The Deployment Experience

Abstract

In today’s military, the majority of active-duty members will participate in at least one deployment during the course of their career. Although each branch of the armed forces and the total military population have traditionally been made up mostly of young single males, much of the deployed population in today’s military is comprised of young families with children so the impacts of deployment must be considered not only for the deploying service member, but also the family remaining at home. This chapter will discuss how deployments are routinely defined by three stages: pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment and how a myriad of factors that impact the experience of those stages. Any mental health provider working with military members and their family must realize the diverse nature of deployment experiences and appreciate the wide-ranging factors that influence each stage of deployment to foster identification of potential acute- and long-term consequences, and better guide interventions for timely definitive care. This chapter will help mental health providers better understand and relate to the deployed population and their family members, thereby enhancing rapport and the provision of therapeutic services.