Sam Wilson’s position at the VA is likely “Peer Specialist”.
This requires a certification through the state but doesn’t require any sort of degree or psychology experience. (Stop calling him a therapist) It’s a GS-5 grade job which looks like requires absolutely no college education. It’s possible and most likely that he could have been originally hired as a Peer Support Apprentice without a certification and then within that first year the VA would have paid for him to get his certification.
To qualify he would have needed to have been discharged or released from active duty in the armed forces under honorable conditions, during a war, in a campaign or expedition. It’s required that he spent a minimum of 1 year in recovery before seeking the position.
Certification training involves watching videos and traveling (all expenses paid for Apprentices) to face-to-face training and seminars on Understanding Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Principles, Peer Support Principles, Cultural Competence, Communications Skills, Group Facilitation Skills, Addressing Stigma, Understanding Different Illnesses, Recovery Tools, Professional Development & Workplace Skills, Managing Crisis and Emergency Situations.
*** It is required that a Peer Specialist/Support Apprentice be recovered or recovering from serious mental illness like Schizophrenia, BiPolar Disorder, Major Depression, Depression and Anxiety Disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Substance Use Disorders, and other similar diagnosis. This means everyone he works with will know he has a co-occurring condition. The job is based around your ability to use your own stories and experiences candidly with your support groups, as seeing someone going through their own recovery serves as an example of how recovery from mental illness is possible.
In these sessions Sam would teach goal setting, problem solving, symptom management skills and a variety of recovery tools. There’s a lot of focus on helping people identify their own strengths, supports, resources and skills. Peer Specialists advocate by working to eliminate the stigma of mental illness. They also act as community liaisons by identifying social supports in the community and encouraging the expansion of local community resources.
This varies on location and active years on the job but his salary was probably around $35-41k per year. This is a full time position. From what I gather the VA does not authorize you to relocate for the job so this kind of backs up that Sam was always based at Fort Meade, where the Falcon wings were kept.
I don’t know if anyone else cares but there ya go. If anyone has any first hand knowledge and has something to add please by all means (x)
Thanks to the fab Frog Stone, we have some concrete information on who’s related to who in the Bolotnikov family. Essentially, Frog confirmed that Vassily is the first cousin of Aleksa and Nino, making him Jupiter’s first cousin once removed (Vassily’s actor, Jeremy Swift, had said he was playing Jupiter’s uncle). She also confirmed that the little boy, Moltka, is Vassily’s youngest son and thus the brother of Vladie (AD guy had implied Moltka was Vladie’s son).
This really clears things up, and it backs up input I had from people of actual Russian heritage who basically said that, in Russia, extended families are much more interconnected and close than is the norm in Western countries. While he’s really ‘only’ a distant cousin to her, Vassily is very protective of Jupiter and the whole family is clearly close and interdependent despite their squabbles.
I had suggested that it made more sense for Vassily to be the brother of Aleksa and Nino, since, as I saw it, that close relationship would make him more likely to be Aleksa’s first port of call in a time of crisis. With the benefit of hindsight, I can appreciate that that was me speaking from my thoroughly Western, nuclear family-oriented perspective. While I can’t track down the original discussion posts about this matter right now, thanks to everyone who contributed – you were dead right, and I’m really glad for all your contributions.
