The Social Work Program at Seton Hill University is proud to present a public seminar on combat trauma and a workshop for the families of combat veterans by Dr. Jonathan Shay, a former neuroscientist and current staff psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston, on Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

The morning seminar, titled “Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming for Soldiers Returning from Overseas Duty,” will take place in Lynch Auditorium on Seton Hill’s Greensburg, Pa. campus from 9 – 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9. The seminar is $20 per person, plus an additional $10 for social work professionals seeking continuing education units through Seton Hill. Continuing medical education credits are available through Excela Health. This seminar is open to the public. Seton Hill students, faculty and staff can attend for free; registration is required for all attendees. To register for the morning seminar, please call Bernadette Mendish, Seton Hill University Social Work Program, at 724-830-4637, or e-mail her at mendish@setonhill.edu. For more information, contact Dr. David Droppa, Seton Hill associate professor of Social Work, at 724-830-1411 or droppa@setonhill.edu.

The evening workshop for families of returning veterans, titled “The Trials of Homecoming for Soldiers Returning from Overseas Duty and How Family Members Can Prepare and Respond,” will take place from 7 – 8:30 p.m. at the Donahoe Road Armory in Greensburg, on Wednesday, April 9. (Light refreshments will be served from 6 – 7 p.m.) This event is free and open to the public; registration is required for all attendees. Parents are welcome to bring children who are old enough to participate, however, childcare for infants will not be available. To register for the evening seminar, please call the Westmoreland County Chapter of the American Red Cross at 724-834-6510. For more information on the evening seminar, please contact Michael Felice at 724-834-6510, extension 108, or e-mail emserv@westred.org.

Dr. Jonathan Shay, formerly a neuroscientist and now a staff psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston, has authored two books, “Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character,” and “Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming,” in addition to numerous journal articles on traumatic stress. He advises the Seamless Transition Team at the Congressional Research Service about the transition home for troops returning from overseas, and has consulted, written, and presented extensively on issues of military teamwork, leadership, and psychological and moral injury in military service. In 2007 he received a MacArthur Fellowship “genius grant” in recognition of how his work treating Vietnam veterans suffering from combat trauma “combined with his critical and imaginative interpretations of the ancient accounts of battle described in Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ are deepening our understanding of the effects of warfare on the individual.” A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Dr. Shay graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and earned both his M.D. and his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Seton Hill University Social Work Program provides this seminar for the benefit of area professionals from nonprofit and government human service organizations, educational and health care institutions and other entities in the region as well as faculty, staff and students of the University and interested community members. The Spring Seminar 2008 featuring Dr. Jonathan Shay is underwritten by the United Way of Westmoreland County, the Staunton Farm Foundation, Westmoreland County Mental Health/Retardation, and the Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania.

The Social Work Program at Seton Hill provides a strong foundation, in both the liberal arts and in the professional discipline, for a career as a generalist practice social worker and for graduate study. The program awards a Bachelor of Social Work degree. Social workers help individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities to restore and improve their level of social functioning and to create societal conditions favorable to their goals. Students are in small classes where individual attention, provided in an intellectually caring atmosphere, is the key to successful learning. The Seton Hill Social Work Program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.