Our nation recognizes April as the Month of the Military Child, celebrating and acknowledging the children of our service members. Through the Adolescent Support and Counseling Services (ASACS) program, overseas middle and high school youth enrolled at Department of Defense Schools have access to in-school counseling and prevention education lessons at no charge. Whether or not ASACS services are available in your area, it’s worth taking a look at the challenges military children often face, and the resources available to support their mental health.

The Challenges Military Children Face

Military children must learn to be resilient because their households may relocate every 2 to 3 years — sometimes overseas and to new cultures. For many kids, this is a difficult challenge. Middle school and high school are particularly challenging ages, where social connections, friendships, and romantic relationships become more important.

A term has been developed to describe children who spend formative years growing up outside their parents’ native culture—Third Culture Kids. Military children often represent this demographic when they relocate to other countries, which can translate into culture shock and create unique challenges that typical American teens may not experience.

In addition to being susceptible to frequent family moves, COVID-19 has impacted everyone across the globe, and our military children are no exception. They faced attending virtual schools in communities where they are already feeling isolated due to being in a new country and community. We have seen mental health concerns like depression, anxiety, and alcohol and drug use increase due to the pandemic, and many parents and students do not often seek help. But here is how they can and should.

Support Services for Overseas Youth

The key to effectively transitioning military children to their new surroundings is working with a counselor on their terms. Magellan Federal delivers the Adolescent Support and Counseling Services (ASACS) program on more than 14 locations in 6 countries.  ASACS is a school and community-based program providing counseling and educational prevention-based services that are confidential for students in grades 6 -12.

Magellan Federal counselors focus on issues unique to military children such as transitioning to new environments, coping with stress and challenges associated with moves, and alcohol and drug prevention. Additionally, our counselors support these young individuals with all the other “typical” issues teens face.

As the demand for mental health services has increased, getting on a waitlist for psychological services is a real challenge for students. So often, many students are ineligible for on-base counseling due to staffing limitations, and off-base options are usually nonexistent or not adequate for English-speaking students. Through ASACS, Magellan Federal provides tailor-made, in-school counseling and prevention education lessons at no charge to overseas middle and high school youth enrolled at Department of Defense Schools. The Magellan Federal staff works with students and teachers to identify an appropriate time so that the student is staying in class as much as possible. Our team develops counseling schedules, ensuring kids receive timely, critical emotional and behavioral support while maintaining academic requirements. Because of our programming, parents do not need to leave work early and drive to accommodate a counseling session, positively impacting family engagement.

It’s important to address the unique needs of military children overseas during formative years, to proactively ease their transition and bolster confidence and resiliency. ASACS services are available to any military ID card holder student and their families. To connect with your regional ASACS counselor contact your child’s school at the front desk or the guidance department or contact Allison Welliver at WelliverAL@MagellanFederal.com to inquire about local services.

In April, we celebrate the children of active duty service members. Whether you work in a school, child development center, or youth center, there are many engaging activities available to highlight their unique strengths as military kids and celebrate what makes their military families special.

Here are some suggested activities for April’s Month of the Military Child:

• Spirit Week: For one week in April, conduct military-themed activities each day of the week. You can plan a spirit week around Purple Up Day (April 15^th), along with additional military theme days, such as Red, White, and Blue Day, Camouflage Day, Military Hat Day, and Military Show & Tell Day.
• School Morning Announcements: Ask students to participate in morning announcements by reading a military fact or a military trivia question. Provide students the fact or trivia question the day before to allow students to practice at home. To ease students’ nervousness, offer to stay with the student during the announcements as friendly support.
• Arts & Crafts: Engage students in creating posters and drawings about military life or ask them to identify positive traits about military children (e.g., brave). Display artwork on bulletin boards or blank walls. Show students how to create and design paper parachutes, using coffee filters and pipe cleaners. If your site has a calendar of events, ask if you can offer an arts & crafts activity during a special event.
• S. Map Bulletin Board: Find a map of the United States and post it on a bulletin board. Ask students to find where they lived prior to living in their current home. Use different colored push pins or thumbtacks to mark the cities and states. If serving children of multiple ages, select a color to represent each age group/grade level and create a map legend for each color. You can include staff who are service members themselves or are military spouses, on the map as well.
• Military Board Game: Create a board game with questions that highlight various aspects of military life (e.g., deployment, moving). Use popular board games as inspiration for your game’s design (e.g., Candy Land).
• Special Guests: If your site allows outside visitors, invite service member parents to come and eat lunch with their children one day in April. You could also request the installation’s military band or chorus to come and perform for the children.

If you are a part of a military community, you can see what events are planned near you by searching for events with the base Public Affairs office, Military Family Readiness Centers, Department of Defense Dependent School admin offices, and on-base Child Development Centers.

Activities may also be listed at Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Centers at military installations overseas and stateside. The official sites for all these organizations often post calendars of upcoming events and programs.

Whether your organization is military-associated or not, it’s important to honor the sacrifices made by military families worldwide and emphasize the experience of military children serving at home and overseas.

Additional Articles on Supporting Children:

• How can I help my children during COVID-19?
• A pandemic’s impact on children’s mental health
• ADHD: Helping Your Child Get the Most From School
• Bullying: Building a Child’s Self-Esteem

This article is part two of our discussion about the impacts on mental health and the war in Ukraine. Click here to read our tips for adults. 

Information on the war is continually changing. The youngest viewers, children, are watching and may experience the fear and stress associated with images from the war in Ukraine.

To add to the stress and concern, this global crisis comes on the heels of being exhausted and socially isolated by the pandemic. The following are some tips to help children that are impacted or stressed by the Ukraine situation.

Listen to children. Children hear and see things. This can be especially frightening if they have a parent deployed. It is important not to force them to talk. Find alternative ways to communicate with children such as drawing or playing with toys.

Calm conversation. It is important for parents to be calm when talking to their children about Ukraine. Parents need to be careful not to be the source of a child’s anxiety. Parents are encouraged to check-in and ask their children how they are doing.

Answer children’s questions. Support and acknowledge what your child is saying and their potential fears. Reassure your child but do not make unrealistic promises. Answer questions and help in separating fact from fiction.

Provide support. Do not let children watch the images of violence on television. Children who have experienced trauma may need extra attention. Some children may not want to talk about the event. It is okay if they would rather play or be outside.

Limit exposure to media and social media. Limit the exposure to graphic violence on media. For older children, watch the news with the child and then talk about how the child is reacting to what they are seeing.

Maintain a normal routine. Encourage the daily routines such as homework, sports, activities to continue.

Watch for changes in mood. Some children show their reactions in nonverbal ways. Watch for anger, physical symptoms, mood changes, or withdrawing from usual activities and conversations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound affect on everyone, particularly children with emotional health concerns. Many support structures in place prior to the pandemic to help children thrive have disappeared or been changed significantly, resulting in increased pressure on caretakers and overwhelming stress for children. New and innovative solutions are needed to meet these challenges. Magellan Healthcare’s Emotional Health for Kids by Mightier is a clinically proven video game solution that helps children build emotion regulation skills through play and caregivers build emotionally healthy homes.

Developed at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Mightier helps children ages 6 to 14 who are struggling with emotional health concerns, such as irritability, aggression, and anger, as well as children diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and general anxiety disorder.

Mightier’s impact on children’s emotional health

In a pilot program, Magellan provided members access to the Mightier program for a period of twelve weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Families were recruited and randomized into a group that received Mightier in addition to applied behavior analysis (ABA), or a group that received only ABA as a control.

• Children engaged with Mightier at a high rate. On average, Mightier families played for 30.4 minutes above the 30 minutes per week recommended to see clinical change.
• Clinical symptoms improved. Eighty percent of children with ASD who used Mightier showed an improvement on primary symptoms, compared to only 50% in the control group.
• Children showed twice as much decrease in aggressive behaviors. Adding Mightier to ABA resulted in a reduction in aggressive behavior in children with autism by twice as much compared to ABA alone.
• Families reported a less stressful and more supportive environment. Families using Mightier showed 50% improvement in family stress, 114% improvement in parent confidence, and 114% improvement in access to resources relative to control.

Visit  Magellanhealthcare.com/kids-emotions-mightier/ to learn more about the pilot and how Mightier helps children build self-regulation skills and supports caregivers in building emotionally healthy homes.