Equipping helping professionals with evidence-based solutions geared towards better serving military families

Earlier this year, Dr. Mallory Lucier-Greer, Dr. Catherine O’Neal, and Dr. Jay Mancini published an article highlighting the best practices in family life education with a focus on military families (see the Military REACH research summary “Toward a Framework for Military Family Life Education: Culture, Context, Content, and Practice” by Mancini et al., 2020).

Two key takeaways from the article include:

1. There is a communication gap between researchers and helping professionals, and
2. Research on military families is continually being developed, and this research points toward important implications for helping professionals.

As a follow-up to the recent article, Dr. Lucier-Greer and Dr. O’Neal wrote a piece for the National Council on Family Relations (see below) discussing the research-practice gap, resources available to bridge the gap, and they concluded the article by offering a list of key takeaways that provide helping professionals a foundation to better serve military families.

Equipping helping professionals with evidence-based solutions: Connecting family science and practice to serve military families

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Dr. Mallory Lucier-Greer is the Project Director for Military REACH at Auburn University and an associate professor for Human Development and Family Science in Auburn’s College of Human Sciences.

Dr. Catherine O’Neal is the Co-Investigator for Military REACH at Auburn University and an Assistant Research Scientist for Human Development and Family Science in the University of Georgia’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Dr. Jay Mancini is an Adjunct Professor, Former Haltiwanger Distinguished Professor, for Human Development and Family Science in the University of Georgia’s College of Family Consumer Sciences.