Mission: Family: Free deployment handbook has tips for everyone - Military Community, Spouse and Family Resources - Military Times

Mission: Family: Free deployment handbook has tips for everyone

Here’s a suggestion for a free holiday gift to yourself that will make your life easier during deployments.

A new handbook has useful and practical advice for dealing with the emotional roller coaster ride that is the military deployment.

The first 198,000 copies of “A Handbook for Family & Friends of Service Members Before, During and After Deployment” are being distributed by the Defense Centers of Excellence, the Real Warriors Campaign and Military OneSource.

The University of Phoenix also will distribute more than 25,000 copies through its website.

Even seasoned deployment veterans will find some useful tips. Here are a few from the 137-page handbook:

• “One Army couple agreed that in the event of a communication blackout, the soldier would use her debit card to purchase something at the PX. If the spouse did not hear from his soldier at the routine time they communicated, he could look at online bank statements to see that his wife was alive and well even though she was unable to contact him.”

• “When fathers deploy knowing a baby will be born while they’re away, some create a series of videos of their face at close distances from the camera lens, making appropriate sounds and gestures. Studies have shown that infants are much more likely to know their father immediately upon return — rather than showing attachment anxiety — when this program is put in place at birth.”

Army veteran Steve Robinson, an advocate for veterans and military families, helped shape the handbook, with extensive contributions and reviews from mental health professionals, military experts, service members and military families. The book and an accompanying video were produced by Vulcan Productions and WGBH/NOVA Science Unit.

The book also will help siblings, parents, friends and others who support service members, including National Guard and reserve families who don’t live near an installation, and active-duty families who don’t often venture onto a military base.

“Across America, individuals don’t have a lot of understanding about the psychological health issues” surrounding deployments, said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, interim director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

“Most people tend to be uncomfortable [about deployments] and don’t understand why. This book does a good job of helping people understand why they think they should feel a certain way, but feel differently inside.”

And it helps to know that what you’re going through is normal.

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Karen Jowers is the wife of a retired service member. E-mail her.