Nurses studying health
needs of
deploying servicemembers' families By Mark
Oliva
Okinawa bureau
CAMP LESTER
— A team of nurses on Okinawa is studying the health needs of deploying
servicemembers’ families.
The team
from the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa is examining Navy, Marine Corps and Army families in
the first study of its kind conducted at an overseas duty station.
"The
study is to test the hypothesis that deployed families are in greater need" of health
care, said Navy Capt. Peggy McNulty, research coordinator and nurse practitioner at the
hospital’s Nursing Research Department.
"I
want medical providers … to be aware of the needs our population is saying that are
important to them."
The study
is similar in scope to studies conducted during the Persian Gulf War, but McNulty said
only a handful were completed and published. The Bureau of Naval Medicine is backing the
study granted by Tri-Service Nursing Research, which has funded an additional four nurses
and one program coordinator. The study is expected to be finished by late summer.
It involves
300 families whose military sponsor is not deployed and is anticipated to include 300
other families coping with deployments. These range from three-month trips to back-to-back
weeklong jaunts.
McNulty
hopes the study will reveal areas where families might need more help from medical
professionals. All areas of health care from pediatrics to stress management are being
evaluated.
"We’re
expecting to find deployed groups … score higher in anxiety," she said.
Anxiety
could be caused by loss of emotional support or the shouldering of responsibilities by one
parent. However, she said, such results might not turn up in the study.
"We
may find the flip-flop," with families of deploying servicemembers better equipped to
deal with day-to-day stress than expected, McNulty said.
Initial
results are still being reviewed, but McNulty said trends are already highlighting
concerns among the researchers.
"The
results so far in the nondeployed (families) are concerning," McNulty said. "We
have families in need and they’re not coming for help."
Definitive
reasons of why care isn’t being sought won’t be understood until the study is
completed. Some cases required consultations with specialists to resolve health-related
problems. Because of privacy concerns, the types of problems were not divulged.
The
research team also is factoring in the isolation some families experience in a foreign
country, McNulty said. The study is documenting the effects of limited communication with
extended family and loss of familiar surroundings.
"A lot
of children who are answering these surveys miss living in California," she said. It
will take several more months to see if those children make healthy adjustments to life
abroad.
McNulty
said families of deployed servicemembers are still needed for the study. For more
information, call 643-7870.
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