Creating the environment in which the military and their family members could adjust to the new and challenging setting is a crucial step in improving the quality of the target population’s life and creating appropriate working conditions. For this purpose, one should consider two essential tools. By using counseling and social media, one will be able to address both the psychological concerns of the target demographics and the lack of awareness among the rest of the community members.
Counseling services should be deemed as a necessity. The assistance of coaches and psychologists will be imperative to encourage the military and their families to alter their behaviors and develop the skills that will help them adjust to and accommodate in the new setting. Furthermore, one should view the adoption of a financial strategy that will allow building a community capacity for providing military families with the consistent support. In other words, it is crucial to use the available social communication channels that will increase the intensity of interactions between military families and the rest of the community members. Consequently, the enhancement of community support and the further process of building the environment in which the target population will feel welcomed and comfortable will become a possibility (Stillwell, 2015).
It should be noted, though, that the second concept of promoting the well-being and accommodation of the military in the new environment is fraught with technology-related challenges. Particularly, it is crucial that social workers should be capable of using the existing social networks efficiently to the advantage of the military. Furthermore, the significance of encouraging the rest of the community members to provide the support for the members of military families should be interpreted as one of the primary areas of concern for social workers. As Huebner, Mancini, Bower, and Orthner (2009) explain, there is a need for building the foundation for the active promotion of well-being of military families due to the stress and strain under which they may have been living: “the number of military service members and families impacted by Global War on Terrorism is significant” (Huebner et al., 2009, p. 216). Therefore, the active enhancement of cooperation and collaboration must be deemed as the key task for a social worker.
The adoption of social networks is likely to contribute to a faster resolution of the problem. Seeing that the identified tool allows maintaining contact with all residents of the area, it should be used to raise awareness by scheduling the relevant events and inviting people to participate and even assist with the arrangement thereof; provide crucial information about the military, their families, and their needs; and introducing people to the idea of cultural sensitivity as the foundation for building relationships with others.
Members of the military, as well as their families, have experienced significant stress, which is likely to lead to problems with accommodating to new environments and communicating with new people. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that the target population should be provided with an opportunity to adjust to the culturally challenging setting and develop the behaviors and attitudes that will allow them to feel comfortable in the identified environment. Therefore, the creation of counseling services for the target population and the design of networks that can be used to raise awareness, organize relevant events, and contribute to the enhancement of cooperation between the members of the military and the rest of the community members must be regarded as essential steps toward the promotion of well-being among members of the military and their families.
References
Huebner, A. J., Mancini, J. A., Bowen, G. L., & Orthner, D. K. (2009). Shadowed by war: Building community capacity to support military families. Family Relations, 58(2), 216-228.
Stillwell, M. C. (2015). Cultivating partnerships between community leaders and service agencies to provide support for military families. Web.