When Jessica McNurlen’s U.S. Marine Corps fiance returned from deployment, she did not know what to expect of him — she had never been in a military family. She also did not know where to turn for help.
“It was a very frustrating time for me when he came back again, not knowing who to turn to, what resources were available,” said McNurlen, 25, of Laurel.
Hundreds of nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C., area offer services for the military community. But without coordination among those providers, help often does not reach service members, whose military culture emphasizes mental and physical strength.
A new initiative by the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County aims to improve the system by which providers approach care for active service members, veterans and their families.
Serving Together: Troops, Veterans and Family Care Project, which launched Monday, is designed to educate nonprofits, military agencies and public service facilities — any group through whose doors a service member may walk — about how to handle military clients and about the network of other resources. About 50,000 veterans live in Montgomery County; about 4,000 of them have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to county data.
"We're a very generous community, with many local resources, regional and national resources," said Sharon Friedman, mental health association executive director. "But we need to do a better job of communicating those resources."
McNurlen, who spoke at the program’s official launch Monday, said she thinks the program will be a huge help to families trying to transition after a relative’s deployment.
The program is made possible by a four-year, $500,000 matching grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The grant will be matched by donor organizations and continued fundraising efforts by the Community Foundation. The mental health association, a nonprofit that serves youth and adults with mental illness, partnered with Easter Seals Greater Washington-Baltimore Region to launch the program.
The concept for the program came from a 2008 study by the Johnson Foundation's local sponsor, The Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, which found a high level of disorganization among mental health providers who serve the military and veteran community, said Terri Lee Freeman, Community Foundation president. Nonprofits were not familiar with other organizations with similar missions to serve the military community; other mental health providers who do not specifically focus on the military community were not aware if their clients had military ties.
"It's hard to know where to go to get something — what's available to whom, under what circumstances. There's an opportunity to coordinate navigation. It will be much more streamlined for them," said Uma Ahluwalia, director of the county's department of health and human services.
Serving Together aims to improve collaboration among organizations and access to the community by developing an interactive online resource, establishing a peer support program for families, training organizations, workplaces and other stakeholders in understanding the needs of military families, and training mental health providers in treating and approaching trauma-related issues service members face.
A coordinated effort among service providers is an important part of providing the best services to military families because often, those families or individuals to not actively seek help.
"These people have been deployed multiple times. Those issues become very layered and for military personnel, it's not the easiest thing for them to ask for help," Freeman said.
In addition to creating a format for better service and a more cohesive support network for military families, Freeman said she hopes the program in Montgomery County will serve as a starting point for similar reform in other counties and states.
sgantz@gazette.net
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