KMC Behavioral Health Resource Guide

A few days ago I began distributing a mental health survey that I created to get a sense of the current mental health status of mothers and spouses in the Kaiserslautern Military Community and other Rheinland Pfalz military communities. The results have already been astounding.

After 5 days live, I’ve received 92 responses from mothers and spouses in the KMC and Rheinland Pfalz who answered a variety of questions about their current mental health and resource utilization in the community.  Unfortunately, it seems that there are a lot of mothers and spouses who are struggling tremendously during their time in Germany. I created this KMC Behavioral Health Resource Guide to let you know about the resources available to you in our community. Baumholder military spouses and mothers, I hear you. I will be creating a separate document for you, although the resources listed on this document apply to you as well.

Phone numbers and resources change all the time… if you have any additional information, please contact me. Your help will help so many others!  Updates will be made as necessary!

You deserve to be your happiest self! Please contact me if I can help you utilize any of the resources in our community or figure out which resource is best for you or your family.

Kelsey

Military Parenting: Dealing with an Autism Diagnosis

In April of 2018, our two year old daughter was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.  The diagnosing physician told us that he had diagnosed over 700 children with autism, and had never seen a child quite like ours.  We walked into the meeting knowing that leaving with an ASD diagnosis was a possibility, but it seemed so unlikely. In fact, we had been told in our initial meeting that it was very unlikely. But unlikely doesn’t mean “no”. I didn’t hear what he said during the last hour of the meeting because my brain was just… swimming with thoughts and turned off at the exact same time.  Fortunately we had our early intervention coordinator with us who was taking notes, because while I knew there were a number of steps to take, I left that room with no clue what to do next besides GET GOING as quickly, comprehensively, and hard as I could.

The next few weeks were a daze and a maze. For the first month or two, we had at least one appointment daily, with phone calls seemingly hourly, and next steps upon next steps. I jumped in head first to becoming my child’s best and strongest advocate. I was lucky to work with some incredibly helpful and knowledgeable people, and had the disappointment of feeling like I had to continually stay on top of a few others, lest my daughter’s needs would not be met.

I quickly realized that I felt like I was figuring out how to make a wheel for the first time, and this seemed silly and unnecessary. There were plenty of other parents in the world who had navigated their child receiving an autism diagnosis.  Heck, there were plenty of other parents in the Kaiserslautern Military Community, Germany, our current home, who were navigating this at the same time as we were!

As a social worker through and through, my next instinct was for this headache and guessing game to stop right then and there.  I quickly made a list of the steps we had taken and the phone numbers I had acquired, and started brainstorming ways to create a usable and comprehensive document that could benefit other parents in our community who were dealing with the immediate aftermath of an ASD diagnosis.  Over the next few months, this guide started to take on a life of it’s own. I’m happy to say it’s now being distributed in the community by some professionals who interact with families immediately after an ASD diagnosis.

This document, aptly titled “My Child Received an ASD Diagnosis in the KMC . . . Now What?” is written with the process Air Force families in the Kaiserslautern Military Community would likely take immediately post-diagnosis. It also provides resources for any military or civilian family dealing with an ASD diagnosis. I am currently working with the wonderful people at the Kaiserslautern Army Exceptional Family Member Program to create a guide specifically designed for Army families, and I will share that as soon as it’s completed.

My Child was Diagnosed with ASD in the KMC . . . Now What?

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please always feel free to contact me.  This is a working document and I am a working resource navigator.

Cheers,

Kelsey