The Challenges Military Families Face

 by Mackenzie Gilmore

When we think of people in the Armed Forces, we rarely think of their families, instead choosing to focus on the ones serving. This is perfectly reasonable, as, after all, they are the ones who, through their dedicated service, have committed themselves to the safety and security of Britain. However, there may be much more nuance and depth to the effects of having a parent in the armed forces than one may think. In Britain, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) covers the military, and is in charge of a wide range of things, ranging from military accommodation to defence equipment and supplies. They publish constant press releases, with 5 since the 23rd of November 2022. Studying these reports, there are a few conclusions that could be drawn.

If you are a military family, it appears common that you live in military housing. This is essentially a house that the government rents out to you, based on your rank and the number of people in your household. Military families don’t have to live in military houses, however due to the financial burden of owning your own home, statistics show that many do. This, in theory, eases financial burdens on military families and ensures that they have somewhere to live. However, a statement from the MoD from early November 2022 shows that this, at times, does not ease the financial side as much as might be thought. The military may move you around the country every couple of years, however there is often a long military housing waitlist, meaning that the families may have to pay out of pocket to rent a house temporarily or stay in a hotel. According to the statement, nearly a third of U.K. military houses need repair, despite the £650 million maintenance contract awarded just 6 months prior. Service families have made more than 9000 complaints about their accommodation since the start of 2021, indicating that this is an issue that needs to be solved sooner rather than later.

In addition to this, the constant chopping and changing of where these military families live can, according to the research below, lead to a problem emerging with children’s mental health. Families don’t have to move with the service person when they have to change where they are based in the country, however most families seem to choose to stay together, meaning they all move. Often, a military family moving will have to pull their child out of their current school as they will move too far away, which may affect the stability of their education. An extension of that is that they will move away from friends they’ve made connections with every few years, and have to make new ones. The Army Families Federation, based in Britain, conducted various studies and published a paper on their research. In 2017, one in five service families had school age children who had changed school for Service reasons. Additionally, they believe that support for service children who have changed schools is not enough. Only a fifth of the country has a ‘Designated Senior Leader and Mental Health Support Team’, meaning that the majority of the country does not have people with enough official training to help service families with school age children. This highlights the challenges that some families face when moving due to service reasons, and the lack of support for them.

Of course, there are always going to be things to fix at home, however one of, if not the biggest hurdle military families have to face is when the serviceperson is away from their family for a long period of time. Often, these periods can be uncertain, with return dates varying. Families may be told to, ‘Take the return date with a pinch of salt’, as one person said. Research using the TFMFI (A clinically used strategy to collect detailed time-linked information about service members absences) indicated that the number of important family events missed by the service member is linked to depression in the children of the family. However, when children reported to have more time with the service person, it would appear they suffered significantly less symptoms of depression. It could be argued that children and their serving parents can have periodic communication online, dimming the effects of being away from their parents. This does not appear to be the case though. The same study reported that, interestingly, more frequent communication between serving parents and children when they are deployed can actually increase psychological stress. The study theorises that contact increases emotional distress as opposed to calming them down, for reasons such as the uncertainty of when they can talk to each other, or what’s happening to them for the periods where they can’t communicate (often for security reasons). When talking to families affected by this, one said, ‘The worst part of going away is not knowing what’s happening. They can only speak to you every so often and sometimes not for very long. […] It’s horrible.’ The evidence suggests the uncertainty of deployment affects many people, both the deployed, and the ones who stay at home.

However, there are things in place that can help military families. Lots of military housing will often be placed next to each other, creating whole neighbourhoods with something in common. One child from one of these neighbourhoods in Britain said, ‘Army children are such a community […] we all have each other.’ This, perhaps, shows that the isolation some military children feel due to the constant moving around can be combated by being placed in environments with people in similar situations. As well as local communities, there is even a Military Kids Club network funded by the Royal British Legion that stretches across the country, and has even reached as far as Brunei and the Falklands. Many of these support systems are in place to help these families, and do their bit to combat the problems in the system.

To conclude, military families are a hugely important part of the Armed Forces, and the system is not perfect. There can be problems when it comes to military housing, and research suggests that children in military families can be somewhat forgotten by the system and their mental health can suffer as a result. However, work is being done to help combat these problems and provide support for these families. It’s not enough yet, but it's a start.