The Red Sox Foundation, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Home Base Program in partnership with The Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project have published an invaluable resource to help military parents and health care providers protect the health of their children: A Toolkit for the Well Child Screening of Military Children.

It is divided into different sections for the primary care clinician, the parents, and the children. It gives the doctor screening tools and a overview of effects of a parent’s deployment. It provides parents with strategies for dealing with upcoming and current deployments, homecoming, and death. And the section addressed to children normalizes the range of possible emotions and responses to the parent’s absence.

My only criticism is that the toolkit does not address what can happen after the parent returns. The child’s mental health is just as at risk after the parent’s homecoming as during deployment. The veteran parent very well may experience PTSD that children easily absorb and perceive that they have somehow caused their parent’s anger and/or depression. It is urgent we consider the effect a veteran parent’s PTSD can have on their children.