FOCUS Project Information
Resilience Training for USMC Wounded Warriors
Memorable Quotes from Participants
Contacting The FOCUS Project
FOCUS Project Camp Lejeune
798 Brewster Blvd.
Building 40
Camp Lejeune, NC 28547
Amy - 910-450-5633
Mary - 910-450-5743
Jodi - 910-450-5632
Cindy - 910-450-5743
Miranda - 910-450-5632
Davinity - 910-450-5635
camplejeune@
focusproject.org
www.focusproject.org
Participation in FOCUS is voluntary, confidential, and is not in the chain of command.
Participation in the
8-session resilience training is very flexible. We serve the needs of individual families and can accomodate your schedule by adjusting the number of training sessions. We also have family friendly hours and if both parents are unable to participate, we welcome one parent or caregivers to bring the family to FOCUS.
FOCUS Camp Lejeune Resiliency Trainer
Employment Opportunities: FOCUS CAMP LEJEUNE Resiliency Trainer
The FOCUS Family Resiliency Trainer will provide services here aboard Camp Lejeune, under the direct supervision of the FOCUS Site Director (SD).
For details and more information, please click here.
Please contact our office directly to speak with Amy Greenslit, Site Director, FOCUS Camp Lejeune at 910-450-5633. In addition, FOCUS currently has openings in 29 Palms, CA and Hawaii. For available positions outside of Camp Lejeune, please contact Lee Klosinski at 310-267-0624.
Article - Helping military families help themselves
UCLA program teaches coping skills to families with a deployed parent
by Mark Wheeler
For a civilian, it’s hard to fathom the stress a military family faces when a parent and spouse is sent to combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan. Long, and often multiple, wartime deployments take a toll not only on the service member on the front lines but on family members back at home.
According to recent figures released by the Rand Corp., one in five veterans of these two wars may suffer from psychological health problems, which can add strain on military family members.
Now, a program initiated at UCLA and supported by the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery is reaching out to military families to help prevent the personal and family problems such stress can bring. Project FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress) is now being rolled out to nine military bases across the nation and in Okinawa, Japan.
“There is increasing awareness that military families, especially the children, can be significantly affected when a parent is deployed, and there is even greater psychological wear and tear when there are multiple deployments,” said Dr. Patricia Lester, UCLA assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and director of the FOCUS program. “The spouse left behind is suddenly thrust into the role of being a single parent; routines are interrupted, the children may not understand where their mom or dad has gone, and the service member on the front lines is constantly worried about how their family is doing back home.”
Given that about 40 percent of U.S. service members are parents, a large number of military families are at risk and stand to benefit from what FOCUS can offer — targeted coping skills that are designed to be preventive.
The FOCUS program provides both parents and children customized training that will address the impact of wartime deployment on families, and helps them learn very specific communication and problem-solving skills to address these challenges. In addition, FOCUS trainers will provide outreach to groups within military communities to raise awareness about the kinds of pressures families face and to let them know help is available to cope with deployment.
“We build resiliency,” Lester said. “It’s a three-pronged approach to restore a psychological balance to the family, promote future resiliency and increase knowledge and understanding among the military family culture.”
Families meet with counselors in multiple sessions. Some of the sessions are with parents alone, some with the children alone and the rest are family sessions. Each session focuses on helping each family member identify and share their concerns and fears about a spouse or parent being deployed to a war zone. In separate sessions with parents and children, FOCUS trainers teach family members skills to help manage their emotions, solve problems within the family, set goals and communicate with one another.
One session, for example, might include working with children and adolescents to develop their ability to describe their feelings about being separated during a deployment and then sharing these feelings with their parents. Skills are developed and practiced in the context of the family's own experiences — that is, the specific problems family members may be having with one another. That, according to Lester, is central to addressing potential misunderstandings between parents, and between parents and children.
“If there are five family members, there’s a good chance that there are five different stories of what that most recent deployment experience was like,” Lester said. “Family members often don’t want to ‘burden’ each other with their personal problems, but in these exceptional circumstances of long-term separations, building a shared family narrative can be very helpful in reestablishing a close family identity and building its strength.”
According to Cpt. Robert L. Koffman, a combat and operational stress control consultant and director of psychological health for the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, “For married service members, one of the best ways leadership can enhance psychological resilience is to ensure the family unit remains, strong, healthy and intact.”
FOCUS was developed, through collaboration with the military, by a team from UCLA and Harvard University Medical School to meet the needs of military children and families.
The team is led by the UCLA Center for Community Health, which specializes in the development, evaluation and dissemination of prevention and treatment interventions for children and families, whose mission is to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for traumatized children and their families across the United States.
– UCLA News
What is the FOCUS Project?
The FOCUS Project…
…provides resilience training for military families facing the challenges of a family member’s deployment during wartime.
Multiple deployments affect both the service member and the family as routines and roles are disrupted. Children may experience stress related to a parent’s role in the Global War on Terror and the impact of Combat Operational Stress on family life.
FOCUS uses family training techniques to highlight areas of strength and resilience in the family and promote family growth to help address current challenges.
FOCUS provides structured activities to bridge gaps in shared family understanding that may follow stressful experiences and separations.
In both group and individual family service settings, family members are taught skills to improve emotional regulation, problem solving, goal setting and communication.
Project Goals
Assist family members to address deployment stress and reminders to minimize their interference with parenting and family life.
Enhance family communication and support by developing a shared family narrative about the deployment experiences.
Provide individual and community level consultations, workshops, and skill-building groups designed to support family resilience.
FOCUS Project
The growing awareness of the significant challenges of wartime deployments on military child and family well-being has prompted a new initiative funded by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Department of the Navy. Addressing concerns related to parental combat operational stress injuries and combat-related physical injuries, state-of-the-art family resilience services will be provided to military children and families. FOCUS was developed by the UCLA Center for Community Health and the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and is provided at Camp Lejeune.
Staff Biographies
Amy Greenslit, LCSW: Ms. Greenslit is the Site Director for FOCUS at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. Her clinical experience includes treatment for severely emotionally challenged children and service and advocacy for children in foster care and their families, homeless families, adoptive families, and adolescent parents. Ms. Greenslit received specialized training in Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prepare-Enrich for couples, play therapy, and separation, loss, and attachment in children. Ms. Greenslit is a licensed clinical social worker and received a Master in Social Work degree from The Catholic University of America and a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Seminary.
Mary Herscher, LCSW: Ms. Herscher is a Resiliency Trainer for FOCUS at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. Her professional experience includes eleven years counseling individuals, couples, and families, as well as facilitating groups at Marine and Family Services at Cherry Point Marine Air Station. Ms. Herscher more recently provided counseling and psycho-educational services focused primarily on helping families cope with multiple deployments through a Department of Defense contracted program. She has received specialized training and clinical experience in resolving trauma including combat-related stress. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Michigan.
Cindy Hansill, MSW, P-LCSW: Mrs. Hansill is a Family Resiliency Trainer for FOCUS at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. Her professional experience includes individual, family and group counseling in inpatient and outpatient settings dealing with substance usage and rehabilitation. Mrs. Hansill received specialized training in crisis intervention, group facilitation, working with the military and their families, and Solution-Focused Therapy. She received her Master of Social Work degree at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.
Jodi Salamino, LPC, NCC: Mrs. Salamino is a Resiliency Trainer for FOCUS at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. She has received specialized training and clinical experience working with active and retired military dealing with PTSD, substance usage, combat-related stress, depression and anxiety. Jodi’s professional experience includes providing counseling, crisis intervention, and substance abuse therapy in both private and community settings for individuals, couples and families, as well as work with acute and chronic mental illness. Jodi is a Licensed Professional and National Certified Counselor. She received her Masters of Counseling Education/Counseling Psychology through Western Michigan University and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice through Lake Superior State University.
Miranda M. Adcock, MS: Ms. Adcock is a Family Resiliency Trainer for FOCUS at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. Her professional experience includes individual, family, and group counseling in inpatient and outpatient settings. In addition, she has provided bilingual services in child and family advocacy. Most recently, she has provided workshops and briefs to individuals and families regarding deployment and reintegration readiness aboard MCB Camp Lejeune and MCB Camp Pendleton. Mrs. Adcock has received specialized training in group facilitation, Parents as Teachers, LINKS, Prepare-Enrich for couples, and Four Lenses, as well as other personality and educational testing. She received her Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology at the University of North Texas, with an emphasis on Child and Family.
Davinity Jones, B.S.: Ms. Jones is the Resiliency Services Coordinator for the FOCUS Project at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. She has experience working with military families at the command level through the Key Volunteer Network and Family Readiness Groups. Ms. Jones has spoken at various briefs that promote family readiness and community involvement. She has worked with the American Red Cross and Navy Marine Corps Relief Society assisting military families and in training, coordinating and facilitating workshops and events. Ms. Jones received her Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of Colorado-Boulder.
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