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MCCS Lejeune Radio - Guest: Jessica Moore Tyson, Site Director, FOCUS
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
Jessica: 450-5631
Heidi: 450-5632
Amy: 450-5633
Davinity: 450-5635
Info@focusproject.org
www.focusproject.org
jtyson@focusproject.org
hshull@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.
Employment Opportunities
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
Linda Havens, Ph.D.: Dr. Havens is the Site Director for the FOCUS Program at Camp Lejeune. She previously served as the Site Director for FOCUS in Okinawa, Japan for two years. Dr. Havens is a licensed clinical psychologist and received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University in San Diego, with an emphasis in cultural psychology. Dr. Havens completed a clinical internship focused on comprehensive treatment of children placed in foster care and residential treatment settings at MercyFirst Child and Family Services in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Havens received post-doctoral fellowship training specializing in the prevention and treatment of child and family traumatic stress at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. She has received formal training in Play Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and other trauma-focused treatment interventions.
Heidi Shull, M.A.: Ms. Shull is a Resiliency Trainer for the FOCUS Project at MCB Camp Lejeune. Prior to joining the FOCUS team at Camp Lejeune, Ms. Shull provided counseling for service members and their families at the Counseling and Advocacy Program at MCB Okinawa, Japan. Her experience also includes providing individual, family, and group counseling on an inpatient, adult, psychiatric service. Ms. Shull has received specialized, trauma-focused training to include: AHEC’s Traumatic Brain Injury: Invisible Wounds of War; Trauma, Attachment, and Recovery; Substance Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Returning OEF/OIF Veterans. Ms. Shull's has also received formal training regarding military culture and resources for special needs family members through L.I.N.K.S. and Specialized Training of Military Parents (STOMP). Ms. Shull received her Master’s of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Bowie State University.
Amy Greenslit, MSW: Ms. Greenslit is a Family Resiliency Trainer for FOCUS at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. Her clinical experience includes advocating and providing services for severely emotionally challenged children, homeless families, adolescent parents, children in foster care, and adopted children and families. She has received specialized training in play therapy, group facilitation, separation, loss, and attachment in children, Prepare-Enrich for couples, and L.I.N.K.S. She has served as a volunteer at numerous schools. She received a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Seminary, and a Master of Social Work degree from The Catholic University of America.
Will Meeks, LPC: Mr. Meeks is a Family Resiliency Trainer for FOCUS at MCB Camp Lejeune. Mr. Meeks received his Masters of Science Degree in Counseling and Human Development from Radford University and is currently practicing as a Licensed Professional Counselor. He has specialized experience working with at risk youth both as a Special Education teacher and a Guidance Counselor. Mr. Meeks has also worked with a Department of Defense program as a military and family life consultant, primarily focused on helping children and their families cope with the stress of multiple deployments.
Davinity Jones, B.S.: Ms. Jones is the Administrative Coordinator for the FOCUS Project at MCB Camp Lejeune. 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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