Barbara Thompson, Former Director, Office of Military Family Readiness Policy
For nearly five decades, Barbara Thompson has been a steadfast advocate for military families, dedicating her career to ensuring service members, veterans, and their children receive the support they need. she has played a pivotal role in transforming military family support programs, particularly during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan when the need for standardized and accessible resources became more pressing. Her legacy is one of resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment to strengthening the well-being of military families now and for generations to come.
Ensuring easy access to trained professionals who understand these unique challenges makes it more likely that families will seek and receive the support they need, fostering resilience and well-being.
The military lifestyle offers steady employment, education opportunities, housing, and medical care which are the bedrock of family stability. These benefits come with sacrifices, such as, distance from extended family, moving every 2-3 years, a higher percentage of military spouse unemployment as well as underemployment compared to their civilian counterparts, and separations. Many are long term due to deployments or training exercises – of which dangerous and life-threatening missions are especially challenging for family members on the homefront. In my experience, military families have demonstrated resiliency and a commitment to service, parallel to their Service members, which definitely contribute to their well-being.
The Military Family Support System was developed in the early 70s to address the unique challenges of the military lifestyle and over time has evolved and expanded to include 24/7, 365 days support through a virtual and telephonic delivery, called Military OneSource. There are specific programs and resources geared to support parents with young children and children with special needs. The easier, less time-consuming it is for parents to access support, the more likely they will use what is available to meet their specific need(s). And, having trained professionals who understand the challenges facing military families provides another layer of support when seeking help.
About 8% of families early childhood professionals serve are military-connected.
Programs like Military OneSource, Military Family Life Counselors (MFLCs), and partnerships with universities to create evidence-based early childhood and parenting resources have provided crucial lifelines. The need for comprehensive support became especially urgent during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, prompting the military to standardize and expand access to services across all branches.
One of the most profound areas of impact has been in supporting families of severely injured service members, recognizing that life-altering injuries affect not just the individual but their entire family’s sense of normalcy. The expansion of non-medical counseling, particularly for children, within military child development centers, schools, and youth programs has helped families navigate these challenges, reinforcing resilience and well-being. As military families continue to face unique stressors, ensuring equitable, high-quality support remains essential to their stability, strength, and future.
I have worked on behalf of miliary members and their families for about 50 years, including volunteer positions, post-retirement. One of my favorite assignments was working directly with children and their parents as the director of a child development program. Experiencing their dedication and sacrifice firsthand in service to our country, inspired me to support them. We know that many military children enter, seriously consider, or marry into the military, so the work we do to ensure military children have high-quality support, programs, and resources will result in a stronger, more empathetic, and resilient Force.
The Military Services (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force) have the operational responsibility to provide family support programs to their families. These programs and their delivery differ across the Services. As a result of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Military Community and Family Policy (my former office) became much more operational, i.e., delivering services and programs directly to military families rather than exclusively focusing on policy development. Primarily, because the needs were so great with our nation at war and secondarily, because of the lack of standardization across the Military Services. Our goal was to provide an umbrella of support that ALL military families had access to in order to augment what the Military Services were providing. Programs like The Severely Injured Center, Military OneSource, the Military Family Life Counselors, and Spouse Employment and Career Opportunities were funded and managed by Military Community and Family Policy staff. In addition, we began a partnership with various Land Grant Universities to develop evidence-based resources that are open access (meaning civilian programs can access without charge), such as, The Virtual Lab School which is an online training platform for early childhood teachers, trainers, and directors; Early Learning Matters (ELM), an early childhood curriculum; THRIVE, an online parent education program, and Military REACH, an online depository of research on military families.
The most challenging assignment in my career was developing and deploying support programs to support Severely Injured Service Members and their families. Life-altering injuries impacted not only the Service member, but profoundly changed the trajectory of their families and their sense of normalcy. We needed to envision a new paradigm of prevention in the family support system and our response included non-medical counseling offered by licensed clinicians – a new concept that did not interfere or take the place of the mental health counseling provided by our Behavioral Health colleagues. The Military Family Life Counselors (MFLCs) were sent to military installations worldwide to help with life’s challenges and to refer to mental health services when required. We expanded the MFLCs to include clinicians with specialized expertise and experience working with children. Again, the Child and Youth MFLCs were embedded into the Child Development Centers, Youth Centers, and schools where needed to support children, staff, and families with a focus on preventing challenging behaviors, improving communication, and enhancing well-being. I continue to believe non-medical counseling has had a profound impact on the overall health and mental health of military families and the staff who support them.
Two come to mind – the first is policy development. Policies change systems and while not the easiest job to complete in a bureaucracy, policies provide the framework for improvement, standardization, and ultimately results. Secondly, research is critical to ensure evidence-based programs are developed and deployed. As we delve deeper into the needs of military families through research, we can better articulate what is required to meet those needs and justify future funding to ensure the right programs and resources are available to make a positive impact.
We know that many military children enter, seriously consider, or marry into the military so the work we do to ensure military children have high quality support, programs, and resources will result in a stronger, more empathetic, and resilient Force.
Explore picture books to support families with deployment and reunification.
When service members know their families are supported, they can better focus on their mission. Lessons from past conflicts, like Iraq and Afghanistan, highlight the need for a proactive “Battle Plan” for family support, ensuring resources are in place before the next crisis.
I hope senior leadership in the Department of Defense, the Executive Branch, and members of Congress will recognize the critical role military families play in national security. The well-being of a Service member’s family is always on his or her mind and if Service members know their families are taken care of, they can better focus on the mission at hand and be their best. That message was heard very loud and clear during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. And we know – it is not if but when there will be another conflict that will test the resiliency of the Force and their families at home. We need to learn from past conflicts and to have a “Battle Plan” for military family support at the ready.
A 2020 DoD Qualified Military Available (QMA) Study cited that less than 73% of all 17-24-year-olds in the United States are eligible to enlist due to being overweight, struggling with substance misuse or challenges with medical/physical health. I think it is imperative that all new recruits are screened for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as a preventative tool, not an eligibility tool, to identify potential behavioral health challenges and to recognize and embrace the provision of adequate behavioral health support throughout their military service. Deploying preemptive behavioral health support as a normal component of military service for all who serve will ensure optimum mission accomplishment, reduced behavioral health issues, and quality of life.
