Individual Augmentee Combat Stress Program

» Individual Augmentee Combat Stress Program
» The United States Navy’s Involvement
» Combat Stress Overview
» Educational Briefs
» Command Briefing
» Family Support
» Support Group
» Combat Stressors: Monitoring Normal Behavior
» Combat Stress Contacts Information

The Fleet and Family Support Program (FFSP) offers a Comprehensive Combat Stress Program to address normal physiological, behavioral and psychosocial reactions that Individual Augmentees experience before, during and after entering combat (Iraq, Afghanistan) or hazardous zones (hurricane/tsunami relief efforts) and high-level detainee facilities such as GITMO.

The United States Navy’s Involvement

The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) will continue to challenge our Armed Forces, including organizations in theater calling upon commands for support. Navy commands are frequently fulfilling Individual Augmentee requirements through active duty military, reserve and civil service personnel, and those requirements will continue into the foreseeable future.

Combat Stress Overview

The Fleet and Family Support Program provides a comprehensive resource to all Individual Augmentees entering a combat or hazardous zone with the focus on ensuring a healthy return to assigned duties. Support will begin with a pre-deployment brief to individuals focusing on education and awareness about psychological and physical stressors they may experience during deployment. Through team teaching, the brief is led by an Education Services Facilitator, a Work and Family Life Consultant and a service member who has first-hand knowledge of the combat/hazardous zone IAs are expected to enter. Upon return, IAs will then have the support and opportunity to discuss experiences within a supportive group setting facilitated by a counselor. IAs will also have the opportunity to talk with a counselor individually and confidentially, if they so desire.

Educational Briefs

Pre-Deployment Brief: Prior to deploying to a combat zone, Individual Augmentees will receive a 60-minute pre-deployment brief. This presentation will be provided by an Education Services Facilitator, a Work and Family Life Consultant and a Combat Veteran. Information distributed in this brief will revolve around typical or common reactions during and following combat (i.e., general deployment issues that effect families, emotional, psychological, behavioral and physical). In addition, the entirety of the program will be outlined.

Command Briefing

Command sponsors, first-line supervisors, and appropriate leadership will be offered a presentation that outlines the Combat Stress program, resources available, what combat stressors are normal, which ones should cause concern, and how to support the IA & their family through the duration of the deployment.

Family Support

In conjunction with the Ombudsmen’s traditional Deployment Support offered to the service member’s spouse and children, an Education Services Facilitator and a Work and Family Life Consultant will partner with Command Ombudsmen to offer a series of educational briefs. The initial brief will focus on how to support a service member before and during a deployment to a combat zone. A later brief will describe the specifics of reintegrating and readjusting to family life with a member who is returning from a combat zone. Responses to both normal combat stressors and behavior that should cause concern will be discussed.

Support Group

Often the events that our military men and women experience during combat are so painful that professional assistance may be necessary. Experiences can be too overwhelming to handle without help and support. Key players for support are the service member’s family, shipmates and professional resources. Sometimes the stress reactions appear immediately; sometimes they appear hours, days, weeks or even months later. It is very common for people to experience emotional aftershocks when they have witnessed or have been involved in highly stressful or life- threatening situations. The Fleet and Family Support Program offers a support group for this critical time of return. Experts in the field of Veteran Affairs emphasize the need for exposure to available resources during the three-month time frame of returning home from a combat zone. Tending to combat stressors rather than ignoring them is an effective way to avoid behaviors such as isolation and alienation that can propel the IA into lifelong damaging effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Upon return from a combat zone, each Individual Augmentee will attend four sessions of a combat stress group facilitated by a counselor. The sessions will take place at 30, 60, 90, & 120 day intervals. Each session is an hour of open-discussion forum that allows IAs to voluntarily share their individual experiences. The structure of the support group setting is a proven effective way of normalizing behaviors and responses for combat veterans. The support group is one component of assisting the IA in making a healthy return to family life and assigned duties.

Combat Stressors: Monitoring Normal Behavior

The Combat Stress Program is designed to work with Individual Augmentees in normalizing both the experience of combat itself and the behaviors that follow upon return to daily life. It is crucial for the people that surround the IA (family members, shipmates, friends and first-line supervisors) to have a basic understanding of combat stressors. This will help them identify and support them rather than alienate or isolate them. Combat stressors that are never discussed or normalized can lead to a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Everyone who surrounds the IA plays a vital role in seeing that they make a healthy return to both family life and assigned duties. Some, but not all, key combat stressors are:

Emotional:

feelings of isolation
detachment
emptiness
loss
hopelessness
anger
boredom
guilt
“no one else can understand”

Mental:

poor concentration
forgetfulness
loss of objectivity
intrusive thoughts
memories
“flashbacks”

Physical Reactions:

sleep disturbances
exaggerated startle response
changes in appetite
headaches
faintness
dizziness
sweating
trembling

Behavioral Reactions:

High-risk behavior
accident proneness
carelessness in tasks
anger outbursts
arguments
aggressiveness
difficulty returning to normal activity level
social isolation
staring into space
family and relationship problems

If you know of an Individual Augmentee that is displaying any of these combat stressors, please encourage them to find out more about Fleet and Family Support Combat Stress Program at 1-866-854-0638.

Combat Stress Contact: Personnel

Each installation has a point of contact that serves as the initial representative to enroll the Individual Augmentee into the Combat Stress Program. They will compose a team to deliver pre-deployment briefs to the IA and Combat Stress educational briefs to both the Command and the service member’s family members. Please contact the installation Site Manager to enlist an IA into the Combat Stress program, request a combat stress brief or to answer any questions you may have regarding the NRNW Fleet and Family Support Combat Stress Program.