Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

DoD to hold family support summit

Troops and family members are invited to join a live Oct. 20 Pentagon Webcast of a summit meeting that will explore the best ways to support families of service members who are killed, seriously wounded or who become ill or injured, as well as a new plan for coordinating treatment between local, state and federal agencies.

The daylong meeting of roughly 300 family members and participants from U.S. partner organizations and agencies, headlined as “Consistent Best Practices for Support of Families of Fallen and Wounded, Ill and Injured Service Members,” will be split into two sessions.

In the morning session, spouses of wounded, ill and injured troops will discuss their experiences with each phase of treatment — recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration. The afternoon session will focus on the needs of family members of fallen troops, in areas such as mortuary assistance, compensation and benefits.

The summit also aims to solicit feedback — webcast viewers can join the conversation via e-mail — on a new framework to ensure that treatment is seamlessly coordinated through each phase, said Lynda Davis, who leads the Pentagon’s senior oversight committee for case management reform for wounded, ill or injured troops.

“What everybody’s looking for is coordinated care that goes across the full continuum,” said Davis, recently appointed as the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary for military, community and family policy. “We haven’t always done a great job of working with our veteran service and benefits organizations.”

She said the Pentagon wants to ensure programs coordination for veterans “once they’re back in the community, living where we want them to not only survive their injuries, but now thrive.”

This new framework will “help make that happen,” Davis said, adding that feedback from summit participants will “further ensure that there is not only consistency” in the plan but also that the concepts are “of best quality and best practice.”

Under the plan, every surviving seriously or severely injured service member will have a coordinator; an individualized, comprehensive recovery plan; and a recovery team whose members coordinate their treatments and activities.

Each will also be able to access a new National Resource Directory being unveiled in November that promises to be an “online partnership of shared care” listing services and resources from the federal to county level.

“If you are a case manager in a county mental health office in Ventura [Calif.], and you want to know what a homeless veteran who comes in is eligible for, you’ll be able to look in the directory and, from the bottom up, look at how to help,” Davis said

The new framework also establishes a 10-step process of care coordination that will be uniform for all services, she said. Step 6 requires the recovery specialists to examine family needs.

“It’s a promise and a commitment to our service members who have a serious or severe wound, illness or injury,” she said.

The entire day’s program, including noontime remarks by the host, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will be webcast. Family members are invited to e-mail questions or share comments on Oct. 20, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, to questions@familysummit.net.