After the homecoming celebration is over, establishing the “new” normal can take several months or more. Readjusting to family life, returning to work and coping with deployment related stress and injury is a process.
Challenges faced during reintegration are unlike those faced while deployed. You can begin to design solutions essential to the overall health and well-being of your family. Check out resources below as you begin to renegotiate roles and responsibilities, communicate with your children, and maintain resiliency and balance.
For more information and programs, contact your local Fleet and Family Support Center.
- Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control - dedicated to the mental health and well-being of Navy and Marine Corps service members and their families; promotes resilience; investigates and implement the best practices in the diagnoses and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
- Defense Centers of Excellence - responsible for leading a national collaborative network of military, federal, family and community leaders; clinical experts; and academic institutions to best serve the urgent and enduring needs of warriors and their families with psychological health and/or traumatic brain injury concerns.
- Real Warriors Campaign - promotes the processes of building resilience, facilitating recovery and supporting reintegration for returning service members and their families.
- The Focus Project - FOCUS (Families Over Coming Under Stress) provides resiliency training to military families; teaches practical skills to meet the challenges of deployment and reintegration, to communicate and solve problems effectively and to successfully set goals together.
- After Deployment - provides wellness resources for the military community focused on psychological health issues often experienced following a deployment.
- Sesame Workshop Talk, Listen, Connect - addresses issues related to multiple deployments, family changes that occur when a parent is physically or psychologically injured and the loss of a parent.
- Courage to Care Courage to Talk - The injuries of war — combat or non combat-related, visible or invisible — are life-changing events for the injured, their families and children. Family and friends play a vital role in the recovery process, especially that of talking and listening. Courage to Talk provides resources to assist in having these challenging conversations.
- 21st Century Sailor Suicide Prevention or Suicide Awareness and Prevention - Life counts, the first step in preventing suicide is to identify and understand the risk factors.
- Reconnection Workshops focus on individual/small group discussion that enhances the likelihood of positive reconnections among family members and the successful re-engagement of the service member in civilian life; offered by the American Red Cross, with support from Wal-Mart.
- USO Warrior and Family Care Oxygen Program is designed to help wounded, injured or ill couples strengthen their relationship and work on tough issues in a fun and non-threatening environment. Couples learn how to improve communication, better understand each other's needs, resolve conflicts, rekindle romance and find renewed hope. With the assistance of the Army's Wounded Warrior Program, Navy Safe Harbor and the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment, the USO is hosting couples workshops throughout the country.