Military kids and the educators who teach them in South Sound schools can learn about the stresses of deployment at a new website developed by a Pentagon research branch at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
The site, www.militarykidsconnect.org, offers age-targeted information for children in elementary, middle and high school groups. It has a separate portal for teachers and caregivers that includes suggestions on how to be mindful of a military student’s home life.
It’s intended to consolidate scattered information from different programs that seek to assist children of deployed service members. As the website shows, those students can feel a sense of isolation at school and frustration with their separated families.
“Remember, a stressed student, including one coping with a parent’s deployment, may have difficulty concentrating, learning new concepts and controlling their emotional reactions – be patient, but stay consistent,” the website recommends to teachers.
The site was created by researchers at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, a four-year-old program at Lewis-McChord that has created a similar website for combat veterans called afterdeployment.org.
“Since 2001, an estimated 2 million children have said goodbye to a parent headed to deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, other places around the globe, and on ships at sea,” said Kelly Blasko, a psychologist who helped develop the site.
“Military children are deeply affected by the separation of their parent’s deployment. We’ve seen that, in their hearts, kids deploy, too,” Blasko said.
Washington state has been sensitive to the distinct needs of military children whose parents have gone overseas multiple times over the past 10 years. A recent study from the University of Washington showed the children of deployed soldiers were more likely to have suicidal thoughts and feel depressed than civilian kids.
The state school superintendent, meanwhile, has a website aimed at educators, and Washington State University regularly hosts a Tacoma forum on military families where people share ideas on how to ease the struggles of children.
The National Center for Telehealth and Technology is part of the Defense Centers of Excellence, which were created to study combat stress in 2008 as policy makers sought to understand the long-term consequences of war. The Government Accountability Office last year recommended that the programs take greater efforts to prove the value of their behavioral health projects and to demonstrate whether they succeed.
Adam Ashton: 253-597-8646
adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/military
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