NCT01828983

Telephone Support During Overseas Deployment for Military Spouses

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 161 (actual)
• Sponsor: Memphis VA Medical Center · Federal
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Deployment impacts both service member and family, and the cost can be high. Spouses' reactions to deployment may include emotional distress, loneliness, anticipatory fear or grief, somatic complaints, and depression. The goal is to help spouses learn ways to manage stress and solve problems related to deployment and reintegration, communication, managing long distance relationships, and other common problems. The study will compare telephone support groups to online education sessions. The study will enroll 160 spouses. In the Telephone Support groups, a group leader and participants will meet 12 times over six months to focus on education, skills building and support. Education Only online sessions will provide the same education content, without skills building or support. Content includes strategies to reduce or eliminate communication difficulties during deployment, how to find help; practical concerns during deployment; fostering resilience and decreasing stress; fostering relationships while apart, negotiating roles and relationships; changes during deployment; strategies to support the spouse and the service member; and cues to alert spouses when to seek mental health services for the family or themselves. Outcomes will include resilience, depression, anxiety and coping behaviors. Telephone data collection will be conducted at baseline, six and twelve months.

Conditions

• Military Personnel
• Family Members
• Resilience, Psychological
• Deployment

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Telephone support groups
OTHER	Education webinars

Timeline

• Start date: 2011-04-01
• Primary completion: 2014-12-01
• Completion: 2015-06-01
• First posted: 2013-04-11
• Last updated: 2017-11-24
• Results posted: 2017-10-23

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States