Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences for the final year of this project (Sept 2012 - Aug 2013) include US Army Chaplains, who will have eventual access to the professional continuing education resources developed in this project. The primary effort that occurred during this reporting period was an interactive video conference broadcast from Ft. Belvoir and reaching Army Chaplains stationed worldwide. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The core objective of this project was to create training and professional development resources for Army SOS and Chaplain staff. This was accomplished. In the process, the training team created a state-of-the-art meta-evaluation of grief support research and applied the results in the products developed. This process enhanced the mastery of these trends by the project team, which will be integrated into their future research, teaching and clinical practice. The team also delivered an interactive video conference to Chaplains worldwide as in-service training for them to implement and apply these resources at the installation level. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The primary client for this project was Army Survivor Outreach Services, with the Army Office of the Chief of Chaplains as a related client. All deliverables have been, or soon will be, provided to these clients. Beyond this, the information gathered for the Chaplains will be made available on request to partners in the LGU system, as well as other researchers/practitioners. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Because of intense combat experience over the last decade, the US Army sought to enhance its training of Chaplains and Survivor Outreach Services staff to serve the grief support needs of Surviving Family Members and Unit Members. There is an evolving understanding of the grief process based on recent empirical research, particularly regarding the diagnosis and treatment of complicated grief. A team of faculty at The University of Georgia, and one member from Bryn Mawr College, representing Social Work, Family Therapy, and Family Life Education was convened to address this need. Based on an extensive literature review and focus groups with stakeholders, the team identified critical topics to include in a series of educational publications and online self-study modules. A series of five publications was prepared for the specific needs of SOS staff in serving Survivors. For Army Chaplains, the team prepared a classroom module to include in Chaplain Officer Leadership training, eight online modules for distance education, and supporting resources. Survivor Outreach Services publications were delivered to SOS HQ at Ft. Sam Houston for distribution among SOS staff worldwide. Chaplain resources are being delivered to the US Army Chaplain Center and School at Ft. Jackson and to the Office of the Chief of Chaplains at the Pentagon/Ft. Belvoir, as well as SOS HQ at Ft. Sam Houston. The online modules will be loaded onto Army servers for restricted access by Army Chaplains worldwide. In addition, the project team delivered a day-long interactive videoconference in August 2013 in the use of the grief modules, uplinked from Ft. Belvoir and broadcast to Chaplains worldwide. The focus of this project was to ascertain critical training needs in providing effective grief support and to develop resources for Army SOS and Chaplain staff to enhance their skills for serving these needs. As the Army deploys these resources, they will assess the effectiveness and impact of this initiative.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: PIs continue to maintain regular contact with HQ IMCOM and NIFA POCs to address project issues and deliverables, including numerous email and individual discussions. Leadership team continues to work on literature review and synthesis, planning and creating audiovisual support, and planning/writing/reviewing SOS staff and Chaplain training products. The leadership team continues to collect and review the scientific and clinical literature as well as resources about the SOS program and Chaplains and Chaplain training. The SOS Staff Products Team continued work on the development of the Survivor Outreach Services staff products. Internal reviews of the products were also conducted. A draft of all of the Survivor Outreach Services products was submitted to IMCOM Survivor Outreach Services Program on June 22, 2012. The team prepared informational documents to guide the Army's review of these products. During July 2012, IMCOM Survivor Outreach Services distributed the draft deliverables to the IMCOM Region Support Specialists as well as to the National Guard Bureau and U.S. Army Reserves for review by SOS Program Managers and field SOS staff. The two PIs working on the Chaplain Training Materials were invited by Rep. Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D-GA) to participate in a military family summit at Ft. Benning on June 13-14. Congressional Military Family Caucus convened this meeting to review military and community resources available to Service Members and their Families, and to solicit input on possible unmet needs. One of the Chaplain Team Leaders met with Rep. Bishop's staff in Washington to help plan the summit, and she appeared on a panel at the Ft. Benning summit. Five Cooperative Extension agents also attended to share their experiences serving military families in their communities and to gather information to support their ongoing educational outreach to these families. In August, SOS Product Team met with IMCOM Survivor Outreach Services. During a three-day meeting, IMCOM SOS Program Manager and IMCOM Region Support Specialists were briefed on the developmental process of the SOS staff guides as well as shared highlights from the SOS staff interviews. At this meeting, IMCOM SOS decided to post the guides on the web as originally discussed in January and May 2011 and also expressed a plan to print the guides for distribution Armywide and at IMCOM Academy SOS course trainings. A meeting was held with IMCOM SOS on August 30th to review the changes, discuss outstanding issues to finalize content revisions of the guides, and discuss the design and format of the products, especially for the printed edition. The UGA project leadership team briefed Army leadership and NIFA on August 29, 2012 in San Antonio. At this briefing, information about the different Chaplain training modules and Survivor Outreach Services staff products was provided along with visual displays related to these products. The UGA team received valuable feedback that will be used to further refine the Chaplain and SOS products. PARTICIPANTS: PI - Bower, Don - Professor Emeritus & Extension Specialist, Cooperative Extension Address: 329 Hoke Smith Annex, 300 Carlton St, Athens, GA 30602 E-Mail: dbower@uga.edu CO-PI - Gibson, Sharon - Multi-Cultural Specialist, Cooperative Extension Address: 231 Hoke Smith Annex, 300 Carlton St, Athens, GA 30602 E-Mail: smsgibs@uga.edu CO-PI - Mancini, Deborah Carolyn - Asst. Research Scientist, Child & Family Development Address: Center for Family Research, 1095 College Station Road, Athens, GA, 30605 E-Mail: mancinid@uga.edu Authors: Bales, Diane - Associate Professor & Human Development Specialist, Cooperative Extension Address: 222 Hoke Smith Annex, 300 Carlton St, Athens, GA 30602 E-Mail: dbales@uga.edu Bride, Brian - Director Ph.D. Program School of Social Work Address: Tucker Hall 425, UGA, Athens, GA 30602 Email: bbride@uga.edu Rothernber, Nancy J. - Director of International Programs/Associate Professor Address: Tucker Hall 415, UGA, Athens, GA 30602 Martin, James - Professor School of Social Work Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and Social Research 300 Airdale Road, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-1697 E-Mail: jmartin@brynmawr.edu Everson, Blaine - PhD Councilor and Adjunct Faculty UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences doceverson@gmail.com Technical Support (IT and Evaluation) Orey, Michael, Ed.D. - Associate Professor Learning, Design, & Technology Program Coordinator Address: 603B Aderhold Hall, UGA Athens, GA 30602 Email: mikeorey@uga.edu Peisher, Ann; Evaluator 197 Broomsedge Trail, Athens, GA 30605 apeisher@uga.edu TARGET AUDIENCES: Target Audience: Curriculum and educational materials are being developed to support Army Chaplains and Survivor Outreach Services Staff in their work providing services and support for Army Service Members and Family Survivors. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The end of this reporting period (Aug 31, 2012) marks the end of the second year of this project. A second no-cost extension of time has been sought and approved through August 2013. Funds for this project are essentially expended at this time, however, so remaining work will be completed with support from other sources.
Impacts
UGA SOS Team continues to revise the SOS staff products based on the newly requested changes at a meeting at the end of August. A second draft of all SOS staff product deliverables is expected to be submitted to HQ IMCOM in October. Once comments are received from HQ IMCOM SOS, necessary additional and final changes to the SOS staff products will be made. Work continues with the graphic artist on the design layout of the guides and will be submitting drafts of a layout design to HQ IMCOM SOS for review and comment. All final versions of the SOS staff products will be submitted to HQ IMCOM SOS in October in their layout design for printing. The nine Chaplain modules (including the Basic module for inclusion in the CH-BOLC course) are all drafted and in storyboard production. This means that the instructional design team is preparing graphics and layout of PowerPoint slides, learning assessment tools, video embeds, module appendices, and related resources. It is projected that these will be ready for further Chaplain review/comment by mid-October, at which point they will all be conveyed to CH Joseph Melvin for distribution to selected Chaplain colleagues for review. The modules will also be shared with SOS Staff Leadership and any other interested SOS staff for review from a Survivor perspective.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: UGA Team maintains regular contact with FMWRC HQ and NIFA POCs to address project issues and deliverables. Research continues: literature review/synthesis, data collection and development, focus group protocols, evaluation, planning of video production, etc. Request to collect and review resources on Army grief training continues. 4 Chaplain Team and 5 members SOS task team participated in the SOS Training Conference in Orlando, July. The Chaplain team participated in various breakout sessions and conferred individually with Chaplains and others, gaining valuable insights into new information to consider in Chaplain Curriculum modules. A presentation on the entire project, highlighting ways SOS staff can be involved in the project and the SOS staff product development process. A product handout sheet providing opportunity attendees to provide input on the SOS staff product topics. 4 working group sessions were held to obtain information and tips from SOS staff on working with Survivors as well as military and civilian community providers. Chaplain Team conducted site visit to Ft. Jackson in August. The team conducted 6 focus groups with groups of experienced Chaplains and Chaplain Assistants, gathering additional input for the content of the proposed curriculum modules. Short video segments were captured from 12 Chaplains providing descriptions of grief situations. Videos will be integrated into the Chaplain Curriculum modules. As a result of these discussions: the list of 13 proposed topics for Advanced Modules was reduced to 11 by combining four of the topics; the Basic module that we are developing will be considered by the USACHCS as a replacement for, or revision to, the current 2-hour grief module being used in the CH-BOLC course; online technology capacity of the USACHCS was clarified as was understanding of the student learning assessment procedures at the USACHCS so we can prepare our suggested module assessments accordingly. Amendments to IRB were submitted on June 20, 2011 to allow for a waiver of written consent in certain situations with Survivors and SOS staff. A modification in consent forms and consent process was necessary because some Survivors were expected to participate by telephone in Survivor focus groups conducted during the site visits and because of the short turnaround time involved in conducting telephone interviews with SOS staff worldwide where mailing forms was not feasible. SOS team members conducted 4 site visits to conduct focus groups with key individuals. SOS team members met with National Guard SOS command in July, 2011: purpose of this meeting was to provide an overview on UGA project, obtain important information about the National Guard SOS program, and establish a working relationship in order to collaborate with NGB on this effort. PARTICIPANTS: PI - Dr. Don W. Bower CoPI - Sharon M. S. Gibson CoPI - Debrorah Mancini Key Personnel: Researchers: Brian Bride, Ph.D University of Georgia School of Social Work Diane Bales, Ph.D University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences Stephanie Burwell, Ph.D. University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences James Martin, Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work Mike Orey, Ph.D., University of Georgia College of Education Writers: Blaine Everson, Ph.D. Tracy Anderson, Ph.D. Megan Sperr Barlynda Bryant Graduate Student Research Assistant: Sara Kintzel, Ph.D student Desiree Seponski, Ph.D. Regene Logan, Ph. D. student Robin Sherard, Ph.D. student Evaluator: Anne Peisher Computer Graphics and Project Design: Mark Evans, project leader Partners: US Army Chaplain Corps - Chaplain J. Melvin US Army Chaplain School House Fort Jackson US Army Survivor Outreach Services, Donna Engeman, Hal Snyder, James Lawson USDA NIFA - Brent Elrod Contract: Training Works, Austin, Texas Bryn Mawr College TARGET AUDIENCES: Target Audiences: US Army Chaplains and US Army Survivor Outreach Services Staff Efforts: July 2011 - 4 Focus Groups with Survivor Support Services Staff to solicit input for material design. July 2011 - Presentation at SOS Conference in Orlando,Florida to inform SOS staff and CMOC on Training, Evaluation and Techinical Support for the Army Survivor Outreach Services (SOS) Project purpose. August 2011 - 5 Focus Groups with Chaplains and Chaplain Assistants to solicit input for curriculum design. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Request given by NIFA for no-cost extension moving ending date from August 31, 2011 to August 31, 2012.
Impacts
Research continues: literature review/synthesis, data collection and development, focus group protocols, evaluation, planning of video production, etc.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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