P.E.I. schools get resources to help with students from military families

A new resource is now available to school counsellors on Prince Edward Island to help them and other educators better understand what life is like for military and veteran families.

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"The guide creates a lot of awareness around lifestyle issues military literacy it's called and it also provides good supports for teachers that may have some students struggling with the transitions," said Ed MacAulay, family liaison officer with the P.E.I. Military Family Resource Centre.

MacAulay, who's a registered social worker, has shared the resource with school guidance counsellors across the Island.

"In my experience, there's a lot of lifestyle issues associated with military families, there's deployments, there's separations and a lot of times people get different postings," said MacAulay.

"There's a social adjustment, an educational adjustment and guidance counsellors have the ability to recognize and support the students that are struggling somewhat and can inform the home room teachers."

Veteran families

MacAulay estimates there are approximately 8,000 veteran families on P.E.I.

"Our population is mainly reservists, we do have some regular force military personnel and we have a lot of veteran families who have moved back to the Island," he said.

"The average age of our Canadian veteran today is in the late 30s so it's changed quite a bit over the last 25 years."

MacAulay says the resource will be helpful because students from military families have unique circumstances that affect their school life.

"With the returning veterans, it's perhaps more likely they'd have high school students but there could be some younger families as well," said MacAulay.

"That's why we put it in our blog, for families that are moving in or going through transitions."

Unique needs of military children

Frequent geographical moves, long separations from their loved ones and the risk of the profession are all addressed in the guide.

"When we look at Afghanistan, there was a lot of deployments, there was a lot of worry, a lot of concern, is our father okay, is our spouse okay, is our mother okay," said MacAulay.

"The men and women that are serving are in risky situations and there's a transition when they leave and there's also a transition when they come back."

The bilingual publication is called School Counsellors Working with Military and Veteran Families and was created by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, in partnership with the Canadian Military and Veteran Families Leadership Circle.

"I think it's going to be a resource more than anything, we may only have one or two or maybe twenty children that may need some support," said MacAulay.

"But it's good for the guidance counsellors to have that at their disposal and it's good for the teachers to know it's available to them as well and family members."

This is the second in a series of guides related to professions working with military and veteran families.

The first one, a resource for doctors, was released last year.

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