The goal of this study is to help spouses serve as a support system and ease the transition for military service members returning from Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). The program will provide telephone support group sessions to spouses designed to educate, build coping skills, improve access to services for veteran and family, and serve as a source of shared support.

Deployment consequences can negatively affect marriages. Approximately 17%-30% of returning Iraq war veterans suffer from depression, anxiety, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 8%-19% of spouses screen positive for depression or anxiety. Soldier depression and PTSD are linked to decreased marital quality and increased infidelity and spousal abuse. In the first year post-deployment for Iraq soldiers, the prevalence of mental health problems increases. During this critical first year, the telephone support groups will provide spouses with the skills they need to facilitate reintegration of the service member into the family. Early intervention presents an opportunity to support combat veterans soon after their war experiences to relieve stress before it becomes life disturbing.

The study is based on the BATTLEMIND Training System developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to help soldiers reintegrate and adapt their combat skills back into civilian life. Soldiers responded well to the training, which has been shown to be effective in improving PTSD symptoms, depression, sleep and alcohol problems, and social functioning, and recommended that similar training should be provided to spouses. Topics for the soldier training and for the Spouse Telephone Support Groups are based on the letters of the word BATTLEMIND.

The study will enroll 60 OEF/OIF spouses. Over the period of 1 year, each group of six participants and a trained Group Leader will have 15 hour-long structured telephone sessions, focusing on education, coping skills, and support. The content includes ways the returning service member, spouse, and family may have changed during deployment; an emphasis on compromise and negotiation in personal relationships; strategies to reduce or eliminate reunion and reintegration difficulties; strategies to support the returning soldier; and cues to alert spouses when to seek mental health services for their soldier, children, or themselves.

During this year, study aims include: (1) develop the therapeutic components of Spouse Telephone BATTLEMIND; (2) determine who benefits from the groups; (3) determine participant satisfaction with the groups; (4) determine costs of telephone groups; (5) determine changes in spouse self-report of depression, general well-being, and family functioning, and (6) develop a protocol and materials for Spouse Telephone BATTLEMIND groups that can be disseminated across the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.