Military families nationwide may be better able to navigate and understand their options in accessing health coverage and services with the help of a West Virginia University Extension Service Military Caregiving training program.

The program provides training to military family support staff, tasked with helping families with special needs navigate complex healthcare systems in both military and civilian settings. The result is better access to services.

The program is a collaboration between WVU Extension Service, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension and the Military Families Learning Network.

According to Alicia Cassels, WVU Extension Service curriculum specialist and principal investigator on the grant, military personnel who have family members with special medial needs often face unique barriers to accessing care.
State assistance programs, such as Medicaid, can be a resource for military families, but challenges can arise when military personnel change stations.

“Military members are often reassigned and move from state to state,” Cassels said. “The guidelines and criteria for programs, like Medicaid, vary by state. The process can be overwhelming and places a burden on the families to navigate the system.”

To help support military families, each service branch provides access to family support staff. WVU Extension and its partners will provide the curriculum and training to these staff members who will then apply their knowledge and skills to helping individual families.

The partnership with MFLN and eXtension, an initiative of the U.S. Cooperative Extension System, allows WVU to continue work in military outreach.

Past areas of study included examining Medicaid access issues for military families. The work, headed by David Snively, WVU Extension Service agent, was used to explore programs and services to assist families’ access to care and identified opportunities for support staff training.

WVU Public Administration Professor Christopher Plein, who is a researcher on the current project, will offer a series of online trainings starting in December.

“The training modules that WVU has developed on Medicaid will assist military support personnel in helping families understand options and alternatives when seeking special needs services,” Plein said. “Our ability to partner with MFLN and eXtension provides a platform to share knowledge in the best tradition of the Extension Service.”

Additional training modules, coordinated by Cassels, will focus on other topics and skills that will assist family support staff in the military.

The program is made possible by funding from the MFLN, which was created through eXtension in partnership with the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, the Military Community and Family Policy, and the United States Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

For more information on other training and programs provided by the WVU Extension Service, visit ext.wvu.edu, or contact a local county office.

-WVU-

cat 11/19/14

CONTACT: Cassie Thomas, WVU Extension Service
304.293.8735; Cassie.Thomas@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.