How Communication with Families Can Both Help and Hinder Service Members' Mental Health and Occupational Effectiveness on Deployment

Communication with home can be beneficial to deployed service members' mental health, morale, and occupational effectiveness. Conversely a lack of communication with home increases the risk of developing mental health problems. Therefore it is important to ensure that communications media is both affordable and accessible while on deployment. However, contact with families can sometimes have negative effects, particularly when problems arise at either end. It can also be difficult for military personnel and their families if the level of contact is lower than they expected. Conversely, too much contact with home may have a negative impact on occupational effectiveness. More research is required to determine the optimal level of communication with home. Additional research is required to determine which types of communications media are most beneficial and whether the benefits of communication with home differ depending on the context of the deployment and the family status of the service member.