War at Home Spouse Abuse in Military Families

This study examines the patterns, tendencies, and physical severity of spouse abuse in military families. The demographic makeup of military families in many ways parallels that of violent families in the civilian community. Therefore, this study will determine if certain variables will be similarly correlated in cases of wife abuse within military families as they are in civilian families. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted on spouse abuse in the last thirty years, family violence within military families has been virtually ignored. This study utilizes secondary data provided by the Navy Family Advocacy Central Registry located in Millington, Tennessee, and examines how age, pay grade, gender, substance abuse, and having a military spouse affects the severity of physical abuse experienced. Analyses reveals that pay grade and sex are associated with levels of physical violence. More specifically, the majority of spouse abuse occurred among personnel in pay grade E-4 and below, in both the mild and moderate/severe categories. Additionally, men commit more severe abuse than do women

Essential Resource Barriers and Perceived Implications Among Military Parents of Autistic Children

Elevated mental health issues and health care accessibility challenges may be exacerbated by the stressors experienced by military parents of autistic children. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to explore how military parents with autistic children experienced and perceived essential resource barriers. Parent perceptions of the obstacles they experienced with essential resource accessibility led to significant difficulties being identified. The stress process model was used to frame the concepts in this research. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with eight active duty or recently retired military parents who had at least one autistic child during their service. Themes from coding analysis reveal several barriers, moderators of stress, mental health outcomes, and needed resources. Environmental barriers include relocation, deployments, and the lack of community supports. Health care barriers consisted of TRICARE, providers, and stigma. Therapy, coping skills, healthcare, self-care, social support, and financial stability were moderating resources. Community support, advocacy, expanded TRICARE coverage, family deployment services, and increased respite care were necessary resources. Anxiety, depression, role strain, and stress proliferation were mental health outcomes linked to the barriers. Further investigation is needed regarding the implications of stigma, gender role differences, and military branch funding discrepancies. Positive social changes may result through increased awareness, community collaborations, and parental inclusions in policy developments. The results may be used to enhance understanding and increase advocacy, leading to improved accessibility of support services for military families with autistic children

TIPS, Volume 15, No. 2, 3, & 4, 1995

• Poverty & the Poor • The Gulf Between the Haves & Have-Nots • The Gulf Between Rich & Poor Nations • Homelessness & the Welfare Helter Skelter Shelter System • Out in the Street (Gerard McHugh, Atlanta, GA) • Slavery • Crime & Punishment • The Police Crack • The Jail & Prison Scene • Down in the Valley aka Birmingham Jail (Song, original may have been about Barbourville jail in Kentucky) • Judicial Killing • Religion in Society • The Interface of Religion & Human Service • Morality in Society • The Pike (Christian Morgenstern, German poet) • War & Preparation for War • Miscellaneous • Carl Scharnberg poem (a few stanzas) • Yes, There is a Finck von Finckenstein • The Arms Business • Further Facts About World War III • The Gulf War Syndrome • The Family--and the Collapse or Lack of It • Her Child\u27s Grandmother • The Collapse of Finance, Society & Polity in the US & Elsewhere & the Ascendancy of Military Rule • News of the Season • O Jerum Jerum Jerum, O Quae Mutatio Rerum • Social Advocacy • The Need for Good Social Advocacy • Social Advocacy Forms • A Modest Proposal Miscellaneous Advocacy News • Self-Advocacy • Orientation & Skill Development or Competency-impaired People for Long-Term Valued Participation at Public Forums • Not-So-Good Advocacies • Degradations or Subversions of, or Attacks on, Social Advocacy Enterprises • Self-Help & Support Groups • Another Modest Proposal • Societal Trends • A Reflection by an Australian Visitor (Peter Millier, 1989-90) • Government-Related News • Miscellaneous News • Resourceshttps://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/wolf_tips/1065/thumbnail.jp

Informing efforts to prevent family maltreatment among airmen: A focus on personal resilience

Family maltreatment is a serious public health concern within civilian and military populations. The U.S. Air Force Family Advocacy Program (FAP) delivers services to active-duty Air Force members and their families that aim to promote personal resilience and prevent maltreatment perpetration among those most at risk. Informed by family resilience and ecological perspectives, the purpose of this study is to empirically test a theory of change or conceptual model that could serve as an evidence-informed foundation for the selection of prevention interventions used by military and FAP service providers. A representative sample of 30,541 active-duty Air Force members from the 2011 Air Force Community Assessment Survey was analyzed, comprising participants who had at least one child and who were in a committed relationship. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized model. Neighborhood safety was analyzed as a moderating influence. With a focus on personal resilience as an asset-based outcome, results indicated that personal resilience among airmen was positively associated with features of individual fitness, informal support, adaptive family processes, and unit leader support. Results also indicated that neighborhood safety significantly moderated associations in the empirical model

Weir Family Collection (MSS 651)

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 651. Letters and papers of the Weir family of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and related members of the Rumsey and Miller families. Well-to-do merchants and farmers, the Weirs were leading supporters of the Union during the Civil War, providing advocacy, financial support, and military service. Also includes a letter from the brother of steamboat pioneer James Rumsey defending his legacy as an innovator. Includes full-text scans of James Weir\u27s journal; James Weir\u27s will; and the annotated recollections of Edward Weir, Sr. (Click on Additional files below)

2013 Tracking Report: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Grantmaking by U.S. Foundations

The 2013 Tracking Report (2014) explores the scope and character of foundation funding for LGBTQ issues in the calendar year 2013. The report analyzes 4,146 grants from 331 foundations, making it the most comprehensiveness assessment of LGBTQ funding available. In 2013, funding for LGBTQ issues reached a record high of $129.1 million

Social Justice Documentary: Designing for Impact

Explores current methodologies for assessing social issue documentary films by combining strategic design and evaluation of multiplatform outreach and impact, including documentaries' role in network- and field-building. Includes six case studies

An Assessment of Mental Health Services for Veterans in the State of Texas

This report describes the complex challenges faced by veterans and their families in seeking, navigating, and attaining adequate mental health care in Texas. There are 1.7 million veterans in Texas, comprising 8.6 percent of the adult population. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the number of veterans requiring mental health services has grown dramatically and will continue to increase, making veterans’ mental health care an urgent issue in Texas. The federal agencies responsible for military and veterans mental health care, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the VA, have created new programs and invested significant financial and staff resources. Despite barriers to addressing veterans mental health needs. Texas state agencies have increased funding and instituted new mental health programs supporting returning veterans. Nonprofit agencies focused on veteran’s mental health have multiplied across Texas and the U.S. over the past decade to fill gaps in care. While these organizations provide a growing and increasingly diverse set of resources for veterans to extend the scope of support, volunteer efforts can suffer from fragmentation and overlap. The report identifies current practices, challenges, and opportunities within and across each group of service providers. The report draws on government reports, scholarly literature, and agency websites, as well as interviews with counselors, Veteran Service Officers, nonprofit providers, state officials, and veterans themselves. This report offers five recommendations toward the goal that veterans’ mental health care in Texas become comprehensive, inclusive, effective, and efficient. First, there is a need for greater inter-agency communication across organizations, improved outreach efforts, and increased services for hard-to-reach populations, such as homeless veterans. Second, federal agencies ought to address staff shortages, improve the transition from DoD to VA care, and increase feedback. Third, at the state level, specialized services are needed to address unique veterans’ needs concentrated in cities across Texas as well as those dispersed in rural areas. Fourth, providers can improve mental health care by integrating social services and law enforcement. Fifth, both veterans and providers can benefit if they recognize opportunities for cooperation and coordination and work towards long-term goals that emphasize outcomes that improve the lives of returning veterans. This research was funded in part by the Jack S. Blanton Research Fellowship and the George A. Roberts Research Fellowship of the IC² Institute.IC2 Institut

Preventing Violence in the Homes of Military Families

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF), have demanded unprecedented service at every level of the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines. For the first time in our military history, active duty, reservists, and guard servicemen and women have been required to complete multiple deployments. These repeated, lengthy deployments combined with limited family "dwell" time in between have deteriorated the stability of many military families. Of the almost two million Americans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many arrive home with serious mental health conditions and injuries that increase relationship stress, marital strain, and family violence.The first large-scale, nongovernmental assessment of the psychological needs of OIF/OEF service members, released by the Rand Corporation in 2008, revealed that 38 percent of these combat veterans suffered from Post Traumatic Stress (PTS), major depression, traumatic brain injury, or some combination of the three -- yet less than half had sought treatment. Figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) suggest that these numbers have almost doubled; Forty-four percent of those who came to the VA for help have been diagnosed with one or more mental health issue. This psychological and emotional toll on our veterans has put them at greater risk of perpetrating family violence. Research has found that:Male veterans with PTS are two to three times more likely to engage in intimate partner violence, compared to those without PTS -- up to six times higher than the general civilian population.81% of veterans suffering from depression and PTS have engaged in at least one violent act against their partner in the past year.Over half of veterans with PTS performed one severe act of violence in the past year -- more than 14 times higher than the general civilian population.However, the confluence of domestic violence, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), PTS, and other mental health injuries among war veterans is by no means fully understood at this point, and requires greater analysis and investigation

Enhancing the Well-Being of America's Veterans and Their Families: A Call to Action for a National Veterans Policy

This meeting was convened by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Social Work Policy Institute (SWPI) in collaboration with supporting partner, the University of Southern California School of Social Work (USC) and its Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families. This symposium was convened on June 12-13, 2013 as a catalyst for improving both policies and practices, and to explore the feasibility of promoting a national veterans policy. The more than 50 participants represented national organizations, government agencies, community service providers, foundations and universities. The participants had expertise in health, behavioral health and human service delivery systems and a large number of the participants were veterans, family members of veterans, or both.The symposium participants' diverse perspectives and experiences in agencies, organizations and universities helped to stimulate thinking about the policies that support our nation's veterans, and to look at how we can leverage what we already have, identify what changes are needed, and suggest how we can best balance federal, state and community roles, responsibilities and resources to enhance the well-being of our nation's veterans and their families