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thedrifter
02-25-08, 08:47 AM
Hotline helps war-weary troops, families

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. — Rows of hotline operators with muted voices mask the desperation of incoming calls on a recent afternoon: a soldier back from Iraq with a drinking problem and a broken marriage; an Army recruiter in the throes of depression; a Marine in Iraq eager to reach his wife after the birth of his son.

This warren of cubicles in a suburban-Philadelphia office building — with two other call centers in Arlington, Va., and St. Petersburg, Fla. — are the Pentagon's front line for fighting the strain of war.

The 24-hour hotline program, Military OneSource, offers an array of services to soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines or their families, from tax preparation and financial advice to psychological and family counseling. It augments military chaplains and base programs.

A few years ago, OneSource consultants found a temporary home for a 15-foot pet boa constrictor while its owner, an Army National Guard soldier, went to Iraq. In 2005, U.S. military doctors at a combat hospital in Iraq used the hotline to find a translator who could help treat, by telephone conference call, a wounded Nepalese soldier.

But the calls that send consultants to the "serenity room" here to chill out, or to take a walk around the building, are pleas for help from war-weary troops or their relatives.

"There's a lot of stress (for) a lot of servicemembers who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan," says Amy DiMalanta, 34, who answers calls.

"They're having a lot of issues they're facing at home like reintegration (with their family) or just the stress of, 'Am I going to go back (to war)?' " she says. "A lot of them emphasize that they have a hard time sleeping … having nightmares or they're thinking that, 'Oh, I'm still in Iraq,' or 'I'm thinking I'm going to hear a bomb go off.' "

Through the program, operated by Minneapolis-based Ceridian Corp., callers to 800-342-9647 get up to six free sessions with a licensed therapist located no more than 30 miles from their home, says Cherie Zadlo, a former Air Force colonel who runs OneSource. The first session must be made available within three days.

Timothy Larsen, Marine Corps chief of family programs, calls OneSource "an invaluable tool."

Once a week, there is a crisis call, often a threat of suicide, says Dan Lafferty, a licensed social worker and clinical supervisor here. Operators silently alert co-workers while keeping the servicemember on the line. Supervisors will listen in on the conversation. If necessary, authorities are contacted, Zadlo says.

"You ask them if they have a plan," DiMalanta says. "(They say) 'I just think I want to die. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm desperate. I'm lost.' And so you take it from there."

A more common plea for help, however, is the call like the one from Army wife Angie Ayers, 36, of Lone Pier, Mich.

"They helped me deal with my teenage daughter's anger over her dad being gone," says Ayers, whose husband, Joe, deployed with the National Guard to Iraq in 2004-05.

Ayers' daughter, Elizabeth, then 13, grew angrier with her dad's absence: slamming doors, scrawling hate words on a photo of Osama bin Laden and dissolving into tears at news of a death in her father's unit. OneSource found a family counselor for the Ayers family.

Mother and daughter attended. "She (Elizabeth) was getting better, and I noticed," Ayers says.

Since early last year, Ceridian has operated OneSource under a bridge contract while the Pentagon has sought competitive bids for a new three-year deal.

Services from OneSource's hotline offered to military families include personal finance management, information on educational loans, spouse employment training and career management, and self-help groups that focus on drug and alcohol abuse, gambling addiction and eating disorders.

Serious medical or psychological problems are referred to military health care, Zadlo says. But stress or marital issues can be treated by in-person counseling with private-sector therapists under a promise that the military chain-of-command will not be notified, she says.

Pentagon surveys last year show that 71% of the wives of junior enlisted servicemembers say loneliness is a serious problem during deployments. A program goal is to offer a voice on the phone for military families. There are also online chat rooms and workshops.

"We're thinking that Military OneSource is sort of like a club you belong to," says Jane Burke, who supervises the program for the Pentagon's Office of Military Community and Family Policy. "We think it is the way of the future for the military to get connected (to troops and their families)."

Ellie

thedrifter
02-25-08, 08:48 AM
Calls rise at Pentagon help hotline

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
The number of troops and their relatives seeking help from a Pentagon employee-assistance hotline — often linked to war deployments — has grown 40% every year since 2004, say Pentagon officials and hotline operators.

The program receives a thousand calls daily from military members and families and nearly 6,000 individual visits to its website, says Jane Burke, who supervises the program for the Pentagon's Office of Military Community and Family Policy.

"The multiple deployments with the families — they're worn. They need help. So they give us a call, and we find whatever resource we can for them," consultant Steve Schaffhouser says.

The increase in help calls underscores concerns raised publicly by military leaders such as Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, that more and longer combat tours strain troops and their families.

Callers receive up to six free, confidential sessions with a licensed therapist. Emotional and relationship problems are big areas of need, says Cherie Zadlo, who runs Military OneSource for Minneapolis-based Ceridian Corp. Other issues include legal problems, child care, education, finance and taxes.

Burke says the program's growth is due to a greater need and greater awareness of the program and its hotline number. "We're trying to help them," she says. "We know it's hard."

Military OneSource began as a pilot program serving Marines in 2002 and was expanded to the entire U.S. military in 2004. It's available to more than 5 million active, National Guard and reserve troops and their family members. From 2005 to 2007, it cost about $50 million per year, according to government contract records.

Pentagon officials declined to provide year-by-year statistics for the program. Zadlo says there were more than 200,000 calls and 2.1 million Web visits last year.

Denise Drzewiecki, 38, of Killeen, Texas, was one caller. Her husband, Army Sgt. Scott Drzewiecki, was in Iraq. Their daughter, then 12 and suffering mental disorders, was angrily acting out. "I felt like my world was caving in on me," Denise Drzewiecki says. A hotline operator "validated how I was feeling and then told me what they could do to help." In two days, she had an appointment with a therapist.

Ellie