Family Matters Blog: Navy Program Helps to Strengthen Families

By Elaine Wilson

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2011 – Military families have many support programs at their fingertips, but I wanted to highlight one in particular that’s making inroads in family care.

The Navy’s Project FOCUS, or Families OverComing Under Stress, equips military families with the skills they need to weather the psychological and physical challenges brought about by a decade of war. The program educates and builds coping skills among service members and their families, while also informing communities about the stressors military families and how they can best support them.

“Families make such sacrifices to support service members and their country,” Kirsten Woodward, family programs division director for the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, told me in a recent interview. “It’s important for us to support families in the same manner in which they are sacrificing.”

For more on this program, including information on the program’s onsite and online options, read my American Forces Press Service article, “Navy Program Puts “FOCUS’ on Military Families," or visit the Project FOCUS website.