When one member of a family serves his or her country in the military, everyone in that family serves. Deployment and reintegration impact an entire family, including children, spouses, parents and siblings of service members. Too often these effects on military families go unrecognized. We need a better understanding of how to help family members cope when a loved one is deployed and when that family member returns home. Such transitions can have a significant effect on children of different ages. All families deserve support to remain strong, loving, and connected throughout the deployment and re-integration of a service member.

 

How we can help

The mission of the Family Support Program is to support the emotional health of children through challenges that affect any military family member including deployment and re-integration stresses.

Our program provides prevention, education, consultation and referral services for two specific kinds of challenges faced by military parents and children.

• To support parents and children in how to best cope with the challenges and disruptions to the family during deployment and reintegration.
  
  
• To support parents who are adjusting and integrating back into home life after a deployment, post-traumatic stress disorder (deployment- and combat-related stress), and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Clinical staff in the Home Base Family Support Program will work with families by using the Marjorie E. Korff Parenting At A Challenging Time (PACT) Model. Using this model we focus on identifying each family’s:

• particular strengths
  
  
• history of successful parenting and problem-solving

We work with parents to draw upon these competencies to build new skills and confidence in caring for their children.

The goal is to help parents help their children thrive and have a bright future despite the challenges faced by the family during a family member’s deployment and reintegration.

Paula K. Rauch, MD

Program Director, Home Base Family Support Program

Paula K. Rauch, MD, serves as director of the Marjorie E. Korff PACT (Parenting At A Challenging Time) Program and is the chief of Child Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is an associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rauch is board-certified in both adult and child psychiatry. She has been a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 20 years and is well known for her outreach to families, hospitals, schools, communities, and her work with the media to support the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.

Dr. Rauch is an author of many publications including the book Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child When a Parent is Sick. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

 

Bonnie Y. Ohye, Ph.D

Clinical Director, Home Base Family Support Program

Bonnie Ohye, PhD has been a practicing child psychologist, clinical teacher and mentor for 30 years. She is assistant professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) at Harvard Medical School with particular interest in parenting and cultural factors in family life. Dr. Ohye is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also completed her doctoral degree in clinical psychology.

 

Kathy Clair-Hayes, LICSW, MSW, MA

Clinical Social Worker, Home Base Family Support Program

Kathy Clair-Hayes, LICSW has been a clinical social worker at MGH for the past 15 years, She has a special interest in working with families who are facing life challenges. She created the Take Good Care Packs, which was a family intervention model that helped parents talk to their children about life threatening illness, traumas, and death of a loved one. Kathy graduated from Georgetown University. She received a joint masters degree in social work and pastoral ministry from Boston College.

Erin Scott Daly, PhD

VA Coordinator

Erin Scott Daly, PhD, serves as the Director of the Center for Returning Veterans (CRV) within the VA Boston Healthcare System. The CRV is a mental health clinic focused on the re-adjustment and mental health needs of returning service members from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Dr. Daly is a licensed clinical psychologist and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. She is a cum laude graduate of Harvard College and received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Temple University.