CNRSE implementing family IA support program

Commander, Navy Region Southeast's (CNRSE) family support program, in conjunction with a directive from the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen, is ensuring that all bases implement an individual agumentee (IA) support group to help families of deployed loved ones.

Olivia O'Neal, the regional fleet and family support program coordinator for CNRSE as well as the working family life coordinator described how these programs will develop.

"At CNRSE we've been working on the subject of IAs and reaching out to IA families for more than a year now. One of my responsibilities is being the IA point of contact. Many months ago, our installations began outreach programs to the families of IAs and we realized that we had a major obstacle which was identifying who the IA member and their families were."

According to O'Neal, they have started to receive this information from the Expeditionary Combat Readiness Command (ECRC) based in Norfolk, Va. The ECRC has established a hotline for families of active duty and reserve Sailors who are deploying as IAs. They will provide information that will allow the Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC) to contact family members and offer services such as the IA support group, counseling, financial planning, etc.

Lt. Cmdr. Shawn Oxendine, administrative officer for CNRSE, who was deployed as an IA to Afghanistan for six months, elaborated on some of the challenges she and her family faced while she was gone and after she got back.

"Some of the problems we faced were based on my husband having to take over the role of mother as well as a father. I know he took good care of our daughter, but there were some things he didn't know how to handle," she said. "I also had to worry about them worrying about me because I wasn't always able to tell them what I was doing and wasn't always able to call."

Oxendine continued on to talk about readjusting to normal life. "It was very difficult because when I got home I wanted to just take over everything, but before we got back they briefed us that we would have to let our families carry on in their routines and gradually readjust. I think it would be helpful if they had something on the family end about how to readjust when their spouse or parent get home."

O'Neal and the FFSC are working hard to do just that. "We're now in the midst of incorporating as many spouses as we can into the IA support program. Next week, all of our installations will be mandated by the Department of Defense to start a program targeted towards the families of IAs. We felt it necessary to designate a program for IA families because they are under different stressors than those who go on routine deployments on ships," she continued.

Some of the installations under CNRSE, which covers a radius spanning from Mid-Eastern Texas to South Carolina, also including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have already began IA support programs. These programs, as well as those that will begin shortly, will introduce families to the services that the fleet and family support programs offer and educate families on PTSD, other stressors their spouse will experience overseas and help them prepare for the transition that will occur when they return home.

According to O'Neal, the success of these programs will depend on the bases. "We provide the bases with guidance and suggestions and we'll be getting information back from them on how successful their groups have been," she said. "It will also be the responsibility of whoever is running the group to make referrals for those who are having a particularly hard time and need more individual assistance. Some may need help with things such as parenting skills or just help going on with their lives. Many of these families have spouses who haven't been married very long, have very young children and are at their first station away from home so they need someone to rely on. If they don't have that, then people can quickly start falling apart."

O'Neal also stated that the FFSC will be working with the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department to see what kind of childcare is available because as she said, "we all know that the group will be more efficient if it's adults talking to adults."

The concept of an IA children support group has also been undertaken by FFSC and is already in place on some installations.

O'Neal added one last statement regarding the importance of these support programs. "The emphasis on these support groups is coming straight from the CNO. He is adamant in seeing that these families are taken care of and it falls upon the directors of the FFSCs to make it happen, which we gladly do."

For more information on NAS Jax's IA Support Program, call Glenn Barton at 542-2766, Ext. 145.