, Queens. She enjoyed her one-weekenda-month, two-weeks-a-year commitment. 鈥淚 loved the camaraderie and being part of a big and prestigious institution,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd it was a way of giving back for all the freedom we have in this country.鈥�

But living on a military base during the week and being the fulltime director of its mental health clinic was a huge change. For one, she was now working with mostly men. And they had psychological issues that she hadn鈥檛 dealt with before. 鈥淣ot everyone who comes back from war has post-traumatic stress disorder, but everyone has some sort of adjustment issues,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e not in war, you move forward, in your jobs and relationships. Time stands still for people who are in a combat zone. Then they come back and everyone else has moved forward, and that鈥檚 hard to adjust to. Sometimes they鈥檙e having a spiritual crisis. The core tenant of humanity is 鈥榙on鈥檛 kill.鈥� You鈥檝e maybe had to kill or you鈥檝e witnessed atrocities, and it doesn鈥檛 make sense.鈥�

But the job grew on Ms. Diacosavvas. 鈥淭he soldiers mourn the loss of their old selves because their perspective on life changed, and they didn鈥檛 want it to,鈥� Ms. Diacosavvas says. 鈥淏ut that change can be positive as well as negative. One of the things I worked on was identifying the positive things that wartime experience taught them: maturity, pride, knowing how to make good decisions quickly, being appreciative of what you have.鈥� And Ms. Diacosavvas came to believe that this work was essential. 鈥淭he two wars we鈥檝e been involved in for the past 10 years have been fought by half a percent of the American population,鈥� she notes.听鈥淚t made me angry and sad that the American public was totally unaware of the impact the war was having on these veterans and their families.鈥澨鼳fter three years on active duty, and a total of eight years in the Reserves, Ms. Diacosavvas was discharged from the Army as a captain in 2007. But she realized she couldn鈥檛 return to the women鈥檚 health center. She had a new calling now鈥攈elping veterans move beyond their trauma. 鈥淭hese soldiers are way too young to have their lives messed up, and if we can get to them quickly enough, they won鈥檛 have chronic, long-term psychological issues,鈥� she says.

After spending a year developing a veterans鈥� mental health program for the Jewish Board of Family and Children Services, she joined the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2009 as a social worker at the Nassau Vet Center, an outpatient mental health clinic in Hicksville, New York. These days, she counsels veterans from the Vietnam War and other eras and their families who are struggling with post-war life. She displays a photo of herself in uniform and a plaque with her rank on it in her office to encourage returned soldiers to open up to her. 鈥淭hey have huge trust issues,鈥� she says. 鈥淎 lot of them don鈥檛 talk to their spouse or children about their war experiences because they feel they wouldn鈥檛 understand. The picture of me in uniform lets them know I get military culture.鈥� It takes years to change behavior, and Ms. Diacosavvas doesn鈥檛 always see results from her work, but, she says, 鈥淚 believe that people have the potential and capacity to change, and I have faith that the process will ultimately yield a positive result.鈥�

Ms. Diacosavvas is keenly aware that she would have missed out on her new career, which also includes teaching an introductory social work course at St. John鈥檚 University and a graduate-level elective on veterans鈥� issues at the New York University School of Social Work, if she had ignored the feeling in her gut. 鈥淚 took a risk by not returning to my stable job at the women鈥檚 health center,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut you鈥檙e never going to know if this is something that鈥檚 going to nurture your soul if you don鈥檛 try it out. What鈥檚 the worst that can happen? You can always go back to doing what you were doing before.鈥�