Affirmative Care for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Persons

There are an estimated 14,700 transgender and an unknown number of non-binary individuals serving in the U.S. military today. Magellan Federal provides non-clinical counseling on military bases around the world. We draw on that experience to provide guidance on how to create a respectful culture in military environments as well as in your community.

Read the full article on MFed Inform

Stacy Drones’, senior director of family programs at Magellan Federal, passion for helping military families comes from her real-life role as a military spouse. Since joining Magellan Federal in 2013, Drones now supervises a large array of military family programs including the Army Family Advocacy Support Services which includes the Domestic Abuse Victim Advocacy Program and New Parent Support Program, Army Exceptional Family Member Program and the Air Force Family Advocacy Program contracts. Drones is currently working on initiating various trainings for employees to better help the military families they serve in their unique situations. Continue reading to learn more about the many projects happening at Magellan Federal during Military Appreciation Month this May:

What can you tell us about Magellan Federal?

Magellan Federal has a strong history of support to the military. A lot of our employees on our contracts are military spouses, former military spouses or veterans who are passionate about the work. Many of our leaders at Magellan Federal have been in some way connected to the military, this is important and shows we have a passion for the work that we do because of our connection with service members and their families. My team has historical knowledge of our programs and we’ve been working with the government clients for a long time and know what they’re looking for and know how to execute the contracts successfully in the programs.

What cool, innovative projects are you currently working on?

The main part of my job involves managing our portfolio of programs that support military families. I personally manage the Family Advocacy Support Services contract for the Army which includes the Army Domestic Abuse Victim Advocacy Program that provides services for victims of domestic abuse. This contract also includes the New Parent Support Program that offers home visits to provide help and educational resources for new parents. This program provides licensed clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists and registered nurses to work with military families with children who are newborn up to age three. They conduct regular home visits to offer education that helps to prevent child abuse. We also have a lactation contract with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that hosts monthly lunch seminars for mothers who are nursing. In addition, we serve as a subcontractor for a family advocacy program at Food Hood where we provide information on stress management, parenting, couples communication, relationship classes and domestic abuse. I also oversee other contracts assigned to other program managers like the Army Exceptional Family Members Program, that provides help to military families who have dependents with disabilities and connects them with referrals and resources in the community. There’s also the Air Force Advocacy contract that we’re a subcontractor on that provides domestic abuse advocates for members of the Air Force.

On the Family Advocacy side, we do at least two employee professional development trainings a year. Planning those trainings and brining in speakers from all over is our big focus right now. Government employees are welcome to participate as well. We also have a requirement to have all victim advocates credentialed through the National Advocacy Credentialing Program. Although this is a new government requirement, Magellan has had this requirement in place for our Victim Advocates for nine years. We are currently helping our government client roll this training out to the government Victim Advocates.

In the New Parent Support Program, we are currently training our home visitors on how to address sensitive topics with their clients, such as mental health, abuse and race. They’re also trained on how to help parents and caregivers deal with the unexpected, such as deployments, birth plan changes or giving birth to multiples.

What are your thoughts on Magellan’s culture? How has the culture impacted your projects?

I love this company and the leadership; I think they’re very supportive of what we do. I feel that Magellan’s leadership really cares for their employees and cares about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

What trends are you noticing in the healthcare industry that are related to the work being done at Magellan Federal? Are there any lessons from other industries that can be applied to the work happening at Magellan Federal?

A big focus of the DoD Family Advocacy Programs currently is working with families of problematic sexual behaviors in children and youth. We have been looking at ways to intervene early and provide help for those children who are presenting those behaviors. We have our home visitors involved with this because they’re the ones working with the families in the home and have built a rapport with them. We’re increasing training for our home visitors to ensure they know the best way to help provide services to those families. The military has partnered with a lot of civilian agencies to provide trainings to help figure out how to address and solve the problem.

Magellan Federal understands that military families may have unique challenges compared to civilian families. That’s why we are doing what we can to develop partnerships with civilian agencies that have the funding to do research and develop correct programs. Initially, the development of the new Federal Program Management Office has been great for developing relationships with organizations. If we continue to do that, it’ll be a great thing.

Learn more about the various solutions provided by Magellan Federal here.

In April, we celebrate the children of active duty service members. Whether you work in a school, child development center, or youth center, there are many engaging activities available to highlight their unique strengths as military kids and celebrate what makes their military families special.

Here are some suggested activities for April’s Month of the Military Child:

• Spirit Week: For one week in April, conduct military-themed activities each day of the week. You can plan a spirit week around Purple Up Day (April 15^th), along with additional military theme days, such as Red, White, and Blue Day, Camouflage Day, Military Hat Day, and Military Show & Tell Day.
• School Morning Announcements: Ask students to participate in morning announcements by reading a military fact or a military trivia question. Provide students the fact or trivia question the day before to allow students to practice at home. To ease students’ nervousness, offer to stay with the student during the announcements as friendly support.
• Arts & Crafts: Engage students in creating posters and drawings about military life or ask them to identify positive traits about military children (e.g., brave). Display artwork on bulletin boards or blank walls. Show students how to create and design paper parachutes, using coffee filters and pipe cleaners. If your site has a calendar of events, ask if you can offer an arts & crafts activity during a special event.
• S. Map Bulletin Board: Find a map of the United States and post it on a bulletin board. Ask students to find where they lived prior to living in their current home. Use different colored push pins or thumbtacks to mark the cities and states. If serving children of multiple ages, select a color to represent each age group/grade level and create a map legend for each color. You can include staff who are service members themselves or are military spouses, on the map as well.
• Military Board Game: Create a board game with questions that highlight various aspects of military life (e.g., deployment, moving). Use popular board games as inspiration for your game’s design (e.g., Candy Land).
• Special Guests: If your site allows outside visitors, invite service member parents to come and eat lunch with their children one day in April. You could also request the installation’s military band or chorus to come and perform for the children.

If you are a part of a military community, you can see what events are planned near you by searching for events with the base Public Affairs office, Military Family Readiness Centers, Department of Defense Dependent School admin offices, and on-base Child Development Centers.

Activities may also be listed at Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Centers at military installations overseas and stateside. The official sites for all these organizations often post calendars of upcoming events and programs.

Whether your organization is military-associated or not, it’s important to honor the sacrifices made by military families worldwide and emphasize the experience of military children serving at home and overseas.

Additional Articles on Supporting Children:

• How can I help my children during COVID-19?
• A pandemic’s impact on children’s mental health
• ADHD: Helping Your Child Get the Most From School
• Bullying: Building a Child’s Self-Esteem

The Problem

Intimate partner violence is a national public health issue, resulting in devastating personal trauma and effects on our country. Intimate partner violence includes physical violence, non-consensual sexual violence (including non-physical sexual events, such as sexting), stalking, and psychological aggression.

According to the CDC, intimate partner violence in the United States is far more common than we would want to believe, impacting approximately 25% of women and 10% of men¹.

This issue is also prevalent in the military. In 2020, there were 12,663 reports of spouse abuse and 2,026 reports of intimate partner abuse in the U.S. military. Among all military incidents, 63% of active-duty abusers were Non-Commissioned Officer Ranks (E4-E6); when accounting for only those incidents involving spouses, the highest rates of active-duty abusers were among junior enlisted ranks (E1-E3)[1].

The physical and emotional suffering of intimate partner violence victims is profound. What is also clear are the consequences for our Armed Forces. When intimate partner violence involves service members or their families — either as victims or offenders — the resulting trauma harms overall unit readiness.

Prevention Strategies

Collectively, Magellan Federal has over 30 years of experience supporting Family Assistance Programs and positions us as experts in the field. We interact with 30,500 service members and families yearly providing vital services to ease the unique stressors of military life that can aggravate or trigger patterns of abusive behavior within the family home.

Recognize the Risk Factors

Drawing upon our wealth of experience, we believe that if warning signs are recognized and addressed early, intimate partner violence instances can be significantly reduced.

The identifiable factors unique to military service that may aggravate intimate partner violence risks include:

• Frequent permanent change of stations (PCS) disrupts access to natural support networks, increasing stress and social isolation. Frequent moves may also limit the ability of non-military spouses or intimate partners to find and maintain employment, increasing financial reliance on the abuser.
• Frequent or unpredictable deployments and a related increase in domestic duties of the partner may contribute to a sense of instability, increasing relationship stress, or conflict[2].
• Stigma of reporting abuse may lead to the belief that there may be a negative impact on the service member’s career. This may hinder the victim from seeking help for fear of retaliation by the service member and/or loss of financial support and benefits.

Suggested Solutions

The Department of Defense (DoD) offers a foundation of programs, tools, and personnel to promote awareness of intimate partner violence. However, they are often hindered by a lack of uniformity across the military Services and participation is often voluntary, rather than mandatory.

We believe the following will enhance outreach to spouses and intimate partners, with particular focus on those who live off installation and/or may not regularly interact with military life resources.

Key activities to better reach spouses and intimate partners on installation include:

• Expanding FAP communications plan to include the installation level. Updating the DoD-level FAP communications plan to include the military Service and installation levels will better enable FAP officials to gauge spouse awareness needs as well as trend responses longer term.
• Leveraging spouse groups. Every installation, regardless of the specific military Service, should have a spouse club that can be leveraged for outreach.

Key activities to better reach spouses and intimate partners off installation include:

Partnering with other government entities in community outreach. Programs and resources like the New Parent Support Program (NPSP), Domestic Abuse Victim Advocacy program (DAVA), Military & Family Life Counseling (MFLC), and Child & Youth Services (CYS) regularly engage in community outreach and training and, therefore, present an opportunity to increase FAP promotion to off-installation spouses and intimate

• More consistent collaboration between installation-level FAP resources and these programs and resources will serve as a force multiplier.
• Partnering with non-governmental entities. More consistent engagement with local chapters of Non-Government Organizations, such as the American Red Cross, and Military Support Organizations already working in the communities around an installation will better capture off-installation spouses and intimate partners.
• Leveraging non-traditional community resources. Some who live and work off installation may be isolated even from community-facing resources like NPSP and MFLC. Reaching these spouses and intimate partners may require a more creative approach encompassing more “touchpoints” in their day such as leaving education materials at a local daycare, food pantry, thrift store, library, junior league chapter, or church.
• Increased tailoring of outreach strategies to specific populations. The spouses or intimate partners of more junior enlisted personnel may not be in a leadership position to distribute information, so they may just be interested in a more informal meeting with a victim advocate or a pamphlet of FAP resources, rather than a formal briefing. Increased flexibility in outreach strategies will ensure more complete utilization of existing prevention resources.

Key Takeaway

Ultimately, effective prevention strategies must ensure outreach and mitigation activities incorporate all categories of risk factors—individual, relational, community, and societal. The methods to battle intimate partner violence must also ensure all at-risk people (perpetrators and victims alike) receive appropriate education and aid.

We believe prevention is the best opportunity for affordable, high-impact solutions to the needs of our military.

[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, November 2). Preventing intimate partner violence | violence prevention | Injury Center | CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved December 8, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/fastfact.html.

[2] Kamarck, Kristy N., Ott, Alan, Sacco, Lisa N. (2019, December 4). Military Families and Intimate Partner Violence: Background and Issues for Congress (Report No. R46097). Congressional Research Service. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R46097

As a newlywed military spouse fourteen years ago, I was fairly overwhelmed with how much there was to learn about military culture and common military family experiences. Lost in a sea of acronyms and roads named after famous military commanders that I had never heard of, I tried to learn military lingo with the help of Google and new friends. There were also hard realities that I had much to learn about: the stress of deployment and war, the strain of combat experiences on servicemembers, families, and relationships, and shockingly: food insecurity.

Food insecurity is a challenge that I first encountered during a new spouse training on military culture and military family life experiences. At the conclusion of a military resources lesson, a fellow participant piped up, “But you didn’t talk about the food pantries. Someone in this room might want to know where they can get food if they run out.” The military spouse shared information about the local food pantries that they were personally aware of and reached out to when their own family struggled.

It was uncomfortable to hear this. As a young college student who did not yet understand the challenges that many families face in terms of financial challenges, I was taken aback. How can that be true? I remember asking myself. How can it be that families in our own military need to use a food pantry for assistance?

Shortly thereafter, I became a Registered Nurse who cared for military families and witnessed firsthand that food insecurity in the military community is a complex issue compounded by multiple factors, like spouse unemployment, economic inflation, and the everchanging landscape of family expenses needed for daily life. Military families often fall in an income bracket in which they do not qualify for some government nutrition assistance programs, like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (often referred to as food stamps.) Addressing food insecurity promptly is key: while helping families connect with resources to maintain adequate access to nutrition, the development of the even more serious concern—hunger—can be prevented.

The brave spouse who spoke up to discuss food pantries several years ago was clued into something that remains true for today’s military: food insecurity is a very real challenge that military families face, and a concern that requires a compassionate response from those whose life’s work is to support and care for service members and their families.

It is vital that all professionals who care for military families are aware of the local and military resources available to support military families in times of need. In response to the government’s request to empower Military & Family Life Counseling (MFLC) Program Counselors to address this concern at military installations all over the world, our training team developed a comprehensive food insecurities training. This training informs MFLC Counselors on the challenges of food insecurity, the prevalence of this dilemma, and how MFLC Counselors can respond when food insecurity is identified. This training utilized the survey data from the most recent 2020 Blue Star Families survey to describe food insecurity as a concern that impacts nearly 14% of today’s military families. The recorded webinar available to Magellan Federal MFLC Counselors discusses approved practices to casually inquire about food insecurity when potential warning signs are identified. MFLC Counselors are encouraged to share referral information with MFLC program participants about local and military resources to address any nutritional concerns. MFLC Counselors are experts in the resources available to the military community and play a powerful role in unlocking military families’ access to resources simply by sharing referrals to food pantries, military installation programming, and even relevant government-assistance programs, like Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Our Magellan Federal MFLC team continues to provide prompt and comprehensive responses to the food insecurity concerns that face the military community.  Embracing a compassionate, holistic approach to supporting military families is key to reducing the incidence of food insecurity, and as a result, promoting service member and family readiness to respond to mission requirements.

Military families should connect with an MFLC Counselor on their local military installation for information about available local food insecurity resources in their communities.

There is often confusion about Memorial Day relative to Veterans Day, which was first observed in 1926, to recognize and appreciate all veterans who have served our country- particularly those who are still with us. Memorial Day, which began in 1868, is focused on honoring those individuals who have made the ultimate sacrifice preserving our country and the freedom for which it stands.

The first large observance for Memorial Day was held in 1866 at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremony. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

More than one million American servicemembers have died in wars since the first colonial soldiers took up arms in 1775. All Americans are direct beneficiaries of these sacrifices. Some specific actions you might take on this special day might include:

• Visiting memorials
• Visiting one of the 135 veterans’ cemeteries across the nation that protect the remains of our country’s fallen
• Flying the U.S. flag at half-staff until noon
• Volunteer or donate to non-profits serving survivors
• Reading to children about the meaning of the holiday. Some books that are appropriate for children four to eight include:
  • Memorial Day by Mir Tamim Ansary
  • Memorial Day Surprise by Theresa Martin Golding
  • The Wall by Eve Bunting

While this weekend is often considered the unofficial kickoff to summer, it’s important not to forget its true meaning and sentiment. We must never forget what these heroes have done and what their loved ones have lost.

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Magellan Federal has a long legacy of service to military survivors which dates back 1879. We are honored to be a leader in supporting military survivors, providing surviving military families with information and compassionate case management that helps them navigate a very complex set of issues and benefits.