PTSD in Children of Deployed Military

SUSTAINABLY SPEAKING
Military Children:
One of the keys to creating a truly sustainable community is quality education. Our children must learn myriad lessons concerning everything from communication skills to accurate computational skills to scientific methodologies. Unfortunately, many children have too many distractions in their lives so learning what society needs them to learn has become more and more difficult.

Many of the distractions that children deal with are the product of our modern age. Nintendo, X-Box, and Play Station have made an incredible impact on developing minds and most of it does not appear to be good. But some kids have to deal with an entirely different distraction; the disruption of their family structure due to the deployment of a parent.
In past generations only a few military personnel had families and children at home. During World War II only 5% of military personnel were married. Today, 52% of all military personnel are married and many of these have children. When today’s military men and women are deployed, the children are left behind and have deal with all of the fears and anxieties that go along with such events.

Today’s Military Child has to deal with the instability of a home without a father or a mother and the constant fear that mommy or daddy may never come home again. This has led some children to develop all of the symptoms that we would normally attribute to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. We are fortunate because we have been able to arrange for an expert in the field of PTSD in children to come to give us an introduction to this problem.
On the evening of January 28, 2007 at 6:30 pm, FAFSOM will host Alicia Cottrell for an Informational Session on PTSD in children. The event will take place at the Sturgis National Guard Armory. Alicia has first hand experience with PTSD as she experienced the symptoms of PTSD when her father was deployed during Desert Storm. Today, she has made it her mission to help communities and schools recognize the signs of PTSD and to develop strategies for supporting children who are having a difficult time dealing with the stresses of having a deployed parent.

Last week, while attending a seminar presented by the Military Child Education Coalition, the idea of Child PTSD was discussed and many participants, many of whom were school social workers, were quite surprised that children were suffering from PTSD. This helped to reinforce, in my mind, that this event was seriously needed. If we expect kids to be successful in school, we need to make sure we help them feel as safe and secure as possible.
I want to invite all of my readers and their friends and family to attend this event. It is not just for school personnel and military families. It is for anyone who cares about children. If you can attend this event please send me an email so we can make sure we have enough chairs and refreshments for the evening. Send your email to jnewman@fafsom.org. We look forward to seeing all of you there.

For more information go to www.FAFSOM.org