After a year of counseling and helping soldiers cope with the stress and fear of war in Iraq, Major Carlos Silva, MSW '92, returned to Boston to continue working with behaviorally and emotionally troubled students in much the same way. Upon entering the Graduate School of Social Work, Silva knew he wanted to reach out to the most troubled people in the most challenging of environments, and thus majored in forensic social work with the intention of returning to work in prisons with inmates. It was the influence of some Boston College professors that prodded Silva in the direction of working with kids on troubled paths, in the hopes of guiding them before they potentially fall to crime.
"I want to work with the most difficult population that I can," said Silva. Upon the realization that that population was to be found in the city, Silva came upon the McKinley School. "It seemed like this school was probably the most needy school for people who really wanted to work with kids and try to make a difference."
His desire to help those in unfavorable situations extended beyond troubled adolescents in the city, and onto the front lines in Iraq. Silva was deployed in August 2005, and was sent to Iraq in October 2005. There he served as a clinical adviser in charge of a three-to-four person team that provided mental health services, and combat and operation health services.
He witnessed firsthand the war zone and worked one-on-one with soldiers battling the emotional strife imposed by such an environment. Silva and his team worked with the soldiers that witnessed or were involved in explosions, injuries, and deaths of their peers. After such incidents occurred, Silva and his team initiated a strategic stress incident debriefing, in which they sat down with the soldiers involved and discussed what happened as well as educated them as to what physical and emotional repercussions they may experience after such an event.
The soldiers had to deal with not only the fear of being out there day in and day out risking their lives and being away from their families, but also the stress of the environment itself, which often presented temperatures of 120 to 130 degrees in the daytime.
"Just the environment in general would typically stress a lot of people out. So we often work with the soldiers on how to deal with that stress, what they can expect, what they can do to combat some of it," said Silva.
By educating the soldiers and making them aware of the services that are available to them, Silva and his team sought to prevent potentially irreversible trauma and hoped to keep the soldiers in the fight. Silva won a Bronze Star for his efforts in Iraq.
This preventative approach translates back to his work at the McKinley Academy, where his efforts with a group of about 40 kids is in the hopes of keeping them on course, and not allowing their often difficult situations lead them into trouble.
As a guidance advisor, he is a licensed clinical social worker that keeps academic, behavioral, psychological, and mental health records on his group of kids. "I'm almost like their surrogate parent to some degree here at the school. I'm their crisis person whenever they have a problem when they come through the door," said Silva.
As well as fostering close ties to his specific group, Silva also conducts "walk arounds" similar to those that he performed in Iraq.
But instead of checking on the mental and emotional wellness of those at war, in this environment, it is those kids in school with behavioral problems to whom he directs his attention.
The nature of the problems these two different groups of people face create a certain similarity between the job he did in Iraq, with the one that he performs at the McKinley Academy. Helping people with problems at home is one major part of his job, whether they are the family problems that the kids at the McKinley school experience or those that arise from the strain of the soldiers being away from their families for so long.
Also, he noticed problems with authority within both of the environments. In the school, as on the battlefield, Silva works to guide those in need through their fears.
After the year in Iraq, Silva is left with both self insight and insight into his current position of helping the students that comes from time away.
The students, whose concern for his well-being was demonstrated in the four to six packages that Silva received from the school while in Iraq, now have an even greater respect for him. His students are also able to extract a lesson from his experience that reveals the common need for help that everybody experiences.
"It gives them something to connect with and helps them realize that the guy with the biggest gun isn't the best guy out there. Even the guy with the big gun needs help," said Silva.
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