THE IMPACT OF A COUNSELING-SERVICE PROGRAM ON THE PSYCHOSOCIAL MORBIDITY OF AUSTRALIAN VIETNAM VETERANS

The Vietnam Veterans Counselling Service (VVCS) is a national counseli ng program for Australian Vietnam Veterans. The effectiveness of this service was evaluated by comparing the symptom levels of 146 VVCS clie nts with 546 ''matched'' nonclient controls. Multivariate linear regre ssion techniques were used to control for differences between the two veteran groups prior to estimating the contribution of VVCS exposure t o current symptom levels. Health outcomes assessed ranged from depress ion and post-traumatic stress disorder to alcohol dependence and probl ems in dyadic adjustment. The positive influence of service-based coun seling was most evident in the areas of alcohol dependence and dyadic adjustment. These findings are consistent with the view that the major benefit of treatment programs such as the VVCS is that they facilitat e veteran coping responses, thereby enabling them to ''live well'' wit h their symptomatology.