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Miranda Simpson said she started noticing more anger in her 8-year-old son during her husband's last deployment.
"He didn't understand war during the deployment before this," she said.
She sought out resources at Fort Polk, La., and the surrounding community, but was unsuccessful in finding what she hoped for - a "big brother" figure in the military community to spend some time with her son.
She and other family readiness group leaders at Fort Polk who attended family forums at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting were glad to hear that the Army is looking at the effects of multiple deployments on children, and is taking steps to help.
Among the signs of stress wearing on Army families is an increase in depression among family members and in the number of military adolescents admitted for inpatient mental health care, according to Col. Kris Peterson, a pediatrician at the Military Child and Adolescent Center of Excellence at Fort Lewis, Wash.
There is a "very large gap" in delivering the care to address the effects of this stress, he told one of the family forums Wednesday morning.
While there is a wide variety of resources for military children through the Army's Medical Command and Installation Command, an effort is also underway to synchronize these programs "so it's an easier lane of care to get into," Peterson said.
"If we can mitigate the effects and prevent hospitalization, that can help military families," he said. "Sometimes it gets to that point because an earlier intervention has not occurred."
Officials also need to work with school behavioral health programs to improve access to help for children, and to reduce the stigma, he said.
The new Military Child and Adolescent Center of Excellence, which is about one-fourth staffed, will address needs of military children across a broad spectrum, to include issues of deployments as well as frequent moving.
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