Training Clinicians to Provide Culturally Competent Treatment to Military-Connected Children: A Collaborative Model Between the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program

Abstract: Between 2001 and 2011, over 700,000 military-connected children (MCC) in the United States experienced multiple parental deployments because of the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The stress of deployments significantly burdens MCC and nondeployed family members. Parental deployments are associated with significant increases in the use of mental healthcare resources. The majority of military families live off-base and access care through civilian healthcare providers; however, these community providers are often unfamiliar with specific challenges that military families, in particular MCC, face. To fill this gap, we developed a novel collaborative model to provide training in military culture, deployment, and reintegration challenges to experienced clinicians in a multisite child and family agency to build community capacity to address the mental health needs of MCC and their parents.