Oral

Stress in the military is a well accepted concern. It is of particular concern and intensity for military members and their families as they prepare to deploy to areas of hostility or return from areas of hostility. Multiple deployments also impact the stress and mental health of our military men, women, and families. While the military is doing all it can to address the issue, the stigma of a perceived adverse impact on careers is recognized as an impediment for many career military personnel to seek and fully utilize on-base or base referred resources. This session would explore the opportunity for community based outreach and service organizations to assist military men, women, and families in reacclimating while potentially providing various services. Since these proposed services would be outside of the military sphere of influence, observation and referral would provide military men, women, and their families with a safe harbor for community based activities and resources to help with pre and post deployment stresses. This would provide military personnel and their families with a sense of connectedness with the world outside of the military post. A targeted geographic approach which would be representative of military men, women, and families throughout the nation, while addressing cultural, ethnic, gender, and logistical issues and sensitivities would be considered. Particular attention would be paid to those military men, women, and their families, who have returned (reintegration) from assignments and deployments from areas where they have been subjected to extraordinary hardship or stress, particularly combat areas. Also, military men, women, and their families who are preparing for assignment or deployment (separation) to areas where they will be subject to extraordinary hardship or stress would also be a focus. This panel discussion would discuss changes in families, children, and friends and how those changes, as well as their experience in the service, alter their own life afterward. The panel presentation will address existing community networks and potential channels/outlets and partners to implement impactful public health education strategies, interventions and programs for military men, women, and their families.

Session Objectives: 1. Demonstrate the need for off-base community outreach and service organizations to provide recreational and reacclimational services. 2. Define the stress and hardship faced by military men, women, and their families who have returned from assignments and deployments to combat and other areas. 3. Identify plausible channels in which to engineer these reacclimational services and resources.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)