Pentagon Documents Reveal Concern Over Military Children’s Mental Health
July 10th, 2009
It’s perhaps not too surprising that as the wars in the Middle East drag on, an increasing number of military personnel are seeking professional mental health treatments. But a release of Pentagon documents recently has also caused a stir over the rise in the number of children of US Armed Forces members who are being treated for psychological concerns. The sometimes difficult realities of military life can take their toll on soldiers and other personnel deployed overseas, but these documents show the importance of taking the health of military families into consideration, as well. While coping with the loss or prolonged absence of a loved one can be especially trying for developing youth, the return of family members affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other issues common in the military can also be a challenge.
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It’s just terribly sad to think about how many children in military fams ar suffering as a result of what their parents go through. I’m glad at least that more attention is being paid to this.
I have a niece whose father and stepmother are both in the Army. There is always one of them in Iraq. You can see the strain on the child’s face every time news of soldiers being killed comes on TV.
It would be a disgrace for the issue not to be addressed as a priority. The least this nation can do for these military families who give so much of themselves, even their lives, is allow them the peace of mind of knowing their children’s mental health as well as physical is being cared for properly.
Schools and teachers have become more and more a haven for our children.
Military children are always moving and the new kids in the classroom, which is not always a situation that teachers and schools are able to tend to….the social fabric of the public schools, being what it is. In the end we all hold responsibility for the choices made in this country around war and we get to take into consideration the repercussions these choices have on children…our legacy.
Hopefully the children of military personnel who have to seek mental health care will not be scrutinized and ostracized like their soldier parents could be for seeking the same treatment. Unfortunately I have heard many stories about soldiers coming home from their tours, needing real medical and mental health, but they are deathly afraid of what that could do to their long term military careers. And will they pass up that same care to their kids because they are likeiwse afriad that it will diminish their chance for advancement in the armed services? I would hope this would never be the case but you hear too many things to even think that this could easily be dismissed as rumor.
How many years does it take for those in senior appointments to realize that there are those who stand firm behind the soldier.
We here in Australia have the same problem albeit not as big.
It started off in Vietnam (TV war) and we have been fighting ever since to make those senior persons realize that those at home suffered too and plus the kids that were born later. We are still having Vietnam Family studies 40 plus years later.
We (Viet Vets) will all be dead shortly and one hopes that those senior people will NOT let the same thing happen to these soldiers who have and are still serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It might also help to curb the divorce rate
TH
There is a body of evidence that childhood abuse leads nations to aggression and violence; grown up children are reenacting their youthful experiences, endlessly. It might be informative to see how nations with low rates of child abuse (I include spanking and any corporal punishment) behave in the wider world – a couple of generations on.
The children of soldiers are victims of our nation’s primitive form of relating with others. Dominating others diminishes on the playground – demonstrating how early kids develop past trying to solve everything by way of who can overpower the other. Some may learn to “behave” when in the sight of adults who require them not to fight; this might explain how competitive tendencies across the country seem so nearly universal and entrenched.
Do we know what the effect on children is when a parent is simple gone for an extended time? Gone, and maybe hurt? Gone, and injured? Dead, or maybe dead? I think this constitutes trauma, and I wonder whether a strong policy against traumatizing of children would include the exposure to ongoing, profound anxiety.
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