At a recent conference held by NIH, DoD, and the VA, it was apparent that people are beginning to understand that the [mental] health of the family and the service member are interrelated. You can’t care for the individual without caring about and taking care of families and caregivers. To a military spouse, this seems so intuitive that I had to remind myself that I was in an auditorium full of practioners who need to hear statements like that. After all, how effective can they be in their jobs if they don’t understand the framework within which they work to effectively support military families?
BG Sutton, the Director of the Defense Centers of Excellence did a great job of charting the course for the day that would follow, charging the audience with the task of working together to identify knowledge gaps and work together to close them. Mrs. Patti Shinseki followed sharing vignettes of her life with General Shinseki to set the stage for the doctors and scientists in understanding military families. Gen Shinseki was wounded early on his career and headed out of the Army when he received word that as pilot program, the Army was allowing Wounded Warriors to stay in. She shared powerfully compelling memories of their lives together and impressed upon everyone present that families are critical/crucial factor of the force and addressed some of the issues we all face, “Myth that subsequent separations/deployments get easier is just a myth…it doesn’t get easier.” Mrs. Shinseki closed with a discussion of the Military Child Education Coalition’s Living in the New Normal initiative: Helping Children Thrive through Good and Challenging Times.
The day started strong and never faltered. We were treated to a day of incredible presentations by leaders in their field. It was borderline information overload, but after 9 hours of back to back presentations and breakout sessions, I came away with some significant takeaways.
There is a shift in deployment from occasional to continuous events. It’s widely recognized that it is now a matter of “when” you deploy as opposed to “if”.
Many studies out there studying the corrosive impact of stress due to multiple deployments during wartime.
No studies of impact on infants and toddlers, only anecdotal information.
Very little info on impact of children due to injury of parent during wartime.
Military families are not homogenous, Dr. Cozza encourages differentiating groups further depending on experience.
Very little info on impact of children due to injury of parent during wartime.
For children of wounded warriors, self concept of “idealized parent image” is challenged.
Trauma response is a process, not an event. It has to be constantly monitored
Learned more information about a Millenium Cohort Study centered around long term health in light of exposure to military concerns and deployments.
Millenium Cohort Study on spouses and stress launching 2010. Anticipate report out to DoD by 2012.
The VA is shifting it’s mission: Focusing on Families and Caregivers of Veterans with Trauma.
VA’s purchased 200,000 copies of Talk, Listen and Connect for distribution to VA centers nationwide.
Marriage and family counseling has been added to services for family members of all veterans eligible for VA care.
Information on VA’s changing population – more than 212,000 females have been deployed during OIF/OEF.
Half of the troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan come from Guard/Reserve community
VA’s also doing work on stigma as a barrier to getting mental health care.
Dr.Chandra briefed the RAND/NMFA study- effects of deployment on military children
Military children are faring at or above US average on academic engagement, peer relationships
Military children are functioning below average in areas of family relationships, anxiety and emotional difficulties.
Girls report more anxiety symptoms. Anxiety problems decrease among older children.
Re: effects of deployments…girls worry about next deployment, dealing w/parents’ mood swings & worry about how parents are getting along.
As months of deployment increase, so do the challenges. Total # months matter more than # of deployments
Re: children, deployments and resilience – mental health of non- deployed parent matters
Information shared regarding reserve component perspectives and transition from weekend warriors to operational force and challenges associated with that
1.1 million troops in reserve components. Average age is 38
50% are married. Most live in communities far away from military installations.
Reserve component is juggling 2 careers…how do you meet the demands of 2 employers?
Employers are being stressed by deployments as well.
Instantaneous communication is a double edged sword when you’re out in the field worried about family at home.
Challenge – how do you provide effective services to a geographically dispersed force?
Air Force pediatrician, Dr. (Maj) Flake spoke about recognizing and responding to child stress.
Deployments aren’t going away. How do we make them stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks?
71% of AD servicemembers with children plan on staying in until retirement
There is so much more to share, but perhaps this is a good place to stop. We’ve been told that the presentations from the conference will be shared on the DCOE website, so keep checking back. All in all, it was a day well spent learning more about all the initiatives going on out there to support military families.
The folks at Sesame Street are at it again. The same folks who brought you the Talk, Listen, Connect initiative and last year’s When Parents are Deployed special with Cuba Gooding, Jr., have a new project on the horizon. Entitled Coming Home: Military Families Cope with Change, this latest production takes on the issue of families welcoming home injured service members.
From the press release:
” Featuring Queen Latifah, John Mayer and Elmo, this half-hour HD program tells stories of service members who return home with injuries, visible and invisible, and explores the heroic struggles their families face in discovering a new way of finding a ‘new normal’. The special, which premieres in conjunction with April as the Month of the Military Child, salutes the extraordinary courage and strength of these military families and offers the general public a powerful glimpse into what they often must endure.”
The special will premiere on PBS April 1st at 8pm ET/PT (check your local listings).
President-elect Obama has declared January 19th a National Day of Service in conjunction with the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. General Colin Powell (USA, Ret) announced the national day of service and unveiled a new website listing thousands of community projects around the nation for those who are looking to donate some time to a worthy cause.
I feel as if I’m preaching to the choir…I don’t know many military spouses who aren’t actively involved with family readiness groups, church groups or other community organizations in some capacity or another. Military families regularly volunteer – it seems to part of our genetic makeup! However, if you want to take advantage of the kids being home from school and volunteer together as a family, check out the website. Even for those people who can’t make a long term commitment, there are some great causes that are only asking for a few hours of your time on a one-time basis.
Regardless of how you choose to spend your time, enjoy the long weekend. Thank you for your service and all that you do for our military families and your communities at large.
We are fortunate to have Mitja Ng-Baumhackl as a member of our 2008-2009 cohort of the President’s Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Council. Here he shares his experiences as a male military spouse, particularly the challenges he faced during his wife’s recent deployment to Bahrain when he found himself looking for a way to keep her connected to their young daughter.
If your children are in the toddler set, hopefully you managed to connect with the live Sesame Street Experience for Military Families shows held around the country. From the feedback I heard, the kids were thrilled with the opportunity to see the characters up close and personal.
Between the live shows and the Talk, Listen, Connect series of DVDs dealing with the difficult subjects of deployment, homecoming and wounded warriors, the folks at the Sesame Street Workshop have shown time and time again that they are committed to making a difference and helping our military families. Well, now they’re at it again….
If you have a toddler that can’t seem to get enough of Elmo, they’re offering you an opportunity to win an Elmo Live! toy. This offer isn’t limited to military families, so feel free to disseminate widely. Hope you win!
When my son was a pre-schooler, it was an absolute pill trying to snag a drop in slot at the CDC so that I could squeeze in a workout. It was also ridiculously frustrating that when I could find childcare, I’d spend more time taking him to and from there than I did at the gym. I was thrilled when I found the YMCA a few miles away from our house. They had a great gym and I would drop my son off for a few hours of “pre-school” class while I worked out. It was awesome and so convenient. I always left feeling better and he was always happy to have had some time with other kids engaging in productive activities.
I have very fond memories of our YMCA, so I was really excited when I found out that the YMCA, ASYMCA and DoD have entered into a partnership to provide free memberships to military families who live too far away from an installation to be able to take advantage of the facilities on base.
When it comes to benefits, it seems like our Guard and Reserve families are often left out in the cold. Since they’re generally geographically dispersed and often reside far away from a military installation, they’re unable to take advantage of many of the resources found in traditional brick and mortar buildings that we as active duty families take for granted. So it’s nice to see that people are starting to think outside the box in order to deliver services to our Guard and Reserve troops and their families. This way they can access their benefits without having to leave their community.
In a related topic, how cool would it be to have access to a 24 hour library? With our busy lives, it seems nearly impossible to get to a library during regular operating hours. Now, you have access to resources around the clock through the e-library program launched by the Department of Defense. This is a relatively new program, so the jury’s still out. If you’ve had experiences using the e-library, let us hear from you. Would love to know how well it works.
Free gym memberships and a 24 hour library – benefits delivered when we want them where we want them….what a great concept!
I don’t care what political views you subscribe to, this SNL skit of “Sarah Palin” and “Hillary Clinton” is hysterical!
These days, the universal appeal of this clip is about all my friends can agree on. Whenever we go to a dinner party or other get-together, politics invariably get thrown on the table for people to chew on – and it never ends well. We can’t seem to agree on anything and as we inch closer and closer to Election Day, there seems to less common ground. And it’s not just the parents this time around. I find that our kids are very tuned in to the issues. I don’t know if they’re just doing a better job of raising awareness in the schools, but the kids seem to have strong opinions (that they’re able to back up and defend with well defined arguments). It’s somewhat humbling to realize that this group of kids (who are not even old enough to vote) care enough to learn about the issues and articulate them to a group of adults. Makes you realize that as Americans who are eligible to vote, we really do have an obligation to do the same and vote our conscience. Regardless of who you decide to vote for – just vote! One voice does matter, don’t be left out of the discussion.
If you’re not currently residing in the state where you’re registered to vote, make sure you request your absentee ballot on time.
President Bush closed his State of Union by calling for more support for military spouse employment. I have to think that the majority of Americans probably glossed over that, but to some of us, that resonated. Support for your service member spouse shouldn’t have to come at the cost of your own dreams and ambitions. Any additional opportunities or support we could offer military families to make the decision to stay in the military work for their lifestyle constitutes a win-win situation. The spouse is able to pursue a career, the service member continues to do what they love and the nation retains an all-volunteer force.
