"As a clinical social worker and a United States Army Reservist, I am proud to support the SOFAR initiative. This program has many of our country's leading mental health clinicians providing pro bono mental health support for military families. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank them. As a member of a unit that will be deployed to Iraq at some point in the future, I am comforted to know that the SOFAR initiative is there to support my family if they need it."
CPT Jeffrey M. Cox 883rd MED CO (CSC)
See the video "So Far, So Good" for another message from Captain Cox.
SOFAR is a project of the Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England (PCFINE) in partnership with Division 39 of the American Psychological Association and other participating organizations
News & Events
News
Events
News
NPR: Morning Edition- Free Counseling for Vets, Families
By Bob Oakes (Read Original)
Listen to story
(Real Audio)
Richard Moody of Danvers and Shirley Burke of Salem use the services of SOFAR.
BOSTON, Mass. - November 12, 2007 - On Veterans Day, we often pause to think about the sacrifice of soldiers, especially those in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When they return from war, they can face significant mental health challenges. Often, it's more than the soldiers who need help: Families also need psychological support. Army Reserve and National Guard families are in a unique position because they lack the support of a military base community.
Shirley Burke lives in Salem and says she felt scared and lonely while her husband Phillip served two tours of duty in Iraq. "Every night you go to bed and you say am i going to get a phone call tonight," Burke says, "A knock on the door, that's how we live every day."
Burke found help with a free counseling group called " SOFAR," or Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists. She says SOFAR's mental health professionals let her talk about her fear of losing her husband, something she didn't think her neighbors could relate to.
Counselors also go to group meetings of Army Reservists and National Guard families. Air Force veteran Richard Moody of Danvers runs a family support group.
He invited SOFAR to speak about the isolation that families feel when a family member is deployed. Moody says, "At any minute we could be killed. And that's a level of stress that you can't explain to people that don't understand it. What happens is that almost everybody that comes back is changed. And when they change, the people back home need to be addressed as to how to cope, how to handle that."
SOFAR's 70 volunteers meet with individuals and family groups in Boston and throughout New England. The organization's Co-Directors Ken Reich and Jaine Darwin join WBUR's Bob Oakes in conversation this morning.
SOFAR Wins Veterans Advantage Site of Distinction Award
Dear Members of SOFAR,
Congratulations! Your website has been chosen to be put on Veterans Advantage’s Sites of Distinction Page. We would like to honor you for honoring United States Servicemen and women and their families. The staff members of Veterans Advantage troll the world wide web looking for websites that we feel do credible honor to great debt the United States owes to all Soldiers, Veterans and their families. We chose your website because your efforts to Reservists and their families are a great service to our troops and the nation. Your site joins a varying group of sites, such as AnySolider.com, TAPS.org, Continental.com and many more.
For being chosen as a Site of Distinction, your website, and all the good that your organization does will be linked to the Site of Distinction main page and your site will remain on our website for an entire year. Your distinction metal is below, feel free to put it on your website to show the world that your hard work is recognized and honor.
Congratulations and thank you for all that you do to serve those who serve the nation.
American Academy of Pediatrics Endorses SOFAR
February, 2007, Cambridge, MA – The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed the Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists (SOFAR) program. SOFAR offers pro-bono counseling and support services to families and children with loved ones serving overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones.
“Formal endorsement by organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics is a testament to the importance of the mission we have undertaken,” said Dr. Kenneth Reich, co-chair and founder of SOFAR. “Support from the AAP is invaluable in terms of helping us provide mental health support to military families across the United States.”
SOFAR is a unique program that provides pro bono support for families of Army Reservists and the National Guard. SOFAR allows mental health professionals in civilian life to provide pro bono services that support families at all stages of overseas military engagement (alert, mobilization, deployment, reunion.)
“The So Far Guide for Helping Children and Youth Cope with the Deployment of a Parent in the Military Reserves” is one aspect of the SOFAR program that is available to educators, parents, pediatricians and other professionals. After reviewing the pamphlet, the AAP provided information that was incorporated into the final edition.
Families of soldiers, children in particular, face special challenges during wartime. SOFAR recognizes that anxiety and depression may be caused by separation and fear for their soldiers' safety. Untreated anxiety and depression may lead to infidelity, divorce, domestic violence, suicidal thoughts and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.)
SOFAR is designed to address a significant need. Some estimates show that 40 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and other nations overseas will suffer some form of psychological difficulty. Mental health professionals who volunteer in the SOFAR are trained to work with families of Army Reservists and the National Guard on several issues, including:
- Impact on the family when a soldier first returns home from a war zone deployment. The joy of a family's reunion is coupled with the challenge of coping with changes in family relationships that take place when a family member leaves and returns.
- The long-term impact of soldiers' return from the war theater. Research shows that symptoms not previously seen are most likely to appear six months after soldiers return from the war theater.
- How different family members might feel at any point during different stages of overseas engagement and how children may be impacted at different stages of their development.
SOFAR mental health professionals also are trained to provide psycho-education to provide the families of reservists and national guardsmen. All SOFAR mental health professionals are volunteers who are trained to provide service to families and to give consultation and support to each other. SOFAR creates teams of volunteers, with each team assigned specialists and a senior supervisor.
SOFAR: Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists
SOFAR is a unique and innovative program to aid the families and loved ones of army Reservists and National Guard deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. The soldier is the one deployed, but the whole family serves. SOFAR offers pro bono therapy, support, and psycho education to ease the emotional burden on the family. Our mission is to prevent secondary trauma which can impact family members for generations, to prepare the family for the return of the soldier and to work with the reunited family when the soldier has returned to help the family negotiate the difficult process of reintegration.
We are a group of psychoanalytically oriented, licensed mental health professionals under the aegis of the Psychoanalytic Couples and Family Institute of New England (PCFINE) working with the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychoanalytic Association working to make available the highest quality services to our soldiers. Our volunteers, all of whom possess advanced degrees, have received training to acquaint them with the special culture of the military and the unique stresses the families face.
We have worked through the Judge Advocate General's Corp and the Office of Family Readiness of the 94th Reserve Readiness Command to assure all our procedures are consistent with Army policy.
We have a dedicated phone line, 617 266-2611, where all extended family members can request services which are completely confidential and free of charge. We participate in Family Readiness Groups, and accept all invitations to speak to organizations for families and for returning vets. We produced a pamphlet, "The SOFAR Guide For Helping Children and Youth Cope With The Deployment Of A Parent In the Military Reserves", for distribution to teachers and pediatricians who are first responders in the lives of children. This is a prelude to running workshops for teachers in dealing with children at high risk for trauma.
We are a pilot project, getting ready to launch nationally. We have been praised in the Boston Globe, The Boston Business Journal, The Improper Bostonian, The National Psychologist, The American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology and an article is in press for "O", The Oprah Winfrey Magazine.
We welcome your interest, your participation, your requests for services and your donations.
Jaine Darwin, Psy.D. & Kenneth Reich, Ed.D.
Co-Directors, SOFAR
A Letter to the Board
September 2005
Dear Colleagues,
The SOFAR program is up and running. It has been a team effort to get the project rolling and Gerry Stechler, Jaine Darwin, Emily Gordon, Ben Siegel, Elizabeth White, Alice Rapkin and both Michele Garvin and Clint Hermes from the law offices of Ropes and Gray, as well as other members of the Ropes and Gray office, including public relations, marketing, graphic design and specialist on nonprofit law, have been instrumental in developing an idea into reality.
Many other Board members have assisted in supportive ways and provided the necessary challenges and questions that have helped refine and redefine the project, steering the program and its evolution that now includes over 70 volunteers. Stuart Hauser has agreed to head up the research component for the project, which can help us learn not only if we're doing a good enough job but also provide us with significant information about the impact of war on families and their members. There are still bridges to cross with the Army in order to obtain permission to do the research, and hopefully we will have that opportunity.
An important complimentary program to the direct services for families of the Guard and Reserve, has been the development of pamphlets for teachers and pediatricians on the emotional effects of the war on children and its impact educationally and medically respectively. I asked Carol Daynard to chair the think tank working on those documents which includes people from the east coast and Israel. Carol is whipping an idea into printed brochures.
We've had successful panels at the American Psychoanalytic Association at their winter meeting in NYC and at their spring meeting in Seattle. We've also had an invited panel for the spring meetings of Div. 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association in NYC, and in August a conversation hour about the project at the American Psychological Association annual meetings in Washington, DC.
The Division of Military Psychology jointly hosted a social hour with us after our scheduled conversation hour, and Retired General Monty Meigs and his wife Mary Ann, our honorary co-chairs of the SOFAR advisory program, were guests of honor.
PCFINE is thriving with a full first year class for September and excellent retention of students for successive classes. Carolynn Maltas has made sure our training program is one of excellence, and she's been supported by the best teaching faculty in Boston.
This year has also seen the expansion of our community outreach programs to include two new programs - The Boston Evening Academy and United South End Settlement Home.
Our Board has been joined by two new terrific members, Carol Daynard and Elizabeth Nathans, and as Emily Gordon has taken maternity leave having given birth to twins, we've been fortunate to have Elizabeth White join the Development Committee.
Now I'd like to ask for your help again to keep PCFINE maintaining and expanding its mission of helping families.
We are very much in need of funding for the SOFAR program. Though we've been invited through the Governor's office to meet with the State Medical Director and Commissioner of Mental Health and asked them for funding for the program, the real job of raising funds will fall to us.
Please think of people to give a brochure to or give Gerry and myself their names and we will be glad to contact them. If you need more brochures, please ask Alice or if you have suggestions please call me (617-492-0280).
I want to thank you for your steadfast support as always and commitment to PCFINE and its growth. From PCFINE's early beginnings it has reflected the metaphor from the movie "Field of Dreams" ---- " Build It and They Will Come" and they continue to come.
Warmly,
Ken
Letter to Volunteers
Dear SOFAR Volunteers,
Jaine and I wanted to update you about the project and what to expect over the next few months.
The 883ird, the unit the Director of Family Readiness Rick Croucher has asked we begin working with has just left for Fort Dix New Jersey on August 18th. We are working with the civilian in charge of the Family Support Services for that unit and have received two referrals in addition to two other referrals recently. We expect many more especially as the 88ird will be deploying to Iraq with in the next two months. .Additionally the 399th Combat Hospital Support unit is in a phased mobilization and will be deployed in the fall. Their members are located in Brockton, Taunton and Worcester which are some what close. Additionally, the 220th Transport Unit is also being deployed this fall.
In short we expect the pilot to become fully engaged over the next months. Jaine and I plan to meet with each of your teams and arrange a date for Rick Croucher to provide an overview of the work ahead and a share his experience of the work with trauma he is familiar with both as a Vietnam Veteran and as Director of Family Readiness.
Rick will be meeting with General Hemely, the Commanding General for all Reservists worldwide to inform him of our program and obtain his support for the program's replication nationally. Over the past months we have presented the pilot project at the American Psychoanalytic Winter and Spring meetings, Div. 39 of Psychoanalysis Spring meeting and the Annual meeting for the American Psychological Association.
Both Div. 39 and the APsA are planning to work with us to take the program once the pilot phase has been completed and the bugs are out, to the 45,000,000 people we believe are impacted by the over 1,250,000 troops that will have been to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait by the end of September 2006. Both the concerns about the impact of secondary trauma on family members and the desire to work preventatively with children and adolescents will diminish the potential for the long term effects of untreated trauma that we know well can blight the functioning of individuals and families.
Other institutes around the country will be waiting for us to develop the skills that will allow us to provide critical information as to how they can successfully proceed.
We have met with the Chief of Staff for the Adjutant General and the Surgeon General for the Massachusetts National Guard and expect to develop the same rich working relationships as we have with the Reserve. Undoubtedly that will result in more referrals and we will develop the program throughout the New England area as is the hope of Gen. Laich the Commanding General for the 94th Regiment of the New England Reserves and Rich Croucher. We have also been told that the Pennsylvania National Guard is very interested in the SOFAR program due to the significant numbers of Guardsman deployed to Iraq from that state.
I know some of you had volunteered months ago and Jaine and I would like to thank you for volunteering and for your patience as it has taken the military longer than initially predicted to begin the referral process.
The Surgeon General of the United States a few weeks ago stated that he expects one in three returning troops will be anxious, depressed or have PTSD. Our guess is that it might even be higher than and the impact on family members leaves them as "invisible casualties of war" that we hope to assist.
Shortly, all of you will be receiving a brochure in the mail describing the project. We are attempting to raise funds for the expenses the project is incurring and if there are people that you would recommend the brochure be sent to please e-mail the names and address to me and I will ensure they receive the SOFAR brochure.
One final piece of information that we would like to share with you is that over six months ago, I organized a think tank of experts in trauma, children and education to develop pamphlets for parents and teachers on the emotional impact of the war on children and its impact educationally in the classroom. Additionally, we are preparing a similar brochure for pediatricians. We are fortunate to have an Israeli psychologist living in Jerusalem join the project to assist us in developing a workshops protocol for teacher on trauma. Dr. Naomi Baum was the principal developer of a workshop format that for the past three years has been taught to all teachers in Israel.
The Governor's office is interested in our program as well and in the past months Jaine and I meet with the State Medical Director and the Chief of Mental Health to explore ways the State can assist the project.
Again thank you for the gift of your time.
Warmly,
Ken Reich and Janie Darwin
Events
Recent Events
Supporting Children Affected by the Iraqi War: What Responders Need to Know
Brandeis University, Schwartz Auditorium
October 20, 2007 9:30 – 12:30
Betsy McAlister Groves, LICSW
Director, Child Witness to Violence Project, Boston Medical Center, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine.
Major Molinda Chartrand, MD
Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences
Wartime operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have a significant impact on the children and families of deployed soldiers, now numbering more than 1.5 million persons. Many families and children are able to cope in healthy ways with the stresses of deployment and parental absence. However, for some families, especially those in which the soldier is injured, killed or psychologically debilitated, the experience may have a traumatic effect on all family members. The goal of this workshop is to present a framework for understanding the range of children’s responses to the stressors of having a parent deployed to a war front and to identify strategies to support those children who may be more vulnerable. Drawing upon research findings from studies of military families, and the clinical experiences with traumatized children seen in the Child Witness to Violence Project at Boston Medical Center, the presenters will give an overview of childhood traumatic stress and its effects on social and emotional development. Guidelines for identifying children who are at risk and for providing support that builds on family and community strengths will be presented.
Download event flyer (pdf format).
Event Photos
March 2007,
Home Coming for the 883ird
Photo Gallery
Summer 2006, Family Readiness Group Meeting Photo Gallery