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As more and more of our military personnel are returning home physically, Chaplain King helps us understand the difficulty of what soldiers' and their families are experiencing and how the faith community can be a resource.
Continuing our concern about how our community is reaching out to our military personnel and families, Mecklenburg Ministries is sponsoring another "Community Read" next Monday, March 17th: Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War by Andrew Carroll. Details about all these things are found below.
TAKING CARE OF THOSE WHO TAKE CARE OF US
Major Steven King, Full- time Support Chaplain, North Carolina National Guard (For Chaplain King's contact information, see end of article)
"Developing a Practical Congregational Awareness &Response to Troops and Families During the Deployment Cycle"
Become aware of the unique deployment and adjustment issues for soldiers/airmen and their families.
Identify re-adjustment challenges veterans and their families face post-deployment.
Develop congregational/pastoral care responses to help meet these needs.
Scope of Issue:
- 4,337 USA - Fatalities
- 16,460 WIA - Returned to duty
- 1.4 + Million soldiers are involved in the GWOT ("Global War on Terror") http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
- North Carolina National Guard has 11,500 Soldiers and Airmen. 85% of these members have civilian jobs in communities across the state.
How can the faith community help families during a deployment?
Supporting the Family supports the Soldier, "When a soldier goes to war, the family goes to war."
Adopt a Family
Hold special church observances
Create a Spouse Support Group Spouses Night Out- provide them with a night of their own and child care
Practical Assistance: (think outside the box)- provide repairs, routine maintenance, financial counseling,...Simply ask, "How can we help?"
Read to become better acquainted with Military Family needs: "When Duty Calls"- Carol Vandesteeg, "To Iraq and Back", "Once A Warrior: Wired For Life"- Bridget Cantrell & Chuck Dean, "Church Guide to Ministering to the Family"
Web: www.military,ministry.org, www.militaryhomefront.dod.mil, www.militarywives.com
Post-Deployment Support
Healing From My Father's War By Cynthia B. Astle: "Each soldier coming back from war is wounded - some in body, but all in heart and mind and soul. And each warrior's family potentially faces the kind of trauma our family endured, unless their warriors are helped to work through their war experiences, to 're-integrate', as the chaplains say, from military into civilian life."
Neither the returning soldier nor the family members at home are the same
The enormity of the war experience shatters the individual's basic sense of safety and basic understanding of the meaning of life.
Virtually all individuals returning from combat will face acute stress reactions and other re-integration issues (personal reaction).
Trauma reactions upon returning from war are normal reactions.
Resetting - Difficulty of coming "turning off" combat (survival) skills.
Adaptive/Survival Skills
Emotional Numbing/Distancing
Problems with Intimacy
Quick Reactions
Hypersensitivity to Justice
Crowd Avoidance
Psychological Reactions to Trauma
Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions.
Recurrent distressing dreams of the event.
Hyper-vigilance, jumpiness, an extreme sense of being "on guard" overreactions, including sudden unprovoked anger.
Physical Reactions to Trauma
Eating disturbances (more or less than usual)
Sleep disturbances (more or less than usual)
Sexual dysfunction
Low energy
Chronic, unexplained pain
Emotional Reactions to Trauma
Depression, spontaneous crying, despair and hopelessness
Anxiety/Panic attacks
Compulsive and obsessive behaviors (Sub Abuse)
Irritability, angry and resentment
Emotional numbness/detachment
Feelings of Guilt
Behavioral Reactions to Trauma
Substance abuse
Self-destructive and impulsive behavior
Uncontrollable reactive thoughts
Feelings of ineffectiveness, shame, despair, hopelessness
Loss of previously sustained beliefs
Trauma's Effect on Interpersonal Life
Hostility - Impatience with the "stupid stuff"
Arguments with family members, employers or co- workers
Social withdrawal
Sexual problems
Feeling constantly threatened
Spiritual Reactions to Trauma
Confusion about God
Altered sense of meaning in/of life
Grief and loss issues
Questions of Theodicy
Feelings of guilt
Veterans and Clergy
Veterans feel more comfortable approaching their pastor than they do a mental health professional.
Research shows that 4 of 10 individuals with mental health challenges seek counseling from clergy.
Individuals seek council from ministers more than all other mental health providers combined.
Pastor as a Safe Haven
Offers a calm, safe and non-judgmental, non- anxious presence.
Provides clear, reliable boundaries of communion and respect.
Provides a compassionate space wide enough to encompass the awfulness of war trauma.
Practical Ways to Support
Provide counseling services and financial assistance for counseling
Sponsor a Military Kid's Camp
Maintain Community Referral List
Host a Reintegration Seminar or a Marriage Retreat
Know about your community resources: Charlotte Vet Center- 704-333-6107
Send a couple to Operation Phoenix: www.phoenixprojectretreat.org
Resources
Project Compassion: (919) 402-1844 www.project- compassion.org
Military One Source: www.militaryonesource.com
Military Ministry: www.militaryministry.org
www.mfc.org/MinisteringtoSoldiersandTheirFamiliesR esources.htm
Charlotte Family Assistance Office: Kati Toney 704- 359-5756
Chaplain (MAJ) Steven King:
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919-610-4392
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