Community Mediation Maryland

Mediation can provide valuable assistance to returning Maryland veterans and their families and communities. Mediation is a process that lets people have a difficult conversation, explore issues in a dispute, and develop solutions which meet the needs of everyone involved. Mediation can be used for collaborative planning to prevent a conflict, after a conflict has been going on for awhile, or even after a conflict has escalated significantly.

Conflicts or tensions may occur for any of the following reasons:

• Returning veterans may well be exhausted and unable to resume their previous responsibilities in the family, and conflict can result when neither spouse feels that their needs are being met.
• The veteran may want to jump right back into his or her role within the family and may run into conflict if the other spouse has gotten used to managing things alone.
• Children may fear for their deployed parent’s safety as well as for themselves since they are made to function without the parent there. Because children may not understand their own emotions, they frequently act out in ways that cause more stress for themselves and their family. When the deployed parent first returns home, everyone anticipates a return to normal, whatever that may mean to each of them, but their expectations may be very different from each others’.
• Veterans may have seen their interactions change in the time they have been away. Perhaps they have experienced how important it is to respond instantly in combat and have come to expect that same level of response from others, including family members, even if that had not been a family dynamic previously.
• The children who have become used to the sometimes different discipline of the parent remaining home may be unwilling to hear the words of the newly returned parent and might act out because of confusion or an unwillingness to express feelings out of fear of rejection.

All of these conflict situations can be assisted by a conversation and problem solving process facilitated by professionally trained mediators.

In addition to specific conflicts regarding family interactions reintegration issues for veterans may be the result of trauma, physical or emotional, that occurred in a combat zone. Many times it becomes difficult for the returning service member to broach a discussion with family and vice versa. Mediation can help make that happen and will also provide the family with a safe environment in which to ask questions and agree on solutions.

All of the scenarios described above, as well as others, may be addressed through mediation with trained, neutral mediators to assist with creating understanding and resolving disputes. Mediation is available at no cost and at a time and place convenient to participants through Community Mediation Centers located throughout Maryland.

Website: Community Mediation Maryland

Contact:
Caroline Harmon, Office Administrator
407 Crain Hwy South #200B
Glen Burnie, MD 21061
410-553-0206
Fax: 410-553-0207