Child, Family, and School Behavioral Health Care in the Military Health System (original) (raw)
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Supporting the behavioral and mental health needs of military children
Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 2019
It is estimated that there are 1,678,778 military children in the United States, with 80% of them attending U.S. civilian operated public schools. Therefore, it is critical that educators across school settings have access to information that supports the academic, behavioral, and social emotional health of military children. The current paper provides an overview of the resiliency that military children possess, as well as the unique challenges they may experience as part of military life, including the deployment cycle Further, available mental health supports for military children and families are provided for schools to consider as part of their overall support for military children and families.
Current war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have required more frequent and less predictable deployment rotations, along with greater reliance on National Guard/Reserve units (NGR), than any previous US conflict. Repeated, lengthy deployments result in increased child attachment disturbances, as well as depression, anxiety, and increased behavior problems in young children (Cozza & Lieberman, 2007; Barker & Berry, 2009). This paper presents findings from the first phases of a Department of Defense funded project to provide home-based services to NGR families with very young children. As part of intervention planning, researchers conducted ninety in-depth interviews with service members, spouses and key informants to assess needs and maximize input from military families with young children regarding deployment-related experiences and reintegration issues. Qualitative coding and analysis of data reveal four primary themes: 1) service member and spouse mental health issues such as ...
Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP, 2018
Families experience multiple stressors as a result of military service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations among service member deployment experiences, family and military factors, and children's mental health using baseline data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, a study designed to evaluate the health and mental health effects of military service on families, including children. This study examined administrative data on deployment status (combat, noncombat, and no deployments), as well as service member- and spouse-reported data on deployment experiences and family functioning in relation to the mental health of children in the family who were aged 9 to 17 years. Most children were not reported to have mental health, emotional, or behavioral difficulties regardless of parental deployment status. For an important minority of children, however, parental deployments with combat, compared with those with no deployment, were associated with a paren...
War and Military Children and Families: Translating Prevention Science into Practice
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2012
A decade of war has heightened the national awareness of the challenges faced by U.S. military children and families. Military families have faced a "high operational tempo," defined not only by recurrent deployments to combat theater but also by a range of stressors associated with these deployments, including greater demands on the personnel and services to support the infrastructure and activities associated with war. Recent research findings documenting military families' increased risk of psychological health problems and service usage have emerged in the public discourse. 1 Responding effectively to the needs of military families requires the development of an integrated research and service strategy at the national level, one that translates and extends established research on child and family resilience, developmental psychopathology, family-centered prevention, and implementation science. This article provides a translational framework and family-centered public health model for mitigating stress and promoting resilience in military families and children exposed to wartime deployments, psychological and physical injuries, and loss.
Journal of Family Psychology, 2011
The United States military force includes over 2.2 million volunteer service members. Three out of five service members who are deployed or are preparing for deployment have spouses and/or children. Stressors associated with the deployment cycle can lead to depression, anxiety, and behavior problems in children, as well as psychological distress in the military spouse. Further, the emotional and behavioral health of family members can affect the psychological functioning of the military service member during the deployment and reintegration periods. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the need for emotional and behavioral health services for youth from military families, many professionals in a position to serve them struggle with how to best respond and select appropriate interventions. The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirically-based and theoretically informed review to guide service provision and the development of evidence based treatments for military youth in particular. This review includes an overview of stressors associated with the deployment cycle, emotional and behavioral health consequences of deployment on youth and their caretaking parent, and existing preventative and treatment services for youth from military families. It concludes with treatment recommendations for older children and adolescents experiencing emotional and behavioral health symptoms associated with the deployment cycle. Keywords deployment; military; child; adolescent; mental health An ongoing issue in the lives of military families is managing the stress associated with the deployment cycle. More than 2.2 million service members make up our all volunteer military force (Department of Defense; DoD, 2011), with mobilization and deployment at their highest levels since World War II.
Mental Health Trends in Military Pediatrics
Psychiatric Services, 2019
Objective: Childhood psychiatric disorders affect current functioning and predispose individuals to more severe adult mental health problems. Provider survey research has suggested that children's mental health problems are increasing; observed changes may be due to increased illness or improved access to care. The authors sought to quantify trends in the prevalence of diagnosed and treated mental health conditions, outpatient treatment, and psychiatric medication prescriptions in a large population of children who were continuously insured. The authors performed a retrospective trend study of diagnosed mental health conditions, treatment, and psychiatric medication prescriptions from 2003 to 2015 in children ages 2-18 who were military dependents (N=1,798,530). Poisson regression analyses and Cochran-Armitage tests determined trends in the prevalence of treated psychiatric diagnoses overall and by subcategory, rates of outpatient mental health visits, and psychiatric medication use overall and by specific class.
International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
Objectives: Warrior Transition Units (WTUs) are specialized military units colocated with major military treatment facilities providing a Triad of Care involving primary care physicians, case managers, and military leadership to soldiers needing comprehensive medical care. We describe the rationale and methods for studying behavioral health care in WTUs and characterize soldiers assigned to WTUs. Methods: The Army Warrior Care Project (AWCP) analyzes U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System data to examine behavioral health problems and service utilization among Army soldiers who were assigned to WTUs after returning from Afghanistan and Iraq deployments, FY2008-2015. Results: WTU members (N = 31,094) comprised 3.5% of the AWCP cohort (N = 883,091). Almost all (96.5%) had one WTU assignment for a median of 327 days; 77.3% were assigned before deployment ended, ≤30 or >365 days post-deployment; 59.4% had deployment-related behavioral health diagnoses. Conclusions: An overwhelming majority of soldiers had one WTU assignment for almost a year. A substantial proportion of WTU soldiers had psychological impairment, which limited performance of their military duties. The AWCP is the first longitudinal study of redeployed soldiers assigned to WTUs and provides a unique opportunity to advance our understanding of behavioral health among soldiers needing comprehensive medical care after combat deployments.