Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 224
Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-1-4422-2748-4 • Hardback • May 2014 • $60.00 • (£46.00)
978-1-4422-7482-2 • Paperback • October 2016 • $14.95 • (£11.99)
978-1-4422-2749-1 • eBook • May 2014 • $57.00 • (£44.00)
Cheryl Lawhorne-Scott is a clinical therapist with a twenty-year track record of counseling services specializing in trauma care, post traumatic stress, and traumatic brain-injury treatment for wounded, ill, and injured service members and their families. As a senior consultant, under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, she is part of a team that seeks innovative and proactive ways to enhance resources and services to military members and their families. She recently participated in the corporate mission, vision, and implementation of projects for the Department of Defense to align current and future strategic plans and objectives. Her past positions include the Deputy Program Manager for the Recovery Care Coordination program nationwide for wounded, ill and injured service members and their families.
Don Philpott is editor of International Homeland Security Journal and has been writing, reporting, and broadcasting on international events, trouble spots, and major news stories for almost forty years. For twenty years he was a senior correspondent with Press Association-Reuters, the wire service, and traveled the world on assignments including Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Israel, South Africa, and Asia. He writes for magazines and newspapers in the United States and Europe and is a regular contributor to radio and television programs on security and other issues. He is the author of more than 120 books on a wide range of subjects and has had more than five thousand articles printed in publications around the world. His recent books include Military Finances, Life after the Military, Military Mental Health Care, Terror—Is America Safe?, Workplace Violence Prevention, and the Education Facility Security Handbook.
Jeff Scott, LtCol., is a 26-year prior enlisted United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel who has held various leadership positions throughout his service with the most recent being the Commanding Officer of the world's first operational F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter squadron. In addition to being the first operational F-35 pilot and commander, LtCol Scott has received formal service training on Sexual Assault Prevention and Response as part of his leadership training and has mentored many Marines and families. LtCol Scott has also served with senior leadership at the Pentagon.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Family Life in the military
2. Housing
3. Having a baby
4. Adoption
5. Disabilities
6. Child Care and Pre-school
7. Education and disruptions in schooling
8. Special Needs
9. Overseas schools
10. Moving and coping with frequent moves
11. Family separation and deployment
12. Finances, taxes and financial difficulties
13. Employment
14. Coping with death
15. Health care and insurance
16. Coping with stress
17. Substance Abuse
18. Domestic Violence
19. Coping with emergencies
Resources
There is no doubt that a career in the military poses many challenges for families, especially those with young children. In this stellar offering, clinical therapist Lawhorne-Scott, marine corps lieutenant colonel Jeff Scott, and writer Don Philpott give readers a helpful guide to navigating the many demands military families face, such as frequent moves, the loss of friends, deployment, and even the risk of death. The text not only offers a supportive manual to psychological concerns ('what to expect from your children during postdeployment'), but covers such secondary issues as the underemployment of military spouses and dealing with schooling disruptions. Lastly, the book serves as a directory to military services within the context of government benefits (DEERS enrollment, TRICARE health care, and Family Separation Allowances). VERDICT This book should be available to all families who make ongoing sacrifices for our country. Unequivocally recommended.
— Library Journal, Starred Review
Forty percent of military personnel are parents—eight percent are single parents—confronting challenges far beyond those typically faced in child rearing. Children in military families must cope with multiple deployments, reintegration, and the threat of combat injuries and death. They may face frequent moves and the accompanying loss of friends and interruptions in schooling. Military life can also present challenges in housing, child care, and unemployment and underemployment of military spouses. The authors present solid information on child services offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs and other resources, including information on helping children with disabilities and special needs as well as overseas schools and homeschooling. They cover myriad family issues, from taxes and finances to adequate insurance coverage, from counseling for addiction and domestic violence to the secrets of maintaining strong and healthy family relationships. This is a helpful guide aimed at the special challenges of military families.
— Booklist
OUTSTANDING!!! This is a book that should be read by all, it covers topics that military members deal with on a daily basis. We have been a military family for over 10 years and some of that was as a dual active duty family, and the topics in this book are "spot on" in dealing with military life. The authors capture the nooks and crannies of the military lifestyle along with the trials and tribulations the entire family endures while defending this great nation.
— Adrienne Meelarp, USMC Reserves (Major)
This guide offers a straight forward approach and lays out what every military family needs to know about the vast networks and resources offered throughout the service. It pulls together what took me almost two decades to learn all into one place in a manner that even the newest military family can easily grasp.
— Conrad R. Carvajal, GySgt/USMC (Ret.)
Raising Children in the Military is a firsthand example and testament of courage, honor, and growing wisdom in the today’s sometimes challenging and harsh world military families endure. This powerful book guides us through the tender real life challenges military families encounter and provides heartfelt and real life examples of how to navigate the sometimes uncharted and not so easily remedied life of raising a child(ren) in the military. It’s every word rings with truth and is an example of the military and American spirit.
— Jordan Michael Hall, BSN, CCM