CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – When units attached to Fort Campbell deplane after a combat deployment, they carry with them lots of baggage. Not all of it is visible, though.
“The invisible injuries brought home by these returning service members pose sometimes impossibly complex challenges for military families, especially military children,” says Rev. Jodi McCullah, Executive Director of Soldiers And Families Embraced (SAFE). “Mommy or Daddy may look the same, but they don’t act the same.”
Too many returning parents bring home physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wounds like PTSD and mTBI as well as depression and high-risk behaviors (i.e. increased use of alcohol and illegal or prescription medications, etc.), according to McCullah. The result is a constantly growing number of children and youth in military families who are brought to counseling by their parents because of behavioral issues.
To meet the growing need, SAFE, a Clarksville non-profit that offers free professional counseling to active duty military, veterans and their families, recently brought in a second counselor who specializes in children’s issues.
“I have found military children to be an incredibly resilient group, but many of the youth I work with have never known a time without war,” says Sheri Ulrick, LCSW.
A military spouse herself with five military children, Ulrick started with SAFE in 2014 with the awareness that, since 9/11, it is estimated that more than two million military children have been separated from their parents because of deployments into combat. We now have an entire generation of military children who have experienced one or more parent gone every other year for combat deployments, she says.
The wounds of war are not limited to the family member who deployed. “Children/adolescents who have been affected by war or who have lost a parent due to war may be struggling with PTSD themselves,” according to Michelle DeMent, LPC-MHSP, one of SAFE’s newest counselors. She has more than 10 years’ experience counseling children and adolescents with a variety of emotional/behavioral issues including trauma, grief, adjustment issues, depression, and anxiety.
SAFE staff and counselors have spoken frequently to Family Readiness Groups and support groups on and off post, says McCullah. “Most recently, we’ve been asked to talk about children and grief, including children’s responses to suicide and violent death. Our military children do not have the luxury of being protected from the realities of death and war and that means they sometimes need extra support,” she says.
Military children certainly face extra stressors, says DeMent. Adjusting to frequent moves and changes in schools, facing the loss of friends and family because of moves, and absence of deployed parent can all be stressful and lead to telltale stress relief behaviors like acting out, angry outbursts, and even self-harm.
Parents seeking counseling for their children and teens can call SAFE offices at 931-591-3241 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday to schedule an intake interview.