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Military Family Life Consultant Program: Serving heroes, their families

  • Published
  • By Rosemary Solomon
  • 305th Air Mobility Wing public affairs volunteer
McGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. --  "Use power to help people. For we are given power to neither advance our own purposes, nor make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people." In the spirit of former President George H.W. Bush's words, that is exactly what leaders have done with the implementation of the Military Family Life Consultant Program.

The program was funded by the Office of Secretary of Defense to address problems caused by extended deployments in 2004. It was an opportunity to return the favor and serve those who make the ultimate sacrifice; America's servicemembers and their families.

This highly-successful collaboration began as a pilot program funded by the Office of Secretary of Defense to support families of the extended 1st Armored Division in May 2004. According to Michael Hoskins, Special Assistant, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Military Community and Family Policy), "The idea for the MFLC program originated with the leadership within the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy in response to a request for support by the leadership of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division when the unit's tour of duty in Iraq was extended."

The Department of Defense partnered with MHN, a behavioral health subsidiary of Health Net, Inc., to provide a non-medical counseling program to address stressful situations occurring among servicemembers and their families due to multiple deployments and reintegration. The MFLC program provides short-term situational, problem solving counseling.

This normally includes six sessions with a Military Family Life Consultant. The consultants are master's and Ph.D. licensed clinical counselors, psychologists, and marriage and family therapists within a military bases' Family Readiness Center. At McGuire, MFLC's are available through the Airman and Family Readiness Center. The sessions are completely confidential (other than duty to warn) and cover topics mentioned above as well as, marriage/relationship issues, single-parenting challenges, parenting skills, anger management, grief and loss, separation, conflict resolution, deployment stress, reunion issues, and more.

The program is expanding to include a Children's Support Program to address military impact, deployment and reintegration effects on children. The common theme of serving servicemembers continues as this program is not only available to active-duty military, but to retired veterans from all services.

Support and education are offered through formal and informal meetings with individuals, couples, families and key spouse groups. The MFLC's are caring, compassionate professionals available on demand to help as needed.

"The program structure was based on the need for a rapid response support program for servicemembers and their families who were confronting extended deployments, accelerated personnel tempo/operations tempo (the time an individual spends away from home station,) and who were experiencing normal reactions to abnormal situations of deployment and war," Mr. Hoskins said. "Additionally, the program structure addresses barriers to servicemembers and families seeking support such as confidentiality and the negative stigma associated with seeking counseling support ... the confidential nature of the program allows people to receive support without fear of being reported to the chain of command. This allows for widest participation."

The great success provided by feedback from users of the pilot program has led to MFLC programs being implemented at military bases worldwide. Protocol for the Air Force was approved by the Integrated Delivery System/Community Action Information Board at the Pentagon. PACAF Team One began in February 2006 at seven Air Force bases. Air Force stateside implementation began in March 2008 and as of July 2008, is at 54 Air Force installations, including McGuire.

After only a few months of having the pleasure of offering such a program to all servicemembers at McGuire, people are singing the program's praises. Don Divis, McGuire's Airman and Family Readiness Center director, could not be happier with the results he has witnessed first-hand.

"The addition of the MFLC provides our community members an opportunity to seek professional assistance and support at a time and place, which is generally convenient to them. MFLC's are not facility constrained. They have met customers in a variety of locations, to include the Family Place," he said. "MFLC's are great teammates! Most personal issues are multifaceted, and the A&FRC staff and MFLC's work in concert to provide comprehensive services, which address all the customer's needs."

The program seems to be evolving with the needs of the military community in concert with current economic events as well as the needs of children. This has to be one of the key factors of the program's success. Through one-on-one discussion and interactions, MFLC's are made aware of other needs families have. MHN and the DoD are taking an active role in collecting feedback and data to provide adaptation, improvement and additions to the program in order to serve the military's servicemembers and families' needs most effectively. Mr. Divis explained that the outstanding success of the program is due to the "great MFLC counselors we have had the honor of working with."

As for the future of the MFLC program at McGuire, Mr. Divis said, "We are currently the only Air Mobility Command base with a MFLC Personal Financial Counselor and are scheduled to receive a MFLC for Child and Youth programs within the next couple of months."

To take advantage of the Military Family Life Consultant program, contact the Airman and Family Readiness center at (609) 273-9770 or by e-mail at mflc.mcguire@gmail.com. Consultations and trainings are free and anonymous. No records are kept. The MFLC program staff would like servicemembers to know that "helping you is our priority." After-hours and weekend appointments are available and group or off-site meetings can be arranged.

Editor's Note: A special thanks to Michael Hoskins, Special Assistant, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Military Community and Family Policy) for contributing to this article. In his current assignment, Mr. Hoskins directs the Military and Family Life Consultant program and the counseling component of Military Community and Family Policy's Military OneSource. These critical wartime programs provide worldwide counseling support to the active force, National Guard and Reserve components and their families.