This unique reference integrates knowledge culled from fifteen years of U.S. deployments to create an action plan for supporting military and veteran families during future conflicts. Its innovative ideas stretch beyond designated governmental agencies (e.g., Department of Defense, VA) to include participation from, and possible collaborations with, the business/corporate, academic, advocacy, and philanthropic sectors. Contributors identify ongoing and emerging issues affecting military and veteran families and recommend specific strategies toward expanding and enhancing current programs and policy. This proactive agenda also outlines new directions for mobilizing the research community, featuring strategies for addressing institutional challenges and improving access to critical data. Included in the coverage: Lessons learned inside the Pentagon. Merging reintegration streams for veterans and military families. The unique role of professional associations in assisting military families: a case study. Philanthropy for military and veteran families: challenges past, recommendations for tomorrow. Rules of engagement: media coverage of military families during war. Designing and implementing strategic research studies to support military families. A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families is of immediate usefulness to leaders, professionals, and future professionals in interdisciplinary academic, governmental, advocacy, and philanthropic areas of focus interested in the theoretical, practical, and real-life concerns and needs of military-affiliated families.

This unique resource provides findings and insights regarding the multiple impacts of military duty on service members and veterans, specifically from a family standpoint. Broad areas of coverage include marital and family relationships, parenting issues, family effects of war injuries, and family concerns of single service members. The book's diverse contents highlight understudied populations and topics gaining wider interest while examining the immediate and long-term impact of service on family functioning. In addition to raising awareness of issues, chapters point to potential solutions including science-based pre- and post-deployment programs, more responsive training for practitioners, and more focused research and policy directions. Among the topics covered: * Deployment and divorce: an in-depth analysis by relevant demographic and military characteristics. * Military couples and posttraumatic stress: interpersonally based behaviors and cognitions as mechanisms of individual and couple distress. * Warfare and parent care: armed conflict and the social logic of child and national protection. * Understanding the experiences of women and LGBT veterans in Department of Veterans Affairs care. * Risk and resilience factors in combat military health care providers. * Tangible, instrumental, and emotional support among homeless veterans. War and Family Life offers up-to-date understanding for mental health professionals who serve military families, both in the U.S. and abroad.

War related separations challenge military families in many ways. The worry and uncertainty associated with absent family members exacerbates the challenges of personal, social, and economic resources on the home front. U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have sent a million service personnel from the U.S. alone into conflict areas leaving millions of spouses, children and others in stressful circumstances. This is not a new situation for military families, but it has taken a toll of magnified proportions in recent times. In addition, medical advances have prolonged the life of those who might have died of injuries. As a result, more families are caring for those who have experienced amputation, traumatic brain injury, and profound psychological wounds. The Department of Defence has launched unprecedented efforts to support service members and families before, during, and after deployment in all locations of the country as well as in remote locations. Stress in U.S. Military Families brings together an interdisciplinary group of experts from the military to the medical to examine the issues of this critical problem. Its goal is to review the factors that contribute to stress in military families and to point toward strategies and policies that can help. Covering the major topics of parenting, marital functioning, and the stress of medical care, and including a special chapter on single service members, it serves as a comprehensive guide for those who will intervene in these problems and for those undertaking their research.

Serving Military Families introduces readers to the unique culture of military families, their resilience, and the challenges of military life. It reviews the latest research, theories, policies, and programs to prepare readers for understanding and working with military families. It also offers practical knowledge about the challenges that come with military family life and the federal policies, laws, programs, and policies that support military and veteran families. Boasting a new full-color design and rich with pedagogy, the text also includes several boxed elements in each chapter: "Spotlight on Research" highlights researchers who study military and veteran families with the goal of informing and enriching the work of family support professionals. "Voices from the Frontline" presents the real-life stories of support program leaders, practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and most importantly service members and veterans and their families. "Tips from the Frontline" offers concrete, hands-on suggestions based on the experiences and wisdom of the people featured in the text and the broader research and practice communities. Third Edition Features: Streamlined focus on theories and the addition of the contextual model of family stress and life course theory, including an interview with Glen Elder in which he shares his perspective on the theory’s development and how it can be applied to understand development across individuals and cohorts. Personal accounts of 70 program leaders, practitioners, researchers, policy makers and, significantly, service members, veterans, and family members who offer insight into their personal experiences, successes, and challenges associated with military life. 20 new interviews with service members, veterans, family members, researchers, and clinicians that bring important topics to life. Updated demographics and descriptions of service members, veterans, and their families. Expanded descriptions of mental health treatment approaches with an emphasis on including family members. Updated exercises focused on providing services to military and veteran families. New online resources designed to further enrich discourse and discussion. Serving Military Families is designed as a core text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on military families or as a supplement for related courses taught in family science, human development, family life education, social work, and clinical or counseling psychology programs. Providing a foundation for working with increased sensitivity, knowledge, and respect, the text can also be a useful resource to helping professionals who work with military and veteran families.

Serving Military Families introduces readers to the unique culture of military families, their resilience, and the challenges of military life. It reviews the latest research, theories, policies, and programs to prepare readers for understanding and working with military families. It also offers practical knowledge about the challenges that come with military family life and the federal policies, laws, programs, and policies that support military and veteran families. Boasting a new full-color design and rich with pedagogy, the text also includes several boxed elements in each chapter: "Spotlight on Research" highlights researchers who study military and veteran families with the goal of informing and enriching the work of family support professionals. "Voices from the Frontline" presents the real-life stories of support program leaders, practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and most importantly service members and veterans and their families. "Tips from the Frontline" offers concrete, hands-on suggestions based on the experiences and wisdom of the people featured in the text and the broader research and practice communities. Third Edition Features: Streamlined focus on theories and the addition of the contextual model of family stress and life course theory, including an interview with Glen Elder in which he shares his perspective on the theory’s development and how it can be applied to understand development across individuals and cohorts. Personal accounts of 70 program leaders, practitioners, researchers, policy makers and, significantly, service members, veterans, and family members who offer insight into their personal experiences, successes, and challenges associated with military life. 20 new interviews with service members, veterans, family members, researchers, and clinicians that bring important topics to life. Updated demographics and descriptions of service members, veterans, and their families. Expanded descriptions of mental health treatment approaches with an emphasis on including family members. Updated exercises focused on providing services to military and veteran families. New online resources designed to further enrich discourse and discussion. Serving Military Families is designed as a core text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on military families or as a supplement for related courses taught in family science, human development, family life education, social work, and clinical or counseling psychology programs. Providing a foundation for working with increased sensitivity, knowledge, and respect, the text can also be a useful resource to helping professionals who work with military and veteran families.

This unique resource provides findings and insights regarding the multiple impacts of military duty on service members and veterans, specifically from a family standpoint. Broad areas of coverage include marital and family relationships, parenting issues, family effects of war injuries, and family concerns of single service members. The book's diverse contents highlight understudied populations and topics gaining wider interest while examining the immediate and long-term impact of service on family functioning. In addition to raising awareness of issues, chapters point to potential solutions including science-based pre- and post-deployment programs, more responsive training for practitioners, and more focused research and policy directions. Among the topics covered: * Deployment and divorce: an in-depth analysis by relevant demographic and military characteristics. * Military couples and posttraumatic stress: interpersonally based behaviors and cognitions as mechanisms of individual and couple distress. * Warfare and parent care: armed conflict and the social logic of child and national protection. * Understanding the experiences of women and LGBT veterans in Department of Veterans Affairs care. * Risk and resilience factors in combat military health care providers. * Tangible, instrumental, and emotional support among homeless veterans. War and Family Life offers up-to-date understanding for mental health professionals who serve military families, both in the U.S. and abroad.

War related separations challenge military families in many ways. The worry and uncertainty associated with absent family members exacerbates the challenges of personal, social, and economic resources on the home front. U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have sent a million service personnel from the U.S. alone into conflict areas leaving millions of spouses, children and others in stressful circumstances. This is not a new situation for military families, but it has taken a toll of magnified proportions in recent times. In addition, medical advances have prolonged the life of those who might have died of injuries. As a result, more families are caring for those who have experienced amputation, traumatic brain injury, and profound psychological wounds. The Department of Defence has launched unprecedented efforts to support service members and families before, during, and after deployment in all locations of the country as well as in remote locations. Stress in U.S. Military Families brings together an interdisciplinary group of experts from the military to the medical to examine the issues of this critical problem. Its goal is to review the factors that contribute to stress in military families and to point toward strategies and policies that can help. Covering the major topics of parenting, marital functioning, and the stress of medical care, and including a special chapter on single service members, it serves as a comprehensive guide for those who will intervene in these problems and for those undertaking their research.