Lynn Chwatsky has been overseeing the Sesame Workshop’s initiatives with military families since 2006.

When we think about the challenges of military life, we sometimes forget the transitions the youngest members of our military families go through. Our service members’ young children are faced with a number of uniquely difficult circumstances: repeated relocation, the deployment of a parent, homecomings, injuries, even the death of a parent – to name a few. For years, Sesame Workshop has been providing resources that help both military parents and their children stay resilient during those trying transitions. Now, those bilingual (English and Spanish) resources are available on our new, free military families mobile application.

The decision to seek help for psychological health concerns remains a struggle for many service members. In its 2012 lifestyle survey, Blue Star Families, organized by military spouses, reported that of military family respondents who believed they recognized signs of posttraumatic stress disorder in their service member, 62 percent of those service members had not sought treatment.

In an effort to encourage service members to seek help, Lt. Cmdr. Dana Lee, resilience and prevention subject matter expert with Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE), shares reasons why you shouldn’t ignore your mental health and resources that you can access now in this video. If you or someone you know has concerns, Lee recommends that you:

If the idea of chaplains getting together to discuss their interests makes you think of genteel spiritual conversations, consider the topic discussed at the August bimonthly teleconference of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) Chaplain Working Group — combat and killing in relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and spiritual distress.

The Chaplain Working Group routinely delves into spiritual and behavioral conflicts arising from deployment. It’s the nature of their calling that chaplains grapple with difficult issues, and the nature of war that military chaplains must address constructs that deeply challenge common beliefs. One such example is that spiritual health, behavioral health and the use of deadly force are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Dr. James Bender is a former Army psychologist who deployed to Iraq as the brigade psychologist for the 1st Cavalry Division 4th Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Hood, Texas. During his deployment, he traveled through Southern Iraq, from Basra to Baghdad. He writes a monthly post for the DCoE Blog on psychological health concerns related to deployment and being in the military.

When most people hear the words “psychologist,” “mental health” or “shrink,” they think “mental illness.” After all, why should you talk to those guys unless you have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression? It’s unfortunate that some people think that way, because in addition to helping with serious conditions like PTSD and depression, behavioral health specialists can offer much more. A big part of psychology concerns itself with improving physical performance.

	U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Preston Reed

Deployment support programs initially focused on the needs of service members in the pre-deployment phase as they trained and prepared for deployment. With the progression of combat operations during the past 11 years, our understanding of deployment-related challenges for service members, veterans and families is better understood, and the importance of the actual deployment and post-deployment phases is also more apparent.

Reintegration is the process of transitioning back into personal and organizational roles after a deployment. It’s often seen as a series of positive events as the service member reunites with family and friends. However, it can also be associated with increased tension and difficulties readjusting to stateside roles, new family routines and changes at work — all of which can affect a service member’s ability to transition smoothly back to home life.