Telephone Support During Overseas Deployment for Military Spouses

Memphis VA Medical Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Family Members; Resilience, Psychological; Deployment; Military Personnel

Treatments: Behavioral: Telephone support groups; Other: Education webinars

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01828983

W81XWH-11-2-0087

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Enrollment: 161 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• spouse or significant other (living as married for at least one year before deployment) of an overseas deployed military service member
• deployed at least six months

Exclusion criteria

• living as married for at least one year before deployment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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161 participants in 2 patient groups

Telephone support groups

Experimental group

Description:

Telephone support groups, each with participants and a trained group leader. Each hour-long telephone group will meet bi-monthly for six months for a total of 12 meetings. Groups are structured with education, skills building, and support. Participants will receive and use a Spouse Workbook with information and activities.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Telephone support groups

Education webinars

Active Comparator group

Description:

Education Webinar session topics are the same that are covered in the intervention arm without telephone interaction/support and skills building components. Each session is 30-minutes. Each participant receives a Spouse Workbook with information and activities.

Treatment:

Other: Education webinars