With emergent knowledge regarding the impact of OSIs particularly concerning Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within military members and their families, researchers have identified children and youth of first responder-connected families (i.e. fire, police, paramedic, corrections, call center dispatchers) at risk for developing mental health difficulties as a result of their parents’ occupational stressors.

Research on military and veteran children with parents impacted by an OSI or diagnosed mental health condition shows poor parental mental health and family stressors can negatively affect a child’s mental health and wellbeing. Now more than ever, first responder families require the social work profession to intervene from a family systems framework that understands the bi-directional impact of trauma leading to negative consequences of parental OSIs on their children. 

The first responder population and their families deserve unique evidence-informed prevention and intervention programs that use a holistic view such as, family stress theory to understand the unique issues connected to adverse consequences of OSIs on individual first responders and the mental health and wellbeing of their children.

(Cramm et al., 2016, Carelton, Afifi, Taillieu, et al., 2019)

“I could feel genuine sadness in her (my daughter)…I’ve had a bigger impact on her than I thought I had” (Sherman et al., 2016, p. 406).

Scholars have highlighted connections of secondary traumatic stress and negative emotional and behavioral reactions in children when a parental mental health disorder exists in the family (Cramm et al., 2016; Kelly & Paul, 2018; Sherman et al., 2016)

Over 2 million American children experienced a parent’s deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq. Literature reveals the psychological effects of the service members’ operational stressors cascades through the family system to affect children and their mental health.

(Synder et al., 2016; Foran et al., 2017,Foran, Eckford, Sinclair & Wright, 2017).).

Children aged 8-16 whose parent is a Canadian Armed Forces member, Veteran or First Responder (firefighter, paramedic, emergency dispatcher, correctional services worker, municipal police officer, or member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) can participate. 

We know that change in one family member, such as a child, affects every other family member. Decades of research in areas of family functioning and traumatic stress suggest experiences of each family member can flow throughout the family system and family-centered approaches to interventions offer positive opportunities to promote mental well-being (Cramm et al., 2016; Sullivan, 2015; Wadsworth et al., 2012).