Military families required counseling for relationship stress that was heightened by COVID lockdowns, the Pentagon said Thursday.
“Relational problems remained the top issue for which service members and families sought support,” Military Community Support Programs Director Lee Kelley told the Washington Examiner at a Pentagon press briefing.
More than half of calls to the Military OneSource non-medical counseling call center were for relationship problems. In all, over 86,000 calls sought assistance with relationship issues, a 7% uptick from FY 2019 numbers.
Non-medical counseling includes assistance with issues like relationships, anger, communication, grief, and loss that are below the threshold of a mental health diagnosis.
The military’s in-person counseling, known as the Military and Family Life Counseling program, also had an uptick in sessions related to relationship problems from 34% in FY 2019 to 38% in FY 2020.
When in-person counseling was suddenly cut off in March, a flood of calls and phone counseling effort ensued, Kelley said.
“What happened during COVID-19 was a demand signal immediately went up from our military community,” she said. “The program transitioned in a matter of days to provide telehealth support.”
Although the program pivoted quickly to virtual sessions, it’s utilization dropped precipitously, from 2.7 million sessions in FY 2019 to 1.9 million sessions in FY 2020.
When utilization dropped off, many service members and their families did not know where to turn.
“There was less utilization because the counselor was not right there with you,” Kelley explained.
The special military counseling program embeds more than 2,000 counselors globally in military units, removing the stigma for family members of going to an office. Instead, they can see a counselor when picking up their children from school or child-care facility. Service members could easily access the counseling, too, before the pandemic hit.
“Before COVID-19, [it] was provided solely face-to-face,” Kelley explained. “You could connect to a counselor while you are fixing an aircraft on the flight line because that counselor has been embedded in your unit.”
The Pentagon official said that while relationship problems represented the majority of sessions prior to COVID, the pandemic and military lockdowns have taken a toll on military families.
“The relationship support that’s being asked for now includes the issues that have risen to the surface as a result of COVID-19,” she said.
Of the 30,000-40,000 monthly Military OneSource calls, the program tracked 1,000 that were specific to COVID-19. Usually, Kelley explained that COVID stress heightened other issues.
Some topics couples sought support for due to COVID-19 were increased arguments, a spouse testing positive, managing children, and spouses being home all the time or being front-line coronavirus workers.
Domestic violence is also of concern to the military.
Office of Military Family Readiness Policy director Carolyn Stevens told the Washington Examiner that her office is closely monitoring to ensure that pandemic and relationship stress do not lead to increased domestic violence.
“We know that in the civilian community there are increases in the number of reports,” she said of domestic violence cases. “We are not currently seeing that within our military services.”
During October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Stevens said messaging and training about the different types of abuse, from electronic to physical, is reaching service members and their families.
“We are concerned,” she said. “This is an issue that we do need to maintain watch.”
