Boston Psychologists Reach Out to Help Army Reserve Families

We've heard a lot about the trauma of serving in combat; but, we don't talk too much about the stresses placed on family members. Are they doing ok? Do they have ready access to support services during all phases of deployment? Well, if they're an Army Reserve or a National Guard family in the greater Boston area, they most surely do. Here's a free service they have access to:

The Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England (PCFINE), with the support of other psychoanalytic groups throughout the country, has launched a new pro bono program called SOFAR: Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists. Through this program, SOFAR coordinates the delivery of psychotherapy and psycho-educational services to the families of Reservists and National Guard members who are stationed in or returning from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait.

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From channel WCVB-TV [Boston's ABC affiliate]:

When Mom or Dad goes off to war it can be devastating for the family left behind. Now, a unique program is reaching out to those families, enlisting mental health professionals to provide free counseling.

Last August, Lillian Connolly's husband, Joseph, was re-deployed to Iraq. His absence hasn't been easy on their four children. "It was an adjustment for them to be with just me. Because it had always been mom and dad together," Lillian Connolly said. "I was confused and sad that he was leaving us," son Joseph said.

Like many families who have loved ones fighting overseas, the Connolly's had a hard time dealing with the sadness. So Lillian found a new way to help them all cope. "We're interested in helping them feel and be stronger from the experiences that they're dealing with around their loved one's deployment," Dr. Kenneth Reich said.

Reich is the co-chair of SOFAR, or Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists, a Cambridge-based program that offers free counseling to the immediate and extended families of Army reservists sent to battle. "They experience loss and separation. And they experience a sense of, often, of helplessness, because they don't know what's happening to their soldier," Dr. Jaine Darwin said.

The SOFAR team has already helped 2,000 families in the New England area. What a great outreach effort this is! Please visit their website for more information and to learn how they set up this important service to help these military families.

Inspiring, isn't it?

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Considerable Quotes

"The first shamans earned their keep in primitave societies by providing explanations and rituals that enabled man to deal with his environment and his personal anguish. Early man, no less than we, dealt with forces that he could not understand or control, and he attempted to come to grips with his vulnerablity by trying to bring order to his universe." -- Richard Gabriel in No More Heroes

"War stories end when the battle is over or when the soldier comes home. In real life, there are no moments amid smoldering hilltops for tranquil introspection. When the war is over, you pick up your gear, walk down the hill and back into the world." -- OIF vet John Crawford in The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell

"After wars' end, soldiers once again become civilians and return to their families to try to pick up where they left off. It is this process of readjustment that has more often than not been ignored by society. -- Major Robert H. Stretch, Ph.D in Textbook of Military Medicine: Vol. 6 Combat Stress

Monday, July 10, 2006

Boston Psychologists Reach Out to Help Army Reserve Families

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