Psychological Services Center offers support groups for military families

In response to the stresses of separation and combat that active duty military personnel and their families face, the Psychological Services Center is offering two free support groups to help family members cope.

The center’s director, Christopher Overtree says the program “is a direct response to the growing needs of military families for support during this prolonged conflict, efforts we hope to see mirrored by other local and national organizations.”

According to the Department of Defense, approximately 490,000 men and women are serving abroad in the armed forces. When military personnel are sent away from home, their families try to manage the challenges of separation and loneliness while taking on roles and responsibilities that the military partner used to fulfill. This can be a particularly difficult adjustment among families with children, as spouses begin parenting on their own and children adapt to their enlisted parent’s absence. Holly Parker, a clinical postdoctoral fellow and former researcher on post-traumatic stress interventions for returning military personnel, says “these families have already mastered many of the challenges of existing in a military environment, but during times of conflict, can benefit from additional supports from their local communities.”

Among the troops currently deployed abroad, more than 186,000 of them are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their family members face a number of challenges that compound the difficulty of separation, such as fear for the active duty family member, extended periods of deployment, and multiple tours of duty. Moreover, Iraq and Afghanistan are the longest running wars since Vietnam, and there is a growing need for mental health services among returning troops. Within a year of returning from combat in Iraq, one-third of military personnel sought mental health services at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the suicide rate in the army is higher than it has been in 26 years. The impact of prolonged combat on military personnel’s emotional well-being may create additional stress for family members at home as they try to maintain a healthy relationship with their loved one abroad, effectively parent, and meet daily demands, according to Overtree.

To address this need, the Psychological Services Center is offering two support groups for families with parents who are serving abroad in the armed forces. One group is designed to support parents trying to maintain healthy relationships and co-parent with a partner who is deployed away from home. It is a 12-week group in which parents will be able to share their experiences and emotions while listening and learning from one another. Clinicians will facilitate group sessions that address issues around coping with fear and loneliness, managing the emotional and practical stress involved with parenting alone, and learning strategies for supporting and accepting partners when they return home changed by the experience of war.

The other group is for children coping with the anxiety and uncertainty of having a parent away in the military. Clinicians experienced in working therapeutically with children will facilitate this group, which will use arts and crafts activities, games, and other interactive techniques to explore children’s concerns about their enlisted parent. Overtree says that these programs “acknowledge that children and adults have different needs and coping responses, and each group has been specifically designed with this in mind.”

The PSC is the training clinic in the Clinical Division of the Department of Psychology and has a long history of offering high-quality, low-cost psychotherapy to clients, including those without health insurance or who have inadequate insurance coverage for mental health services.

For more information, contact the Psychological Services Center at 545-0041, by e-mail at psc@psych.umass.edu, or online www.umass.edu/psc.

More Information

Psychological Services Center

October 22, 2007.

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