Individual Counseling Services for War Time Veterans

Individual Counseling Services for War Time Veterans

Keller Graduate School of Management

1.0 Executive Summary

The United States of America is at war. Every since the tragedy of 9/11 America has been fighting two wars, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are over one million sailor, soldiers, airmen, marines who have been deployed to a combat zone. Some of these individuals have been deployed on more than one occasion. There is no end in sight. Statistics revealed that one in five service members return from their deployment and have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Major Depression Disorder (MDD). Review of statistics and reports confirms that the agency is moving in the right direction by providing and offering individual counseling services to combat veterans and their families. This service will prove to be a valuable asset in the community and in the combat veteran life.

The staff is trained Licensed Professionals that consist of social workers, counselors and psychologist. They have been working with veterans with PTSD and MDD for many years. They are caring providers who are willing to invest their time and energy in helping this agency to be a top runner in providing counseling services for combat veterans. They will assist with implementing the marketing plan.

Although this is non-profit agency it will be successful with implementing the marketing plan with the limited budget set aside for marketing. The use of free advertisement through public radio and television will be used. The agency will use a multimedia approach to inform everyone who may be a part of the combat veteran life. Through these efforts and establishing long term relationships with community partners, the agency will be able to recruit veterans for individual counseling services and build a practice where the quality and value of the work speaks for itself.

2.0 Situation Analysis

Currently the company is capable of providing individual counseling services to Combat Veterans. The company has trained licensed therapists ready to provide individual counseling to veteran's and room to grow to provide family counseling services. The services currently rendered are group counseling, and veteran's benefits information and assistance. The critical issue currently facing the company is attracting Combat Veterans to our business location and the lack of funds to market the service. At this time there is not any marketing visibility in the community besides word of mouth.

2.1 Market Summary

Since 9/11 our military forces has been utilized to great extent to protect American and others freedom. There are over one million Veterans who are war time veteran who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan War in the past eleven years. The war isn't over yet and who knows how long it will last. One in five veterans who has been deployed to a combat zone will suffer with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Major Depression Disorder (MDD) (Rand Corporation, 2008). In the state of Texas as of 9/30/2010 there are at least five hundred thousand Gulf War Veterans. These are veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. This number will increase by at least ten thousand on a yearly basis. Service members are exiting from the military on a daily basis. These veterans will have many problems when they arrive home for combat and individual counseling services will be a valuable tool in their life to help them to adapt to life after the war.

2.2 SWOT Analysis

Strengths

o Shorter appointments times and wait

o Not seen as federal government where veterans tend to shy away

o Non-traditional hours including weekends

Weakness

o Location not on a bus route

o Limited funds in the marketing budget

o Non-profit

Opportunities

o Veterans are being discharge daily. Texas has one of the highest numbers of veterans living in the state.

o Reach out to the rural areas

o Services to outlining counties

o Collaborate with community partners

Threats

o Comparable Services with the Department of Veterans of Affairs

o Competitors has an head start in marketing

o Low Customer Retention

o Hard to attract veterans for mental health services

2.3 Competition

One of the main competitors is the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center who provides outpatient mental health services. They are providing individual and group counseling services to all veterans. The Dallas VAMC has several different teams that have a specific focus such as trauma, mental illness, drug/alcohol and sexual trauma. They are the top competitors because they have been around for a long period time providing services to our military veterans. Not only do they provide treatment but they are top in the nation for doing research on veterans in different aspects. The services that will be provided will be just as good of a quality of that of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The therapist has been trained on the treatment of combat veterans and they continue to get ongoing training that will help them provide the best service to war time veterans.

2.4 Product (Service) Offering

The service that will be provided is individual counseling service that is centered on the Combat Veteran. This service will be provided by Licensed Therapists. The problem that it will tend to solve is to help War time Veterans manage or alleviate their Post Traumatic symptoms or Major Depressive symptoms where it will not affect their overall functioning such as occupation, marriage, family and social lives. This treatment will provide them psychological aid to their invisible war injuries. As mention earlier there is one in five veterans will suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Major Depression Disorder (MDD). Studies have shown that evidence base also known as best practices is different