What's New at SOFAR

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.

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.

 

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