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Page Content Services for IA Sailors and their FamiliesResources for Navy IA Sailors and their families come generally in the form of Support and/or Services. Support Networks provide answers, advice and community for those left behind by their deployed IA Sailors. Services are those resources which attempt to provide specific products or aid and are covered here. The services described below are broken into five categories:
- General Services: Organizations providing a host of services, including financial, communication and transition related services.
- Crisis Service: Organizations specializing in helping IA Sailors and/or their dependents during a crisis.
- Financial Services: Organizations providing services primarily to assist IA Sailors and/or their families experiencing financial distress.
- Communication: Organizations whose mission is to serve military families by building resiliency through better communication and other separation coping strategies.
- Transition: Organizations whose mission is to serve military families by building resiliency to assist them in making smoother life transitions - including deployment, reintegration, and/or injury recovery.
Finally, links to Official Navy policy and guidance for services to IA Sailors and their dependents are provided at the end of this page.
1. General Services
2. Crisis Services
- Military Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255, Press 1. The Military Crisis Line (MCL) is a toll-free, confidential resource that connects Service members in crisis and their families and friends with qualified, caring responders. Includes suicide prevention counseling.
- Military One Source: 1-800-342-9647 can assist in connecting IA Sailors or their dependents to appropriate services in a crisis.
3. Financial Services
- Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society: A nonprofit, charitable organization that provides financial, educational, and other assistance to Sailors, family members and survivors. Counseling, loans, grants, various services, and referral to other community resources are available.
- Operation: Military Child Care (OMCC) is the Child Care Aware of America program designed to meet the temporary child care needs of activated or deployed service members through financial aid and child care search assistance.
4. Communication Services
- Confidential Non-Medical Counseling is available through both Military OneSource and the Military and Family Life Counselor Program. Each person seeking counseling may receive up to 12 sessions per issue at no cost.
- Hearts Apart Morale Call: IA Sailors and their families are authorized one 15-minute phone call per day when domestic call can be placed locally through a local base operator. There are two ways IA Sailors and their families can be connected: Military members can call the operator from the deployed location and ask to be connected to a local civilian number. For families, you can call the local base operator to place the call. When you call this number, you must already know the DSN number at the deployed location and you must pre-coordinate with your IA Sailor so he/she is by the phone when you call. When you call, state that your call is a Hearts Apart call when you provide the DSN number. Note that domestic callers are responsible for any charges they incur connecting to the base operator.
- American Red Cross: sends communications on behalf of family members who are facing emergencies or other important events to members of the U.S. Armed Forces serving all over the world. These communications are delivered around-the-clock, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
- United through Reading® - Military program helps ease the stress of separation for military families by having deployed parents read children’s books aloud via DVD for their child to watch at home.
- Operation Uplink - Deployed service members can sign up for free SPAWAR phone time from the Veterans of Foreign Wars via Operation Uplink.
- FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress™) provides resiliency training to military children and families. It teaches practical skills to meet the challenges of deployment and reintegration, to communicate and solve problems effectively, and to successfully set goals together and create a shared family story.
5. Transition Services
- Returning Warrior Workshops are sponsored by the US Navy to help returning IA Sailors reintegrate successfully with their families.
- Veteran Centers, provided by the Veterans Administration, deliver mobile workshops and phone counseling services to assist with family and career transition for returning IA Sailors.
- Confidential Non-Medical Counseling is available through both Military OneSource and the Military and Family Life Counselor Program. Each person seeking counseling may receive up to 12 sessions per issue at no cost.
- Military Pathways provides free, anonymous behavioral health and alcohol self-assessments for service members and their families in all branches including the National Guard and Reserve. Military Pathways is available online, over the phone, and at special events held at installations worldwide. Self-assessments include a series of questions that, when linked together, help create a picture of how an individual is feeling and whether they could benefit from talking to a health professional. The primary goals of the program are to encourage help-seeking behavior, to raise awareness about behavioral health, and to connect those in need to available resources. The self-assessments address depression, PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, alcohol use, and bipolar disorder.
- The Armed Services Young Men’s Christian Association (ASYMCA) works with the Department of Defense (DoD) to provide a number of programs and services, including home visit counseling and crisis counseling.
- Operation Purple: The National Military Family Association's Operation Purple camps are a time for having fun, making friends and reminding military kids that they are the nation's youngest heroes.
- Navy Wounded Warrior - Safe Harbor: Navy's lead organization for coordinating the non-medical care of wounded, ill, and injured Sailors, Coast Guardsmen and their families. Provides a lifetime of individually-tailored assistance designed to optimize the success of recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration.
- Daddy Dolls creates dolls, pillowcases and other items based on photo-prints that are ideal for children (the dolls) or even the IA Sailor (a pillow case with a family photo). Sometimes vouchers can be obtained through Fleet and Family Support centers or other supporting organizations.
- Operation Sweet Dreams provides photo-printed pillowcases as a free service.
- The Veteran Career Transition Program is a free career transition service for post 9/11 vets (and spouses) operated out of Syracuse University.
- Several Navy initiatives exist to help Sailors translate their military experience into civilian academic or industry equivalent credentials, including Navy COOL, USMAP, and SMART.
- Several government supported initiatives also exist to help veterans transition to the civilian workforce, including:
- Finally, there are a large number of networking, mentoring and job-search-oriented sites designed to help vets, including the Veteran Mentor Network on LinkedIn (including free premium membership for veterans), ACP AdvisorNet, eMentor, Mentoring Plus, Workforce Opportunity Services, Vets in Tech, Vets in Medicine, The Mission Continues, Career One Stop, US Vets, Warrior 2 Cyber Warrior, Helmets to Hardhats, Military Transition Job Seeker Guide and many others.
Official Policy & Guidance
Disclaimer The appearance of hyperlinks on this page does not constitute endorsement by the Federal Government, the Department of Defense, or the Defense Information Systems Agency of linked web sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation sites, the Defense Information Systems Agency does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at linked locations. External links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DoD web site.
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