Special Concerns in Military Families
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MILITARY MENTAL HEALTH (E MEYER II, SECTION EDITOR)
Special Concerns in Military Families Monica D. Ormeno 1 & Yevin Roh 1 & Mathew Heller 2 & Elizabeth Shields 3 & Aidith Flores-Carrera 4 & Matthew Greve 5 & Jarred Hagan 6 & Anastasia Kostrubala 7 & Natosha Onasanya 8 Accepted: 26 October 2020 # This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2020
Abstract Purpose of Review Military cultural competence has been recognized as an important factor to delivering effective care to service members, who are a distinct population with unique exposures, and thus with different clinical implications—though only recently has the military service been recognized as a cultural identity that can impact treatment (Meyer et al. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 18:26:1– 8, 2016). Competencies within this field do not share a universal definition but have been recognized by the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) to include four key components: (1) military ethos, (2) organization and roles, (3) military stressors and resources, and (4) treatment, resources, and tools (Atuel & Castro Clin Soc Work J. 46:74–82, 2018). This article summarizes research literature published in the last 6 years addressing common features and health needs of military families with the goal of improving military cultural competence. This includes recognizing that (a) The military carries its own culture as evidenced by its particular traditions, beliefs, language, and set of guiding principles (Sanghera Optom Educ J Assoc Sch Coll Optom. 42:8–16, 2017) and (b) military families—defined in this paper as active duty service members, their spouses, their children, and civilian warfighters in the form of National Guard and Reservists (NG/R)—face unique stressors as they access health care either in military treatment facilities (MTFs) or in civilian settings. Given the broad and unshared definition of military cultural competence, the CDP’s framework for understanding military culture helped shape the focus of our review into literature addressing military stressors and resources, with a particular interest on the impact of deployment, reintegration after deployment, interfamily relationships strained by military service, mental health concerns related to military families, and the vulnerabilities of civilian warfighters. Recent Findings A 2018 demographics profile revealed there were 1.3 million active duty service members, with 605,677 spouses and 981,871 children (Department of Defense, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community Family Policy (ODASD (MC&FP)). 2018). Concerningly, military families exhibit above-average mental health issues—defined in this review to include increased susceptibility to mental health diagnoses and hospitalizations, worse academic achievement in their children, and higher rates of child maltreatment—and challenges related to military service such as frequent relocations and deployments, geographic isolation from social/support networ
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