Every year the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps holds training for its chaplains and religious program specialists (RPs), who support chaplains.  The training aims to equip chaplains and RPs with knowledge and skills to assist leadership in identifying and assisting Sailors, Marines and Coast Guard personnel affected by combat and operational stress.  The Navy Chaplain Corps encourages all chaplains and RPs to attend this course. 

The recent 2009 Professional Development and Training Course (PDTC), "Combat Operational Stress Control for Caregivers: The Family Dynamic," built on the foundation provided during the 2008 PDTC, “Combat Operational Stress Control for the Caregiver.”  This year’s PDTC targeted other care-providing communities in the Navy and Marine Corps that support Sailors and Marines, such as Marine Corps Community Service mental health counselors, Navy medical corps officers and corpsmen, Marine Corps family readiness officers, Navy ombudsmen, and other care-providers in programs designed to support the military family. 

Attendees learned about secondary stress and how the stress level of the service member affects the entire family unit.  The course offered participants tools to identify operational stress issues within the military family.  Vignettes and videos from families actually affected by a physically or psychologically injured Marine or Sailor were shown, providing attendees real-life examples of injured service members and what assistance was provided to support them

Because chaplains were the main focus of this annual training, much attention was given to the spiritual dimensions of supporting a family affected by combat stress.  For example, an entire module during the three-day workshop was devoted to spiritual resources that could provide comfort and healing to affected families whose Marine or Sailor had combat stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder.  These resources included the assistance and care the family received from their church, synagogue, or place or worship; the power of prayer and ritual in providing comfort and structure to affected families; and, the use of forgiveness in promoting healing for the service member and his or her family.

Also of note was a module designed to help the caregiver manage and cope with disabilities, including care-giver strategies for resilient and healthy coping for the family with a disabled member.  Attendees were equipped to better understand how spirituality plays a vital role in addressing disabilities for the affected person, the family unit as a whole, and for the care-giver who attends to these disabilities. Overall, the course addressed the specific challenges families of affected service members face, and how caregivers can help the families recognize and overcome these challenges to enhance their chances for positive outcomes.