Mental Illness Awareness Week October 7-13: What About the Children of our Troops?
Thursday, October 11, 2007
JC Jones MA RN
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a patient advocacy organization observe Mental Illness Awareness Week every year to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
We have covered the issues of the burden of mental illness in our veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in other posts. The work is stressful - but what about the children who are left behind when parents are deployed to fight? Our mental health system is strained as a result of the continuing burden of war. Mental health workers need to consider the effects of separation on military children. Children and spouses of deployed troops experience increased incidence of depression compared with families of nondeployed troops. The depression manifests as internalized symptoms rather than behaviors in these children, so outreach is especially important in this population. Boys were found to be more vulnerable than girls, younger boys in particular.
Children, recognizing that the family unit is under stress, may hide their symptoms of depression and anxiety. Clinicians suggest that when parents return from duty and life resumes as before the deployment, affected children let off steam and may manifest behavior problems. Thus, health care providers can not rely on the reports of parents and caregivers to determine the mental health status of the child. The child must be interviewed and assessed.
Military life does provide good social support systems as well as free medical care to families that should help buffer families through stressful times. Mental health experts recommend these tips for deployed service members:
- Discuss the deployment with your children and reassure them. Answer their questions honestly with age appropriate information
- During your deployment, write each child a separate letter or send each an individual audio or videotape expressing your love for them
- Arrange for older male companionship (uncles, grandfathers) for young boys
- Before returning home, discuss with children that both the deployed parent and the children will have changed during the absence
- Allow time for family members to get reacquainted and adjust to the change
Thank you pingnews.com for use of photo Greeting Family by Jacob Sippel, US Navy.
Labels: Desert Storm, mental illness, military children, parental absence, stress
2 Comments:
At Wed Oct 17, 09:00:00 AM 2007,
Hope said…
When I was three my father returned home after a year of serving in South Korea. At the time the Army uniforms were Khaki Green. My sister and I couldn't remember who my father was and decided that he must be the Jolly Green Giant. We went about singing "Ho, Ho, Ho" so often that we were annoying. My mother finally forbade us to sing it. In the late 50's and early 60's deployments for the 101st Airborne were so frequent that we it was just a way of life to us. We had no idea that it was unusual, and other than missing our father I don't recall being overly stressed by the fact that he was in a war zone. I think that Television plays a large role now in creating that stress in children. We never saw footage of war zones. It's a daily occurance now.
At Sun Jul 20, 02:13:00 PM 2008,
Anonymous said…
I appreciate your comments about stress and television. There is no doubt in my mind that television contributes to what our children experience when their mother or father is deployed. My children's father is currently deployed and thus far they are doing very well and I attibute it to one thing; we turned off the television. They are very busy with sports, friends, playing outside, and playing with the dog at the park. Their father writes them letters to tell them how he is doing and feeling so they get "good information" as opposed to what the media wants them to hear. So far, it has worked great and this approach is good for their well being and mental health.
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