Military Reintegration Research Paper

Reintegration: Battle on the Homefront

According to the U.S. Department of Defense (2017), there are approximately 1.3 million men and women on active duty, 826 thousand serving in the National Guard and Reserves, and more than 2 million veterans who receive benefits. Of the over 2 million military personnel approximately 10% or 200-thousand are currently deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan (U.S. Department of Defense, 2017). Nearly half of all military personnel are married with children, accounting for roughly 2 million children who have experienced the strains of wartime deployments. Majority of these families have experienced multiple deployments as a result of almost two decades of combat deployments. Marek et al. (2012) state, deployments

negatively impact families by introducing or adding stress on the family, their functioning, structure, family cohesion and affects each individual and their social functioning, and these stressors intensify upon re-deployment or during the reintegration process.
Although military families and show tremendous amounts of resiliency and the reintegration process can be smooth and joyful, families have difficulties with reintegration (Marek et al., 2012).

Military families face notable challenges adjusting to life post-deployment and the reintegration period can be a turbulent time for some families, as members begin renegotiating the roles (Solomon & Knobloch, 2004)that may have changed during deployment (e.g. re-form into a functioning system). Bowling and Sherman (2008), found the reintegration process can be complicated by mental health issues (i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and substance use), and questions about the future. In addition to, the reintegration issues, military families who seek help through therapy will be coming for a variety of issues (i.e. family function issues, depression, anxiety, family violence, substance use, bereavement, suicidal ideation and emotion dysregulation). However, the stigma attached to mental health coupled with military regulations forces families to never seek treatment, which leads to maladaptive coping skills and the development of a closed family

system.
The time to act is now. Mental health providers and social workers need to be prepared to work with this population because of the recent drawdowns in both Iraq and Afghanistan will mean more troops and their families will be experiencing post-deployment reintegration, and possibly post-military service reintegration. The difficulties in reintegration have already shown high rates of domestic violence, substance abuse, and suicide, adding to the negative effects of unstable reintegration is the overall divorce rate among military service members has increased from 2.6% in 2001 to 6.8% in 2017 (DOD, 2017). To understand how military families experience reintegration this paper will be utilizing the relational turbulence model created by Leanne Knoblauch and her colleagues. Relational turbulence proposes that difficulties during reintegration are because people question their relationship and disrupt each other’s goals (Solomon & Theiss, 2011).
Contextual Analysis
Before possible solutions for smoother and joyful reintegration for military families, contributing factors of reintegration must first be identified.

Reintegration is a symptom of the more complex systemic problem within the military that begins with the sense of identity of the service member. The identity of a service member regardless of sex is to resemblance both the brother and sister to their right and to their left. Social identity theorist David Turner states, the service member’s self-knowledge is made of both personal identity and intrinsic characterizations such as personality traits, whereas, social identity, is the sense of identifying with the group the individual belongs too. Social identity is an important issue within the military, mainly due to the several cultures and subculture, but more importantly, it is because from day one in boot-camp the military depresses individualism. The military does this by forcing the service member to conform to the military rules and regulations, and the coveted uniforms. Within the construct of the military this conforming “An Army of One” creates and fosters a new social identity among all service members, which is solely used to reduce individualism, and nullify all occurrences of non-uniformity. Let me walk this last statement back a

little.
The military has one of the most stressful and dangerous jobs in the world, where it is important that orders are followed without question. The social identity within the military creates an atmosphere and culture climate where machoism, roles, ranks, job titles and deployments to be valued and respected. The idolization of socially constructed views of heroes (e.g. exhibiting masculinity, rugged, fearless, and a warrior) hinders the progression and adjustment within the military for women and men in non-combat occupational fields, creating divisions amongst the fighting force. Additionally, the identity of being a warrior also impedes on the seeking help ability of service members. In a study conducted by the United States Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health (DOD, 2007), service members believed their military careers will suffer (i.e. medical discharge, career advancement, and loss of security clearance) if they seek mental health services. Additionally, these service member believed that seeking help would lower the confidence of others in their ability, as no longer a productive member of the team. The stigma attached to mental health, and the fear of being labeled as weak, is the number one barrier for service members seeking help, and instead, resort to maladaptive coping skills which lead to issues of reintegration.
In addition to, the loss of one’s self-identity and stigma, deployments cause a tremendous amount of friction, stress, and anxiety for military families. The fear of losing their loved one weighs heaving on families during deployment. The reintegration process affects the entire family system. Researchers Knobloch et al. (2016), state the constant separation, long deployment (12+months), and rapid deployment cycles have caused many military families suffer relationship uncertainty. However, the children in these families suffer the most. Children of families who have difficulties during the reintegration process are often exposed to psychological effects, such as, child abuse and neglect, problematic attachment, and emotion dysregulation (Creech, Hadley, & Borsari, 2014).
The psychological effects of the deployment are another factor in the reintegration process not just for the children but for both the service member and their spouse. Military spouses report experiencing a “roller coaster” of emotional highs and lows during and after the deployment (Davis, Ward, & Storm, 2011), and like the service member stigma and pride hinders them from seeking help. The negative implications of deployments on the psychological health are severely under-researched; however, in 2016, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released a report, which found military spouses are more likely to abuse prescription medications, suffer from mental illness, and binge drink than their civilian peers. Utilizing the relational turbulence model, it is possible that the deployments are not the issues within these families but rather the dysfunction is related to the identified challenges within the relationship, these challenges are unique to each family, however, the unifying factors are these families perceive their relationship as tumultuous during times of transition.
The culture climate and the issues of regarding deployment lengths and cycles can be addressed by the U.S. Department of Defense, with a few policy changes. First, tackling the easier of the two issues will be deployment cycles and lengths of deployment. Understandably, there are many stakeholders when it comes to military deployments, however, the individual who is conducting the deployment is never invited to the conversation on what is best, because they are seen as equipment and not human beings with individual needs, strengths and weaknesses, this mentality needs to change. With a fighting force of over 2 million do deployments really have to be 12 months or longer? That is a real question. Furthermore, why are some units called into action more often than others? Now, military personnel reading this paper have some understanding as to why (these units are specialty trained), but should that be the answer, since the military frowns upon individualism and strives for uniformity. If the primary goal is for “an army of one” then everyone is should be trained to complete the mission and partake in their share of action in combat and deployments. This in and of itself, would be the culture change the military desperately needs. Additional policies need to address the stigma attached to mental health. The service member shouldn’t have to fear being reprimanded for seeking help. Furthermore, I propose the military create a policy that addresses (i) military culture and context, and needs specific to the nature of reintegration (e.g. parenting together after separation); (ii) how to combat stress reactions might influence parenting and the family context, and (iii) barriers to participation (Gewirtz, Hanson, & Brockberg, 2014).
Recommended Intervention
As stated earlier reintegration is a complex issue for military families, with several areas needing to be addressed, however, one systemic issue like the length of deployments and the cultural climate within the military change, then clinicians and social workers will be able to better serve these families. Therefore, I recommend that military families go through a pre-deployment screening by a marriage and family therapist or a social worker to identify the current family dynamics, dysfunctions, conflicts and maladaptive coping skills that can carry over into the deployment. In addition to the screening, I recommend that military families go through a blended 8-week course that embodies both Family System Therapy (FST) and the therapeutic concepts of parenting through change (PTC). Utilizing a blended therapeutic approach allows for the clinician to tailor the treatment to their specific needs and goals. For instance, FST helps individuals resolve their problems in the context of their family units, where many issues are likely to begin. Whereas PTC teaches parents a set of core parenting practices and supporting practices (e.g. skill encouragement, problem-solving, active communication, and emotion regulation).
Strengths
One of the strengths of using FST and PTC is both interventions are evidenced based and well utilized in the field in the domains of family reintegration. This type of intervention strengthens effective parenting practices and reduces the coercive family process. The course is time limited to only 8-weeks and is used as a booster for creating healthy family dynamics prior to a deployment.
Weakness
The issue of location is a factor and a weakness of this type of intervention. The location would be on a military installation and the stigma attached to mental health and the trust of not reporting issues back to the chain of command could reduce participation or honest dialogue between the client(s) and the clinician. A blended therapy means the facilitator would have been trained in both FST and PTC, as well as being culturally competent of military rules, and regulations. The course is 8-week prior to a deployment, this is vital training time, and 8-weeks cuts into almost 2 months of that time.
The role of the social worker in this intervention is to screen these families for potential barriers for treatment and then guide the family to resources to address these barriers (i.e. commander recommendations, childcare referrals, and transportation).