News

Robins welcomes DOD military family life consultant

  • Published
  • By Holly Birchfield
  • 78th ABW/PA
Robins Air Force Base, Ga. --  Robins welcomed its first military family life consultant, Rae Lynn Nettles, last month.

Through a five-year contract between the Mental Health Network and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Ms. Nettles will be the first of many MFLCs at Robins to provide mental health support to active-duty military members and their families, retired military members, Department of Defense civilians, as well as contractors on a limited basis.

MHN will provide its services to service branches across the DOD.

Christine Parker, Airman and Family Readiness Center flight chief, said the need for MFLCs comes as length and frequency of deployments rise.

"The Office of the Secretary of Defense saw a need to provide more support for our military families, and that includes our Department of Defense civilians who work at military installations," she said.

Ms. Parker said OSD funded the program, which started with serving U.S. Army soldiers and families.

"They've been doing that for a little over a year now," she said. "They started expanding that to the Air Force side of the house and Air Force installations."

Mrs. Parker said OSD will provide 54 stateside installations with MFLCs by July.

The consultants will serve on a 45-day rotation at Robins, with a two-day overlap in between their time at Robins for hand off of duties.

"We may or may not see the same person twice," she said. "It's set up so it's flexible. People are being used outside of the Middle Georgia community, so we don't tap into our resources that we already need and use. These are people from elsewhere who are able to break away for 45 days at a time and come provide a service."

Julie Hawkins, chief of family member programs in the 78th Mission Support Group's Services Division, said the MFLC program will be a bonus for already existing base programs.

"I think it's going to be a tremendous support to our already existing programs we have in place like our mental health office and our Sexual Assault Response Coordin-ator," she said. "I think these people will be here to be the first voice people who need to see those offices hear and then will refer, if necessary, or just help them solve some issues that they may have at the time."

Ms. Hawkins said MFLCs will also work with Child and Youth Services which deals with Robins' summer camp program. As part of that role, a Child and Youth Services counselor will serve a 60-day rotation at the Child Development Center.

"There have been increased deployments which causes increased stress for families," she said. "Children often show that stress by acting out, behavior issues. These people will help us deal with the children and maybe give our staff some skills to deal with the children and their behaviors."

Joy Ashley, Trained Spouses in Action program manager at the A&FRC, said the MFLC will be a great help to her program's volunteers.

"This is a role we've already been playing in for a few years now, so I see them as being a partner in the whole thing," she said.

Lt. Col. Monica Kopf, 78th MSG deputy, said MFLCs will enable Robins to help individuals who may not line up with traditional services offered.

"It may catch some of the folks who are unwilling to go to Military One Source, Mental Health, and so forth," she said. "It's outside of the military chain, but it's still on base and very easy to access."

Colonel Kopf said Robins intends to use MFLCs in newcomers and reintegration events.

"Sometimes, people just need to vent," she said. "It's a one-time, good deal. They get it off their chest, feel a lot better, and off they go. They need to feel like somebody cares and is listening to them. This program sounds like it will fit that bill and give them the opportunity to do so without compromising anyone's career, security clearance, etc."