Dori Keys, right, a bartender at VFW Post 1503 in Dale City, Va., helped Vietnam vet Bruce Yeager deal with a leg amputation. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.

Could bartenders be the key to helping veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and other mental and physical ailments get treatment?

National Association of Social Workers member Keith Anderson thinks so, according to this article in the Los Angeles Times.

Anderson, an assistant professor of social work at Ohio State  University, is author of a pilot study called “Healing Tonic.” That study looked at the family-like relationships that often grow among bartenders at Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and patrons of these establishments.

Anderson said with a little training bartenders could  be able to refer troubled veterans to mental and health services.

“In social work, you try to meet the client where they are,” Anderson said. “If that happens to be a bar, then that’s where the first line of help needs to be.”

To learn more about how social workers help people in the military and their families, visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Veterans Affairs Web page by clicking here.