Welcome to 1 Combat Engineer Battalion! - 1st Marine Division

F O C U S Project for Military FamiliesProgram OverviewIn the United States today, about 1.2 million children have an active dutymilitary parent. In the U.S. Military, about forty percent of service membershave at least one dependent child under the age of eighteen. Throughout allthe branches of the U.S. Military, children have been affected by a recent orcurrent deployment of a parent to the combat zones of Iraq or Afghanistan.Wartime deployment takes a toll on both the service member and familymembers on the home-front, with multiple deployments often causingadditional stress.The growing awareness of the significant challenges of these deploymentson military family life and child and family well-being prompted a newinitiative by the Department of Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery andUnited States Marine Corps. As a service project funded through the Bureauof Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), FOCUS addresses these concerns relatedto parental combat operational stress injuries and combat-related physicalinjuries by providing state-of-the-art family resiliency services to militarychildren and families. In 2009, FOCUS Family Resiliency Services were alsomade available to Army and Air Force families at selected installationsthrough support from the Defense Department’s Office of Family Policy.Headquartered at UCLA, FOCUS works in close partnership with theBUMED office in Washington, D.C. to build resiliency in military children andfamilies facing wartime deployments. Working with the existing teams ofdedicated military family services personnel, FOCUS staff assist familymembers to better understand and manage how combat operational stressaffects them and their service family member. FOCUS supports families inidentifying and building upon existing strengths within each individual andthe family unit.In Spring 2007 the Defense Health Board Task Force on Mental Healthidentified a critical need for prevention and intervention services to fosterresiliency within military families and provide increased access and continuityof psychological health care for children and families across the armedservices. Research on parents with stress reactions has demonstrated thatsuch difficulties interfere with parenting, family life, and child adjustmentacross a range of contexts, disrupting family roles and routines, anddecreasing support within the family. To date, thousands of military servicemembers, their children and families are at risk and stand to benefit fromfamily-centered resiliency services.FOCUS (Families Over ComingUnder Stress) is a resiliency-buildingprogram designed for military families andchildren facing the multiple challenges ofcombat operational stress during wartime.FOCUS is founded on leading evidencebasedfamily intervention models for at-riskfamilies which have demonstrated positiveemotional, behavioral and adaptiveoutcomes over time. FOCUS was developedat the UCLA Semel Institute forNeuroscience and Human Behavior, incollaboration with the National ChildTraumatic Stress Network and Children’sHospital Boston / Harvard Medical School.FOCUS provides services forfamilies based at the following U.S.Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and AirForce installations:CaliforniaMCB Camp PendletonMCAGCC Twentynine PalmsNAB Coronado IslandNaval Base Ventura CountyNaval Medical Center San DiegoHawaiiHickam AFBMCB HawaiiNaval Station Pearl HarborSchofield BarracksWheeler Army AirfieldMississippiNaval CBC GulfportNorth CarolinaMCB Camp LeJeuneOkinawa, JapanKadena AFBMCB OkinawaTorii StationVirginiaJEB Little Creek - Fort StoryMCB QuanticoNAS OCEANA Dam Neck AnnexNaval Station NorfolkWashingtonFort LewisMcChord AFBNAS Whidbey IslandUSMC Wounded Warrior RegimentFOCUS HeadquartersUCLA Semel Institute760 Westwood Plaza, Rm A8-159Los Angeles, CA 90024P 310.794.2482F 310.794.6159