Hi everyone . Good afternoon .
Well welcome to the 2021 A U . S . A
military family forums . It is so great
to be in person and to see so many
familiar faces . So who in person .
I would like to welcome not only our in
house audience but also our online
audience . Thank you for tuning in .
My name is Holly Daily and I am your
new director of a U . S . A Family
readiness directorate . I am honored to
carry forward the great family programs
and foundation that Sylvia kid and
Patty Baron built before me
in line with a US as overall mission to
educate , inform and connect the U . S .
A . Family readiness directorate is
here to be your eyes , ears and voice .
We are proud to represent you , the
army family and all the organizations
that support you . And one way we do
that is through our family forums such
as the one right now and our farms
don't just happen by themselves . We
are so very grateful to our family
forum sponsors . Their sponsorship
allows us to bring quality speakers and
provides us the resources to do what we
do Today . Our sponsor for family form
one is service now , Service now is a
technology solution company focused on
ways to reduce work complexity and to
make work better for everyone with
modern digital workflows . Today
joining us from service now is kevin
brooks , L blocker scott ,
Barrington , Surrey murthy and Mark
jones . So please join me in thanking
our sponsors for today's forum .
Service now
there is also a wonderful team that
works hard all throughout the year on
all our forms . It is our planning
committee led by Army G9 under the
leadership of Lieutenant General Evans .
Thank you from my heart , thank you all
for welcoming me and for your
continuous commitment to our soldiers
and our families . Let's give them a
round of applause . Well ,
so did you ever wonder how we come
about these topics that we pick for the
forums ? Well , the topics for all our
forums are selected based on trending
issues and feedback that we receive
from our soldiers and our families .
This year we once again have a robust
schedule of top not speakers and
panelists . You'll get to hear them
very shortly . This year we are focused
on people and how quality of life
programs are transforming for the
future . We want you all to be
part of this conversation . So for
those of you in the room we have
question cards at each of your seats
When a speaker inspired inspires a
question from you , write it down and
wave the car in the air and one of our
staff will get it from you . For those
of you online ask questions on the
facebook feed , please identify your
location so we can give you a shout out
And join us on social media are two
hashtags hashtag a usa 2021
and hashtag us a family but most
importantly everyone asked questions ,
this is your opportunity to your voices
to be heard . So let's get
started . We're going to get started
with a message from our army . Senior
spouse leaders . They are truly
dedicated in taking care of our
families and I myself personally I
enjoy the close relationship that I
have with both of them . So it is my
honor at this time to invite mrs
Alexandra Greenstone to provide some
remarks on behalf of our army . Senior
spouse leaders .
Thank you holly . I'm very excited and
grateful to be here today to welcome
you to the annual A . U . S . A .
Meeting . The use a team has worked
tirelessly to adjust meeting formats ,
keep up with changing health protocols
and implement a variety of safety
measures so that the conference can
take place in a safe environment . I
think you will agree with me that it is
important for our well being to meet in
person and to interact with each other
face to face . In 2020 the
pandemic forced us to keep a distance .
Some of us taylor worked , some of us
helped Children with online learning at
home and some of us did both
opportunities to come together were
limited due to shutdowns , closures and
recommended safety precautions . We
turn to technology to help us through
this time and use a variety of online
tools and virtual platforms to continue
our daily lives . Technology can
enhance our life and make a lot of
things better . For this reason I'm
very happy that the topic for the first
family forum is quality of life at your
fingertips . A U . S . A . Has invited
subject matter experts just to discuss
how the army and the Department of
Defense are improving army quality of
life with the help of digital
applications . I hope you will find all
family forms informative and I hope you
will take the opportunity to ask
questions and be part of the
conversation . I had planned to welcome
you all together with Maria McConnell ,
spouse of General McConnell , the army
Chief of staff . Maria unfortunately
cannot be here today but fortunately we
can use technology to show you a short
video clip that she recorded for you so
welcome . And here is Maria .
Hello and greetings from Clarksville
Tennessee . I'm not at a USA this year
because I am here with our 3.5 day old
first grandchild , our grandson . Brand
new grandson . And um I just couldn't
be more happy to be here helping my
daughter and her husband . He is also
in the army as well as our daughter is ,
he is away . And um so I am here being
Mimi helping to take care of our
grandson like our daughter and our son
in law or other two sons are also
active duty army And so yes we are a
big army family and I am really
appreciative to a U . S . A . For their
commitment not only to our army family
but to all army soldiers , their
families and the community that
supports our soldiers and I know this
year's a USA conference is going to be
chock full of great information like it
is every year during the family forums
and I think that some of the great
topics that they'll talk about are the
quality of life initiatives , soldier
and family readiness systems and the
evolution of customs and traditions . I
think that sounds like a great lineup .
I'm looking forward to joining line
when I can . So for those of you who
are there in person , take advantage of
all that you get to see and hear and
reconnecting with each other , which is
what partially what makes a USa so
great , sorry to miss that again . Um
and those of you who are joining
virtually again , what a great way to
be able to do that , especially in this
covid era . I just want to thank
everybody again for their constant
commitment not only to your soldier but
also to our army community and also to
the nation . I know that you as spouses
are super resilient , strong ,
dedicated and so many other great
things and I'm just so proud to be one
of you and to represent you and wants
to walk amongst you so enjoy USa thank
you holly daily and A U . S . A . For
all that you're doing for us as spouses
and for families have a great time ,
everyone .
Yeah ,
so again , welcome to everybody here in
the room and welcome to everybody who
can join us virtually .
Mhm . Mhm
wow , thank you Mrs Grinstein , thank
you Mrs McConville , what an inspiring
message from you both and we'd like to
say a heartfelt . Congratulations to
General and mrs McConville on your new
grandson . How exciting and what a what
a blessing . So thank you now it is my
distinct pleasure to introduce
Lieutenant General Ronald Place .
General Place is the director of the
Defense Health Agency and leads a joint
integrated Combat support agency that
enables the Army , Navy and Air Force
medical services to provide a medically
ready force including families ,
th they also administers the tricare
health plan providing worldwide medical
Dental and pharmacy programs to more
than 9.6 million service members ,
retirees and their families wow .
So please help me welcome Lieutenant
General Place .
Thanks holly for that . Really really
kind introduction . I'm really happy to
be here today in person as well . It
seems like such a long time since we
got together for a U . S . A . 2019 .
Not just two years have changed but but
really a whole lot of things have
changed in our lives , some of it from
the pandemic but really from lots of
other things as well . Not have 15
minutes with you today but I'm really
just a warm act warm up act for the
panel that follows you'll notice on the
slide that's being shown today or some
of my well my personal characteristics ,
some of my roles , some of my jobs , so
to speak . But really I see them as how
I how I can be an influential leader
through those roles . You'll also
notice I didn't get very creative with
the title , which looks an awful lot
like the theme of this family forum and
actually I love the theme and that's
why I'm using it as well and plan to
build it out over the next few minutes .
The pandemic has changed much of the
way that we work the way that we go to
school , get our healthcare shop ,
interact , really innumerable things .
I'll share some of my thoughts about
how to evaluate the virtual tools that
are available these days . Some that
had their genesis in this pandemic .
Now when the panel comes up here in a
few minutes , they'll discuss many
virtual opportunities that either exist
now or perhaps will shortly have been
developed to support our military
families . These are exciting times and
the developments that emerged or were
accelerated during the pandemic will be
sustained and strengthened or it allows
us to better serve our families . Now ,
not only are there opportunities to
enhance soldier and family member
quality of life , but some of
these developments have also opened job
opportunities for spouses and family
members in virtual settings . Now .
Job mobility once extraordinarily
difficult for military spouses and
family members may become easier in the
post pandemic world . Let me start with
my sense of where virtual tools have
shown and continue to show great
promise . Now I love this photo . Many
of us in this room grew up in a world
where finance apps on our phones or or
even ATMs weren't even thought of
if we want to deposit or withdraw cash ,
pay bills open or management account .
We physically went to a bank and we
stood in a lot of lines back then . We
couldn't have imagined conducting our
financial business over the internet ,
let alone over a handheld device . But
today all of that is available
using secure applications on our cell
phones , our laptops in numeral devices ,
not only to save us time because we
don't have to go to the bank , gives us
real time oversight of our finances
and alerts us immediately when
something unexpected is happening to
any of our accounts . Now the child in
their mother's arms here in this photo
grew up in a world where they may
never have to step foot
in our branch of a bank for their
entire life . Now , the reason that
virtualization and finances as possible
in my opinion is that the vast majority
of banking needs transactional
deposits , withdrawals , transfers .
None of these need in person assistance
to accomplish the transaction secondary
to technology . Now , when the
unexpected thing does happen though
unexplained transactions , potential
fraudulent activity , I want to talk to
somebody to better understand to be
sure that everything that needs to be
done in my account has happened . So
even though most financial activity
these days is transactional and can be
managed through virtual platforms ,
there is still in need for person to
person relationship interactions when
things go wrong , when the transactions
become increasingly complex .
Now as a frequent traveler I've come to
depend on mobile applications to manage
my travel plans and adjust
sometimes on the fly when disruptions
occur , which seems more frequent these
days and some of you may even have been
affected by disruptions on your travel
plans . On your way to this conference ,
I could choose my seat on the plane and
check on the status of connecting
flights , see where my luggage is all
without having to queue up at the
counter , Call an 800 number spend what
always seems to be an internal amount
of time on hold . I don't mind self
checking my luggage at a kiosk . In
fact I much prefer that to standing in
line . You may notice that there's a
few Children in the photo and the image
that I'm showing today sometimes for
families with Children , it's not as
easy to be completely online and manage
tasks and Children at the same time .
And so our solutions need to be
sensitive , We need to include
navigators as a means to get
personalized assistance . Sometimes
when it's needed . We only hope that
their experiences with travel in the
future . Advanced like banking
experiences as they change for that
child in the first image that I showed
you and it's not just about young
Children when air travel disruptions
occur in the mobile application options ,
just doesn't seem to support my travel
plans that I want to be able to talk to
somebody optimally in person , but
virtually by phone or even chat within
the mobile app , the point is I want to
connect to the person , explain my
challenges and work to resolve them .
You get the idea and I'm sure everyone
here has experiences where virtual
applications have simplified our lives
and examples or they didn't or couldn't
and you need a person to person touch
to resolve a situation . Now for those
of you who were at the last us a family
forum in 2019 sorry for the repeat
photo , I happen to love this photo ,
that's why I'm showing it again . But
this is part of my family at least it
was when the photo was taken a few
years ago , it's part of my home team .
Our family has grown since that time .
We have seven grandchildren located in
south Dakota in Virginia ranging in age
from five months to eight years as
grandparents , carol and I are huge
fans of facetime , WhatsApp , google
chat and similar communications apps .
That was true before the pandemic and
even more so over the past year and a
half , those platforms help us
to stay connected when the time
distance Or COVID-19 restriction
stopped us from visiting in person
is virtually the same as in person of
course not . But helps us maintain our
relationships with our Children and
with our grandchildren . In general
though , we're not building our
relationships , we're simply sustaining
them , sustaining relationships is
incredibly important to us , but
building relationships takes both time
and shared experiences . Face timing
for birthdays and holidays is sometimes
necessary . But for me unfulfilling ,
maybe that's because I have a sense of
loss from not being at the event in
person . This is true during my
deployments throughout my career .
And it's true today when we can't be
together now , virtual apps help , but
we must remember that they can't fill
the relationship building gap
that brings me back to the title , the
family forum session , Quality of life
at your fingertips . I'm a surgeon
haven't operated in a little while ,
much too long really . But last time I
was in the operating room , my greatest
privilege was culminating the trust of
that patient in front of me with the
expertise of the entire team to
physically touch that patient
in my gloved hand was the scalpel . I
won't bore you with the rest of the
story , most you probably want to hear
it anyway , but suffice it to say that
sometimes the experience requires human
touch . I'm a fan of virtual medical
visits and virtual surgical follow up
when it's appropriate . We're still
trying to find the right balance there
and I think Miss julie is going to talk
about that a little bit later .
Everyone staff and patients want the
efficiency of virtual visits .
In my mind though , the key outcome in
health care , as in many other areas of
our life is not efficiency , its
effectiveness . Does the virtual
encounter accomplish the same outcome
as an actual encounter ? If so , it's a
win for everybody . I'll share a
cautionary tale though . Again from the
medical world , you have any idea
whether the incidents of colon cancer
or lung cancer or skin cancer
is up or down in America today
or new onset of insulin dependent
diabetes or chronic hypertension or
asthma or I could go on and on during
the pandemic and in this current phase ,
the answer to all those disease
conditions is we have lower diagnosis
rates across the board , in the
military health system and an America
writ large . I
don't think that americans have
suddenly become healthier In the last
18 months . It's highly
likely that we're not identifying
as many diseases because we've had
fewer interactions during the pandemic ,
both in person and virtual and the
art . The liberal art of
diagnosing when it's not . The primary
reason that someone came for their
their appointment has suffered .
My point is that sometimes not always ,
but sometimes at your fingertips
has nothing to do with technology and
everything to do with human touch .
I love this photo from earlier this
year . This is uh Lieutenant Commander
to john Ellsworth , the primary care
nurse practitioner at Naval Hospital
Camp Pendleton within the pediatric
clinic , she's performing a routine
checkup On six month old Adelaide Co
sometimes at your fingertips is literal
as it is here . When Commander
Ellsworth feels Adelaide stomach and
listens to her chest while delay does
her best to reach out and touch
Commander Ellsworth that's there's
simply no replacing some human to human
contact . Now as you consider any
virtual application , I submit that .
It's not an all or nothing thing . It's
not good or bad . It's the proper
application of virtual technology when
it produces effective outcomes whether
medical care , finances or pcs moves or
education , installation support . The
list is long as you evaluate
virtual opportunities for yourself ,
your family and your community . I
think it's best to consider the
transactional transactional aspects of
our relationships where you simply need
information and use asynchronous
tools like email or messaging
as well as synchronous tools including
real time chats and phone calls for
more complex issues that require
context . Those us behind the virtual
applications . Oh , you those varied
modalities so that you have the right
tools for you to get the answers or the
services you deserve .
I thank you for the gift of your time
this afternoon . Whether your leaders
in your communities , members of the
press , journalists , writing about
family issues or simply interested
family members . Your participation and
feedback helps keep the army experience
focused on issues most
important to our families . My thanks
to the entire U . S . A . Team and the
panelists up next . I'm excited to hear
about the innovations there bringing to
our military families . It's been my
pleasure to share these few minutes
with you . Thank you . Thanks again
holly
mm
wow . Thank you . Lieutenant General
please for your leadership and for
ensuring the medical readiness of the
force . We are grateful to your
commitment to our soldiers , to our
families and our soldiers for life .
Thank you sir . All right ,
well I would now like to introduce the
moderator of today's forum Miss D .
Guys Miss Guice currently serves as the
director of the soldier and family
readiness Director And Quality of Life
Task Force in the Office of the Deputy
Chief of Staff G . nine . She leads a
team of professionals who oversee
family and mmWR programs as well as
the Secretary of the Army's quality of
Life Task force . Welcome D .
Mhm
Thank you holly . Can we get a close
up on my mask here . Go army beat navy .
Well it's an honor to be here today to
talk about how the army is transforming
service delivery to meet the challenges
of today and tomorrow . In its second
year , the quality of life task force
continues great progress despite
another year of a global pandemic
hurricanes , wildfires and
civil unrest . All challenges that
added to the army mission . We continue
our focus on housing , healthcare ,
childcare spouse , employment and Pcs
moves . But the pandemic has made us
look for more innovative ways to
accomplish the mission . We've also
found the pandemic except exasperated
some of the challenges faced by our
soldiers and families regarding
economic security , spouse employment ,
childcare and Pcs . We are
creating some resources with our
partners in OsD and the other services
to address those issues . Before we
start , I would like to take this
opportunity to thank our senior leaders
for their unwavering commitment to the
well being of our total force . I would
like to thank the workforce in the
queue ol space for showing up every day
on the front line to keep our garrisons
running . I would also like to extend ,
extend a thank you to the slightly less
glamorous professionals who develop
policies and resources to ensure we can
run these programs . And lastly , I'd
like to thank our family members for
the feedback without dedication from
the entire community . Much of what you
will hear in the next few days would
not be possible . So let's get started
first . Our first Panelist is Major
General Omar jones , the deputy
commander for the army's installation
management command . He helps oversee
97 installations , 55,000 professionals
and more than $11 billion in budget .
The programs income delivers touch
every soldier and family member every
day from childcare , security guards ,
employment and transition programs .
General jones over to you sir . Thank
you and thank you to USA as well as the
uh G nine team for bringing this panel
together um quite the august group to
my left and uh I appreciate the
opportunity . So it's d set up front so
I'm the deputy commanding general for
Army installation management command .
I think I have one of the best jobs in
the army because when you think about
if the army is all about army people um
and our senior leaders are focused on
quality of life for our people , income
installation management Command focuses
on that every single day across every
installation that the army has across
the world . Um And it's fantastic . You
know , whether it is morale welfare ,
recreation programs , whether it's
housing , whether it's infrastructure ,
whether it's child care , whether it's
how do we make the pcs move experience
better for our people . Um When you
look at all the quality of life
initiatives , income has a vital piece
and each and every one of those to
support the team to improve quality of
life for our soldiers , civilians and
family members and it is a can be a
humbling um great opportunity to be
part of that . So today I'm gonna talk
about two tools that we have that are
helping in that regard . But what I'm
hoping is when we get to the question
and answer period anything that you
want to talk about that's in the income
portfolio , be more than happy to uh to
take your questions are so a major and
director of morale , welfare and
recreation programs here in the
audience as well . So they'll answer
the hard questions then . Easy ones
about him come , I'll be happy to
answer . Um the two tools that I want
to talk about is the army maintenance
application , Arma has anyone heard of
Armagh before ? Okay , just a handful .
Okay . Hopefully it will be worthwhile .
I'm gonna talk about Digital Garrison .
Has everyone , Has anyone heard about
Digital Garrison before ? Okay , a few
more we have , hopefully that's gonna
change here at the next hour or so . So
one of our efforts across Army Material
Command are higher headquarters here
for installation management . Command
is to be able to empower our people .
Soldiers , civilian family members put
information in the palm of their hands ,
typically either in smartphones on the
computer , whatever happens to be so
they can get the information at the
time that they want it and then
interact with the service provider in a
way that makes sense to them . That is
more responsive , more informative and
more useful to them again , all in an
effort to help improve quality of life .
So Arma , the army maintenance app is
focused on our army owned facilities .
So think about our barracks , think
about our army owned housing , both
overseas and a couple installations
here in the states where the army has
housing and many of you if you live in
privatized housing . Our housing
partners have similar applications that
they use , but we have found the
ability for family members , soldiers ,
civilians to go into Arma online
register for an account Put in a work
order . It is significantly improve
response time . We're seeing 25% and
better response time because what you
see is you put your work order in there ,
you put pictures of what the problem is .
The Department of Public Works is able
to text , stay in touch with you , look
at the pictures , so when that
technician comes out they know what the
problem is when they arrive . So we're
getting more first time solutions on
the first visit and again , much faster
response time . Now I would encourage
you if you're using armor , if you do
have an emergency work order life
health safety please call called DPW
and they'll be out there Uh as quickly
as possible if it's 30 minutes standard
to get out there and be a response as
emergency work orders for all the other
work orders right now for barracks and
army family housing using Arma , you're
getting better service , more
responsive service and you're able to
put that work order in at a time place .
And means of your choosing . We are
already testing for folks that work in
army buildings uh to what we're calling
fence , defense pilots right now one
overseas one here in the States so that
all army buildings , workplaces ,
headquarters , motor pools etcetera
will also be in Armagh . So if you have
a work order to put in for your D . P .
W . You can go through Arma . Um So
again significant , improve
responsiveness and again one more
effort to empower you uh to get the
services you need , living on army
communities which takes me to the
second app . And a few more hands out
there when I asked about Digital
Garrison . But Digital Garrison , the
intent is to be able to have the one
stop shop for all things all services
you may have on your installation . Who
uses a navigation app and you drive
your drive a vehicle right now . You
know I live in D . C . The past four
years and I got addicted to the app
ways . So I get my car before I start
the car put on ways and that is what I
do when I drive clearly don't use it
while I'm driving okay . Um But the
intent is the Digital Garrison does the
same thing for you when you come
through the gate . Is that when you
come on our installation you're
planning to be an installation . You
live or work on the installation . If
you have a question about service hours
location , any other information about
the installation , you can go to
Digital Garrison . It is fed by three
things . It is fed first by our
installation web services . To anything
that is on a website for a garrison ,
any Garrison in the army goes into the
app , it is fed by all of our M . W .
Our information is out there . Anything
that's out there about em wr online
goes into the app and then it is also
fed by a these because they these is
our partner in the development , the
implementation and the maintenance of
the digital garrison app . So the
ability to shop my exchange um all of
that right there through digital
Garrison , you can download it
through google play and download it to
the app . Store available all those
other um systems that are out there .
But the intent is if there's a service
on the installation it ties back in my
move , deca click to go grocery pickups ,
anybody try that for the commissary ,
all of that one hand , all of that
through digital garrison . Um so the
intent if you're about to pcs and you
want to find out about your new
garrison , you get a digital garrison
and you can read all about it . You can
find out about that installation , you
can find out about childcare , view
services , spouse employment , all of
that through the digital Garrison apps
really is your front door to army
services , community services on that
installation and what it also is as a
means to communicate with you . So
whether it is announcements from the
garrison might be severe weather might
be some other announcement Garrison
leaders want to put out or an
announcement from all the way to the
army leadership able to communicate and
put those announcements out to you ,
the user and digital Garrison app . We
welcome feedback so we continue to make
it more useful . We welcome reviews but
again want to empower you as a soldier
civilian family members , Soldier for
life veteran . So you've got all the
information you want about services on
the Garrison . So if you haven't
downloaded it , I hope you do if you
live on an installation , I hope you uh
log in to Armagh and get an account and
I really look forward to hearing your
questions going forward . So thank you
very much . Thank thank you so much sir .
Our next Panelist is Mr Dean Koontz .
He is a mission account manager for
service . Now dan has many years of
corporate experience working directly
with Fortune 500 executives as well as
Department of Defense executives in
delivering enterprise scale outcomes .
Not only as dan and a U . S . A board
member for the philadelphia chapter but
he is also a soldier for life . Thank
you . Thank you . It's really great to
be here today . My name is dan coons on .
The mission account manager for service
now is business . I'm also a current
reservist . I am a husband and a father
also . Why is that important when we're
talking about a quality of life panel
is because we have husbands , wives and
spouses . They're serving in our United
States military . The really important
part of that is those folks . The
commitment to serve . The ability to
serve is empowered by the family care
networks that you have . I come from a
family of caregivers . My mom's a nurse ,
my grand mom is a nurse , my wife is a
nurse and the majority of my family is
in some sort of caregiving capacity and
they and my wife come
from this place of good souls in good
spirits and they just want to take care
of the people around them . They want
to make those people feel good about
the things that they're doing and often
times the things that prevent them from
doing the job that they care about .
The thing that they love to do isn't
necessarily their inability to take
care of somebody in a hospital bed or
take care of somebody in a daycare ,
take somebody take care of somebody
when they're moving or doing those
things . It's really an inability
inability for systems to talk to one
another . And it is , it's almost never ,
it's almost never a care problem . It's
generally a complexity problem . And so
I'm sitting here today as a
representative of software company .
What I'm really here today to talk
about is partnership and that
partnership is what allows us to create
an application like karma . We don't
know an industry generally the problems
that are United States military faces
our army faces the same way that those
live and experience it everyday face .
But we do have tools and software and
systems that when matched with people
that understand those problems are able
to solve something pretty magical . And
when we do that , we give back time to
soldiers , we have back time to people
like my wife , my mother , my
grandmother to do the thing that they
really care about , which is taking
care of the people around them . So I
am here as a representative of software
company service . Now I've got some
friends here . I'm here as a soldier .
I'm here as a husband . I'm here as all
those great things to tell you . That
the way that we interact with the world
is increasingly in the form of software .
You guys all came here today in some
fashion or some manner leveraging a
software tool , whether it was
uploading your vaccine card , whether
it was taking an Uber , whether it was
somehow figuring out your way to this
specific room . I'm sure you use the
software application and that software
application was one that you were able
to use because it provided a good
experience . You've also and I'm sure
and we've all served in the army . So
we can say this or I can say this serve
in the army , you've also dealt with
some really bad software
and that software
itself , that's it's like it's
miserable to use . And when you don't
when you it's miserable to use and it
doesn't provide a good experience ,
You're gonna abandon that software for
other things you have to do or unless
you absolutely positively have to use
it and only then be grudgingly and if
you're a colonel and above you'll have
somebody else do it . So , so , so
here's the deal . We interact with
systems on an everyday basis that make
our lives better and humans , people ,
this whole panel , I'm sure comes from
this from the perspective of caregiving .
They come to it from perspective of
husbands and wives and people and
humans and humans want to help other
humans , they don't want to get in the
way of all the different bureaucratic
elements that get in the way of us
actually doing those sorts of things .
So I'm here in a way to tell you that
the challenge of building software
systems isn't necessarily that software
doesn't exist to solve problems because
it does generally we don't know how to
articulate the right problem that we do
want to solve . So therefore we're
guessing about what that system
actually should look like . We also , I
was an army officer originally , so I
went down to Fort Benning and learn how
to drive Abrams and all those other
great stuff . We never grew up in an
environment where we have to deal with
enterprise systems and we don't
understand the complexity of those
systems . So what great software
enables us to do is have usable and
useful technology that empowers
everyday people to solve other people's
problems . That's really what software
is supposed to do and what nobody
should ever have to see . And this is
what I'm pretty passionate about where
I work for the company I work for is
you should absolve all the complexity
of all the systems below the system
that creates the application that's
useful and when you start to absolve
all that complexity away and you create
a simple and user experience , people
are more apt to adopt him and when
people adopt a standard system you
create productivity and that
productivity creates and allows for
people to do better work at the end of
the day . That's all this is about one
human taking care of another human
using some sort of technology to
support that . So all of these
different initiatives in these lines of
effort , we talk about things in
isolation as it relates to this silo on
this island , this island , this island ,
this island . But what it really comes
down to is the enterprise , the
Department of Defense , the army is one
of the largest organizations in the
world , if not the largest organization
in the world . It's been generated over
the last 30-50 years provide technology
solutions to end users to solve
problems . Those systems , when you
can't modernize those systems , you
have to have something on top of those
systems that brings all that
information up together extracts all
the usefulness out of those systems
that allows simplicity to rule because
as my friends at armor school taught me
and then O . C . S . Before that when
you're tired and when you don't know
what you're doing and you're confused
and you're lost and you're all the
other things are compounding in your
life or you've got two kids with one on
the way . Your wife has just moved from
fort Bragg to Fort Hood and she doesn't
have a job and you're just changing
your job at the end of the day , you're
going to fall back to the thing that's
the most simple thing to use . You're
going to fall back to simplicity
because simplicity gets to you through
with complexity and that is something
that I live in the United States Army .
So my point is I'm here today as a
software as a softer representative . I
work for a service now . I'm really
proud of the work that we've done with
Arma . I've got friends out in the
crowd here that are pretty proud to see
me up here and the reason why they're
proud to see me up here because I'm
passionate about the fact that software
is an element to solving a problem and
those problems are always human centred
problem . So again my name is dan coons
and I appreciate you all being here
today and look forward your questions .
Thank you dan . Now
we will hear from this regina Julian ,
she is the chief of healthcare
optimization division at the defense
health Agency . She is responsible for
primary and specialty care operations ,
patient experience and referral
management over to and also
virtual health so and virtual so thank
you all for for having me here today ,
full disclosure . I'm retired Air Force
but I grew up in an army family . So I
know my father and both of my
grandfathers are thrilled that I'm here
speaking with you today Because I grew
up in a military family and moved 21
times in the 1st 18 years of my life .
I know military life can be difficult ,
but it's also rewarding . I think
that's why we collectively try to make
sure the quality of life for our family
members is great wherever they may be .
The way we at the defense Health Agency
are trying to do that is to make our
patient facing processes easy .
Seamless and the same . So you don't
have to learn to navigate a new health
care system every single time you pcs
or when you retire . And one of those
capabilities were working on
standardizing to follow along with the
theme is virtual health . So today I'm
going to talk to you if we go to the
next slide where we were pre covid
where we are now and where we plan to
go in support of our greater military
family next slide . So prior to
covid we had some capabilities . Has
anyone ever heard of our global nurse
advice line ? It's available in the 50
United States and in any country where
we have what we call a military medical
treatment facility . So it's a great
capability toll free 24/7 to speak to a
nurse on the clinically appropriate
level of care for you and they'll help
you find care . We also enhanced our
legacy tricare online patient portal .
We integrated secure messaging into the
system and with one stop shop you can
connect to the nurse advice line , see
your test results , read your medical
clinical notes and also make
appointments . But we did have some
virtual visits and I say some They were
mostly in primary care and they mostly
involved the use of the phone but at
least it was something and it was about
10% of all of our visits . We also work
to make sure that it was a covered
benefit in Tricare as well . So you can
be seen in our direct care system or
also through our great tricare network .
And finally as D . H . A . Started
assuming responsibility for the
administration of the military medical
treatment facilities . We brought our
entire portfolio of virtual health
capabilities together so we could
consistently apply them to the health
care system . So do most people think
of virtual visits as just video visits .
It's true , that's what people think of
when they think of virtual health . But
we have a wide suite of tools that we
use in both our military medical
treatment facilities are Tricare
network and in support of our most
important mission readiness in
operational environments and those are
patient to provider , including our
Viper the greatest acronym in the world
is like to say which is a readiness
clinic um mobile medic which trains are
young enlisted people to be ready to go
to war and provide care supported by a
provider provider to provider
consultation . We have a hotline called
Advisor and we have a a synchronous
portal where our providers can consult
on their patient's behalf and then the
most complex of all our things like
wearable devices and our our Tell a
critical care program where we support
all our I see us wherever they may be .
Next slide . So then came Covid and if
you remember the news you may have
heard about a lot of private practices
which were concerned about going out of
business . They were afraid to see
their patients , their patients were
afraid to come in to see them and we
didn't want that to happen to us . So
within two weeks we rapidly um was were
very agile . We put out guidance ,
standard processes and we authorized a
number of easy to use software
capabilities for our patients and staff
such as google duo Skype and facetime .
The end result of that is throughout
the pandemic and continuing now we were
able to provide medically necessary
care which could not safely be delayed
um while protecting both our patients
and staff and I and I say that So
people said my tennis elbows bothered
me for 10 years . I'd like to get it
seen here in the middle of COVID that
probably wasn't going to happen . But
we did provide medically necessary care .
We also realized that patients were
pretty good at determining whether they
needed a virtual visitor in person . So
so we kind of put back some of our
requirements and let patients decide if
they wanted . And then if the provider
said I need to see you , we brought
them in later that same adviser line .
So your Fort Leavenworth months , an
army health clinic or your I come from
an air force background . They don't
like the sound of our planes . So we're
kind of in remote locations . Every one
of our providers had access to critical
care and infectious disease disease
experts with just one phone call . We
we wanted to make sure we have the same
benefit as always in tricare . So we
love video visits but not the phone and
as it happens , the phone is still the
most popular . I don't know about you ,
but I don't want anyone to see me when
I'm feeling sick . And apparently many
patients feel the same way and to go to
general places point . I know he made
earlier . It's about the effectiveness .
So one domain we wanted to look at was
patient satisfaction and it was very
high in patients appreciated us seeing
them and keeping them safe next slide .
So a couple things happened though in
about the summer and fall of 2022
things happened . The first one was
general place and I and the rest of us
started to get concerned about the long
term consequences of delaying chronic
disease care and preventive screens
such as for cancer . So he had us draft
guidance and and it went out and said ,
let's go back to some face to face
visits and let's get caught up with the
people at highest risk of disease first
and get them caught up . And I knew it
worked one day I told him I was driving
into work and they called , they said
colonel Julian . Um you need to come in
for these two tests and I won't say
what they are , but I'm sure you can
guess . And and I wasn't annoyed . I
was really proud and happy . So any of
you , if you're seeing in our military
treatment facilities in the tri care
network or just by a civilian provider
because you're not a tricare
beneficiary . If somebody calls you to
get caught up on needed care , please
go because it's good for you and we
care . The second thing is what I call
virtual health fatigue . You mentioned
general place mentioned some
transactions . Banking , airline , I
don't want to call the airline to make
a make a transaction or I don't wanna I
don't wanna talk to anybody . I want to
do it electronically . Healthcare is
different . It is primarily a people
business . It is a business that
involves the patients , the staff and
the relationship between them which is
focused on your health care and for
that virtual health um is an enabler
and it's something we're going to use
but it is not now nor will it ever be a
substitute for care . So I knew that
this was happening when we started
getting a lot of complaints in patients
that I just want to come in and see
somebody and talk to somebody face to
face . So we're accommodating those
needs . So where are we now ? Um we're
we realized because of that lessons
learned . It's a suite of capabilities .
It isn't it's own thing . So we're
integrating it into our overall health
care delivery system . Not all of our
providers are physicians , are nurse
practitioners and PSR comfortable yet .
So we're teaching them what kind of
conditions they can safely treat
general places a surgeon , he's not
going to do surgery virtually , but he
can definitely do follow up
appointments . So we're working with
all of our providers to support them in
supporting our patients . We are we're
implementing a brand new video visit
system with click of one Button to
schedule . It's industry standard and
our patients and staff and are just
love it . We're developing a new
smartphone app tricare online was a
good start But we think we can do
better . So by the end of 2022 we want
to have an industry standard at your
fingertips app just like I heard some
apps earlier which making excuse me is
going to make getting health care very
easy . Um And then we are uh we
recognize again behavioral health is a
great need . We read the article and
military times last week and we're
working on expanding that tricare
benefit needs to be the same . We want
to integrate our system . So to that
end we're going to use virtual health
to integrate our entire system direct
care and private sector care globally
to meet patient demand wherever it is .
That's all I have . Thank you so much .
Mhm . Mhm .
Okay . Our next Panelist Miss Helen
Road Armel , Mr robert . Armel is the
Chief of Child youth and school
services in the army Deputy Chief of
Staff G . Nine . She supervises and
assesses the executive execution of
army Child and Youth program policies ,
resources , plans and programs for the
army . In her 38 years of experience .
Hellas has seen the military childcare
program grow from what the child care
industry now refers to as the model for
the nation . Over to you Helen thank
you D and thank you everyone . Um I
would just like to start this afternoon
by sending out a thank you to all the
dedicated child and youth professionals
who um dedicated themselves during
the to support mission essential and
emergency personnel during covid . Um
You know they did this at the beginning
at their own peril before there were
immunizations and vaccinations and
their service was essential to the
keeping the mission . So thank you all
out there for all of your hard work .
Ah Child care is a pretty hot issue
these days . Um It kind of has been
over the course of my career but
probably with no more attention with
the senior leadership than there is
right now . And we recognize this
because because we have long waiting
lists and long wait times for care at
many many of our installations across
the world . So I'm going to begin today
with the newest initiative to increase
access to child care . And it's
something called the in home childcare
provider Pilot and the department and
the services of course recognized that
the child care needs of military
families are not being met by
traditional on post programs and in our
community based fee assistance programs .
So in response to this , the Office of
the Secretary of Defense in conjunction
with us and the services has initiated
a pilot program that responds to
service members request for care in
their homes by providing a range of
options to meet military families .
Childcare needs . And this is an
ongoing priority . And we're working
with the services and the department to
tackle this challenge with very new
strategies and programs . Now this in
home childcare provider . Pilot is not
the traditional family childcare
program , but it's a new program to
support what most of us think of as
nannies . Uh huh . The program is being
administered by a third party
contractor . If any of you are familiar
with our fee assistance program , it is
the same third party contractor . Child
care aware of America . The first year
the pilot is focused on regions where
there are the longest weightless in the
services . That's the national capital
region , Hawaii , Norfolk , san ,
Antonio and SAN Diego .
Each of the services was given a number
of spaces in the pilot and the army
right now has 250 of those spaces to be
eligible , you need to be a single or
dual act , single or dual active duty
service member or a garden reserve
member on active duty . You need to be
active duty with the full time working
spouse or garden . Reserve member with
an on active duty with the full time
working spouse or an active duty
soldier Guard or reserve member on
active duty with the spouse who was
enrolled full time in a post secondary
institution on a full time basis .
Pilot provides fee assistance which is
defined as a minimum of 30 hours to a
maximum of 60 hours of childcare weekly
Parents are responsible for the salary
costs in excess of 60 hours of care per
week . The care is not limited to
monday through friday or a particular
time of day and the amount of fee
assistance received is dependent upon a
family's total family income just like
it is on the installation And will
range between 500 to $200 per month per
child families are responsible for
finding their own providers And you can
use the expanded childcare services
available through military one source
for assistance in searching out a new
in home provider Providers have to meet
eligibility requirements as well . They
must be us citizens , be at least 18
years of age , hold a high school
diploma and speak , read and write
english . Um The fee assistance is
inclusive of all the childcare services
and childcare services only and does
not include um duties like light
housekeeping duties except those
required of course to operate the
childcare piece . Child care aware of
America also will help families and
assist them in ensuring that in home
providers successfully complete and
have favorably adjudicated background
check requirements such as a finger
based FBI criminal history , check a
state criminal history repository ,
check a state child abuse and neglect
repository and a state um offender
registry . And if the providers
completed these background check
requirements in the past , they must be
current and be no more than five years
old . And just like new direct care
staff on the installation . All in home
care providers must complete 32 hours
of orientation training and childcare .
Where does provide the oversight for
that training . Um They will also
conduct a quarterly home visit um to
ensure while the provider is in care um
to ensure that all the training
requirements are met . And I think a
really important aspect of that this
program is you as the family the family
becomes an employer and as an employer
you have to meet all the tax
requirements accordance with the IRS .
And you can find um assistance for that
again through military one source as
well . Um The pilots going to expand
and probably in the near future and
currently there are 38 Army families
who are interested in the program . Um
If you have any questions about that
programme , I'll be available of course
after our session here . Um The second
program that I'd like to address is the
Army fee assistance program . I would
just like to remind everyone that the
army was the very first service to
provide fee assistance to families who
couldn't access on installation .
Childcare because of long wait list or
their geographic location And on a
daily basis . Right now we are serving
about 10,000 Children in our community
based program . What the assistance the
assistance does it pays the difference
between what a family would pay on post
And what a provider charges in the
community up to $1,500 up until the
beginning of october We were the only
service with that high provider rate
cap But as of one October the other
services followed in suit . And they
are also , they have also implemented a
1500 provider rate cap . So the army
led the way there . It's really good
for all of our families . Um
The Department of Defense is currently
studying the fee assistance program and
there's a great possibility that
provide a rate cap will be raised next
year , more than likely in response to
all of the economic demands of the
pandemics and our current way list . We
also participated in a two year pilot
with the Department of Defense called
MCC Y N Plus , which studied the
quality rating , ensure quality
assurance rating scales in each of the
in Virginia and Maryland to see how
they Compared to our national
accreditation requirements . Um , this
has been a very successful pilot . Um ,
we've added over 2000 new providers in
Virginia and Maryland over the past two
years , um , expanding our access to
care in these two states and the
program is being expanded to Nevada ,
California Washington and florida in
the upcoming year . Back in 19 , I'm
going to talk next about family
childcare back in 1989 when I was
responsible for a family childcare
provider program in Nuremberg Germany
We had 275 family childcare providers
And today in the army across the army ,
there are only 130 active family
childcare providers . Now there's a lot
of reasons for that , none of which
I'll go into detail today , but can
just tell you that the army is actively
working to increase the number of
family childcare providers by looking
at ways to accelerate the application
process and training process . Um , and
excuse me , a little dry up here And
just want to talk today about the great
opportunity for young spouses with
Children to begin a professional career
by becoming a family childcare provider .
I recently saw a story in the eye on
AMC newsletter that talked about that
recognized an army spouse who's been a
family childcare provider for 17 years .
Um this this employment opportunity
follows you wherever you go . There are
family childcare opportunities , not
only across the army but across the
other services as well . And we all
have reciprocal agreements to accept
each other's um processes . And the
last thing else talk about today is our
our staffing initiatives . You know ,
one of the long term impacts of Covid
has been the loss of our child care
staff . But this is a phenomenon across
the entire pandemic . And I said , you
know , everywhere I go , there's a help
wanted sign and I think the army right
now has a huge help wanted sign for our
child care staff . But I want to talk
about a few of the things that we've
done to address that . We were the
first service across the department to
implement the prescribed direct care
staff compensation increases . The
requirement was to have those in place
by four October . Um The army had those
in place by the end of june so very
proactive in making sure that our
direct care child care staff are
properly compensated and we continue to
evaluate compensation efforts to remain
competitive in the local markets . Our
our commanders on the ground are
authorized to staff direct care
personnel at 110% sure that we all we
always have adequate staff on board um
to meet childcare ratios . Um The
installation management command
conducted the first enterprise level
childcare hiring virtual hiring event
in july . Um that resulted in 139
additional new staff . Um several other
opportunities are available . I'd ask
you to please look at the check out the
web sites that are provided on my slide
and that is all I have for you today .
Thank you . Okay ,
thank you . Helen . Next , I'd like to
introduce you to lee kelly . Lee is the
director of military Community support
programs in the office of the deputy
assistant Secretary of defense . She
leads an overseas three very important
dost programs . Military one source ,
military and family life counseling and
the spouse education and career
opportunities program . Lee over to you .
Thanks d I'm an enlisted army veteran
myself turned social worker . Is anyone
in the audience familiar with the
social work profession at all ? Yeah .
All right . Okay . So number of hands
go up . Um so within the social work
profession we have a I'm going to call
it a motto to meet people where they
are . And so that's going to be the
theme of my remarks here today .
Meeting people where where they are and
how we do that as a military community .
And and I can't really start my remarks
without starting with the heart of our
programming , which is military one
source . And so if you're familiar with
military one source , would you give me
a little wave ? All right , Okay .
Great . So military one sources are
24/7 virtual call center and website .
And um , and really , um even before
COVID-19 military one source really um
was built to meet people where they are ,
be it in person , be it virtually be it
via phone . And so I do want to start
here . Um and and I always put this
slide up . Um whenever I'm talking
about military one source because even
if every hand in this room went up ,
chances are there's a resource on this
screen that you may not have been aware
military one source offered . And um
and one that either maybe if you're
you're one of our service members ,
family members or other eligible
population members , maybe you yourself
can use this service or maybe you have
a neighbor teammate work , work
partner that could use it . And so um
really um I look to all of you to help
us share information about these
resources . And and so I like to pick
out a couple of these days to highlight
um some that usually are surprise . And
so the one that I usually like to start
with is uh did you know military one
source provides specialty consultations
for elder care . So again , uh this is
uh during Covid 19 you're at home ,
you're maybe struggling um to take care
of an ailing relative in another state .
Did you know you can contact military
one source um from your home or live
chat them and ask them to do um the
research that may be on your to do list .
You've got 18 million other things to
do . You haven't had the time to find
some vetted resources that meet your
specific parameters of interest .
Military one source can do that
research for you and follow up within a
couple business days . And so I like to
foot stomp that one . Um free language
interpretation and document translation .
Military One source also provides
health and wellness coaching which is a
really popular one especially which I
don't know if we're still calling it
the new army PT test , but certainly we
had a rise in health and wellness
coaching um as soldiers work to get
ready for that new army PT test . And
so um during covid 19 when Covid 19
really started to impact our military
community in 2020 . Military One source
was well positioned to respond because
it was already built to do that . I do
want to highlight though on the next
slide how we did modify our services to
meet . Uh the demand signal we were
receiving during Covid 19 . And so the
change that happened um in fairly short
order with military one source , uh
once we started to get that demand
signal In March 2020 was regarding non
medical counseling . And so non medical
counseling is the second top reason
that anyone reaches out to military one
source . And guess what the first one
is . You would just want to shout it
out . What do you think texas is great .
Great idea . That's number three .
Number one is actually for spouse
employment support . And so for that
number to reason being non medical
counseling . We already provided
virtual non medical counseling to our
adult participants . Um We also offered
in person or via telephone but we only
offered non medical counseling to our
military adolescents face to face with
the provider . So what we did um
understanding that our military
adolescents were at home and were
struggling . Um we modified military
one source to provide non medical
counselling assistance for military
youth aged 13-18 That they could access
via video from their home . As long as
they had a parent or Guardian come on
at the beginning of the session to give
their permission and then that parent
or Guardian could leave and allow that
military youth to take part in the
session . We also provide video non
medical counseling for families . So
under the age of 13 but it has to be in
that family group dynamic . The other
big change to our services . Um as a
result of covid 19 that really had to
happen in a matter of days was
regarding the military and family life
counseling program . So if you're
familiar with the m flag program ,
we've got more than 2500 nonmedical
counselors serving in communities
around the world . But they were doing
it face to face . So within a matter of
days we shifted that program to provide
telehealth support to our community um
be it . Um Yeah , through our school
systems , embedded units , family
centres , child development centres
allowing participants to continue
working with an M black via telehealth .
I'd like to go to the next slide . I
want to talk about another way that we
meet people where they are and that's
in the spouse employment realm I
mentioned that's a top reason uh anyone
seeks service , the military one source .
And so um we know that um uh military
spouses are at all stages of their
career , maybe they're looking for
employment , maybe their mid career ,
maybe they're approaching transition
out of the military and looking to take
that next step . And so in order to
meet military spouses where they are ,
we had to acknowledge that military
spouses need different things depending
on their Uh the stage of their career
that they're in . And so this past
summer we introduce two new virtual
services for military spouses . The
first you , to me which if you're not
familiar with you , to me , it's an
online course catalog of more than 5000
courses . It's a great up skilling
platform . And as soon as we introduced
it At the end of June 2021 , all those
subscriptions were scooped right up .
So we turned around and re upped our
subscriptions . So those are now still
available to Active Duty garden Reserve .
Really important . And I need to foot
stomp no rank restriction on those . Um
Like you see with my C . A . The second
service flex jobs access to a database
vetted employment opportunities from
entry level to executive expanding the
aperture of the job search capabilities
of the military spouse employment
partnership . I'd like to go to the
next slide now , how else do we meet
people where they are ? Which is of
paramount importance right now as we
continue to battle a pandemic meeting
people where they are physically at
home on the road at work in their
community . And so we just embarked on
a new initiative uh with rally point .
Has anyone ever heard of rally point
before ? I see a couple hands . Okay
well we'd love for you to join the
rally point platform . Um I may um So I
mentioned I'm former enlisted . Um I
wasn't tracking rally point but once I
went on that platform , I was really
impressed with the two million military
members that they have who are engaged
on what can I can only describe as a
hybrid between facebook and linkedin .
Um it's a 40% currently serving within
that population . And so we're working
with the rally point through a machine
transparently delivered , machine
learning um intervention to deliver the
right resource at the right time . So
not only do we want to be there be
where people are and meet them where
they are , we want to show up with the
right resource . And so um through the
machine learning capabilities of rally
point we'll be working together um so
that um when a participant presents in
rally point meeting a particular
resource we can meet them with some
options . And the last thing that I
want to share before before I wrap up
today is um is what the top reason is
that anyone seeks non medical
counseling for any guests . And I guess
what's the top reason people might seek
non medical counseling in the military .
Yes marital , yes relationships . Uh
intimate partner relationships . Always
the number one reason certainly did not
change during covid 19 and so november
16 and 17 we'll be offering our virtual
relationship wellness summit . And the
only reason we're offering this virtual
relationship wellness summit is because
our first relationship summit on april
29th of this year was a big success .
Um and so we um we said okay we did a
half day program . Now we're going to
do two full days With an intimate
partner track , parent , child track
and single service member track ,
that's November 16 and 17 . Um we hope
to see you there and please help us
spread the word about that event , it's
a great way to tap into um skill
building tools and resources and thank
you very much for your time today .
Okay . Uh huh .
Thank you so much lee . And last but
not least we have Colonel joseph
Rennick . He is the Director of defense ,
Personal property management office for
the U . S . Transportation command . He
serves as a champion and advocate for D .
O . D . Families and the relocation
process . He integrates the operational
financial , contractual policy and
information technology aspects of the
defense personal property program .
Thank you for being here today over to
you Jill . Hi , good afternoon . I'm
Colonel Joel . So frantic and as most
of you can probably tell I'm not an
army officer But I promise you after 13
moves in 25 years , I can relate to the
same experiences that many of you have
had . What I'm here to talk to you
about it in this , in this business now
for about a month replacing mr Marsh .
When I sat down and talked with him ,
he kind of framed it in this format .
He said , look any any sort of like
recovering addict . What's the first
step admit that you have a problem .
And so he said one of the things that
Department defense has had to do with
this program is just admit that hey
things are not operating as well as we
hoped they would . The next step is
just trying to figure out , ok , how
come why what do we need to fix ? It's
one thing to say , things aren't
working right , but what needs fixed .
Um And this is a slide that he'd
actually built , which I think is a
great slide and it walks you through
kind of the four parts to the household
goods program . The first part being at
that household goods . When you look at
it , there are 950 different companies
that help move 325,000 people across
this planet . Um A little bit of a
loose coalition of the willing if you
will and and the reality is that makes
it difficult for standards ,
accountability in a lot of different
areas . Um The second part of this is
kind of the storage piece of it . If
you look at the non temporary storage ,
it's very similar . 850 different
companies with 11-1200 different
warehouses . Then when you get into
some of the stuff that gets stored as
you're moving across the country , it's
probably another 1000 warehouses . So
just trying to inspect 2000 warehouses
with the office of about a dozen people ,
that part of their job is to do
inspections . Makes it extremely
difficult . And I've got to give credit
where credit's due in this past year
and that's to the services to include
the army Because we did not have the
staffing to look at all those
warehouses , we turn to the services
and said we need your support and they
threw in in spades and we inspected
about 88% Of those warehouses already .
That's the good news . The bad news is
about 10% of them failed inspection and
about 24 of them we put on a non use
immediately because of the conditions .
So those are some of the things that we
found , we found that it was worse than
what we even expected . I'd love to
just kick industry in the knees and say
it's all their fault and the services
or do anything right And industry is
the only one at fault here . But even
if you look at the services in the past
we had five different services
including the Coast Guard . Now if you
throw in Space force or six different
services , anybody's been in this
business for any amount of time knows
that once you walk into the room and
there's a different service in the room .
There's a different culture , a
different opinion in a different
process at PCS from an army base , at
PCS , from a marine base . I don't
really care what the process is . As
long as it's the same as what it was in
other places . I've got army officers
that live on scott air force base and
one PCS and Air force will move them .
Same thing . They don't want to know
the difference is they just want it all
to be the same each time . So we've got
some of our own faults to throw in
there as well . The one silver lining
in this whole thing is probably R . P .
O . V . Contract We either store move
somewhere between 65-70,000 cars a year .
Our satisfaction rate on those vehicles
is 99.5% . If you compare that to the
household goods , which is about 95 .5% ,
it's a 4% difference because your kids
test scores you'd say all right today ,
that's cool . That works . Um , but if
you look at 325,000 moves and take a 4%
difference , that's about 13,000
unhappy families . All right . So next
slide please . So when it comes into ,
what are we gonna do about this ? And I
want to start with the long view first
because some of these problems we
didn't get here overnight and we're not
going to get out of them overnight .
Transcom is extremely excited
On on no earlier than 29 October .
We're hoping to announce uh , a
contract which will have a single
source contractor for global household
goods very similar to the p . O . V .
contract instead of having 950
different ways of doing business will
have one with one single provider . Um ,
and that is going to have a huge amount
of significance on accountability
processes and everything else . Um ,
some of the other things we're doing as
we discussed with some of the other
panelists . Uh , anyone that's used any
military software or government
software , it's not always the best .
Let's just be honest about it when the
process of building mill move that will
feed into the global household goods
contract that the government will keep
some of the internal controls and
things are done behind the scenes . But
it will be up to that contractor to
build us what we call customer facing
pieces of it . You can go use almost
any business application software and
realize how quick and easy it is . And
then you go to something like we
currently use what we call GPS and it's
and it's just clunky . All right . So
we've learned that there's things the
government is good at , There's things
that industry is good at and we've got
allow industry to do things that
they're good at . And then electronic
inventories . I mean we all know that
handwriting isn't as good as it used to
be . And then on top of that , when you
try looking at the fifth page of a
carbon copied form and then you're
fighting nine months later over some
sort of a claim and people are trying
to figure out what the handwriting is .
It's difficult by moving to e
inventories that will all be digital .
It'll be printed out and that makes it
simpler on all of it . The downside is
if you look on the dates of most these
things , it's , it's 2023 2024 even
though we're doing the global household
goods contract Announcement . Now
there's a transition period . So it'll
be the 2023 moving season before that
takes effect . And then quite frankly
the non temp storage and the storage ,
we just got a sequence things in behind
and it'll probably be 23 at the
earliest , maybe 24 . So these are
gonna be the ones that we've got big
fixes to make and they're on the way .
It's just a longer time period . Thanks
slide please . So then the question
becomes , you know , in the famous
words of Janet Jackson , what have you
done for me lately ? Um , this is the
more near term and these are some of
the things that we've done either
recently or doing right now are about
to do this year . Some of them are
simple is counseling reform If we don't
allow the members to know what their
entitlements are correctly on the front
end . It causes all sorts of problems
on the back end . And once again
multiple services , multiple offices .
We found that standardization was
lacking and we've built some
standardized documents and processes to
help that out . Personal information ,
anybody . It's been in the military for
any period of time knows that your
Social security number is on everything
that includes your moving and so we're
working with the industry to pull it
out of their forms are working with
customs and border to pull it out of
their forms and we're working with the
military services to pull it out of
their forms . Um
GPS that's the current system we use
once again mill move is its replacement
but that's not gonna be around for a
couple years . In the meantime . We're
starting to make improvements to DPS to
make certain that it can do the things
that you needed to do now . And then
we've got some initiatives we call our
customer facing initiatives . One of
the biggest ones is at the end of this
month we're hoping to release what we
call a customer facing dashboard where
you'll be able to see some of the
metrics and standards of the different
companies that you're assigned to move
with . Um so you'll be able to see what
their on time rate is . You'll be able
to see what how many violations or or
suspense is have been brought up
against that company at least have an
idea of who you're dealing with up
front . It comes down to transparency .
We're trying to be as transparent as
possible . We've also moved our
information from move dot mil to one
source for the exact same reasons that
she just talked about . Let's put it in
one location . It makes it simple for
the families instead of having in 12
different websites in 12 different
places . And then we're in the process
of working on customer service surveys
were trying to make a mobile friendly
so you can do things on your phone .
Same thing with the mill move software
will be able to be done on your phone
because reality is that's how we all
operate today . And then there's
various Rules that we're putting in a
place that we've either put into place
for the 2021 moving season . We're
about to release on November five for
the 2022 moving season . And they're
really geared at trying to help ensure
that you get communicated to properly
and the rules and structures are in
place that you get the best experience
possible . Um What I'm going to kind of
do is pause there and just end really
with the request and the request is the
things I've talked about quickly here
are the things that we have control of
the things that the government can
actually make positive change on .
There's something that quite frankly we
don't control and some of them you see
in the news every day . So for example ,
supply change shortages with whether
it's you go to the BX , whether you go
to the commissary and you find your
favorite products on the shelf or not .
The exact same thing has taken place in
the movement of household goods labour
shortages with truck drivers and that
sort of thing . The exact same thing is
taking ah place when we talk to
industry and we asked them for their
predictions on next year . They tell us
it's going to be a little bit better ,
but not much . So if you can help me
get the word out to all the different
other families out there that may not
be here today , please help spread that
word that next year we're going to have
similar struggles with , with labour in
the supply chain that we have now . So
the things that we can do to prepare
for , the things that we can do to , to
work in advance to work with your local
leaders to kind of shape the timing of
those moves the better . Um
and I just kind of , I'm running out of
time here so close with that so once
again appreciate everything that your
families do for us . I know moving
process is not easy and we're working
to make it better . Thank you .
Okay , I'm going to call uncle on the
mask thing for a minute . Um and now
it's time for our question to answer .
So um there are cards on the seat .
We've already received a few um there
are microphones in the room , so if you
raise your hand , one of the teammates ,
we'll bring you the microphone . Um and
we also are streaming . So our first
question is actually from facebook ,
from Kimberly joe . Uh thank you for
all the great information . My question
in an effort to improve access to
specialty care , are there any plans to
allow referrals to remain active during
pcs ? Many time referrals have not been
used and the service member , family
member has to go into their new PCM
after PCS for a new referral . If there
was a way for the referral that
referral could follow the member . This
may be beneficial to ensure they can
set up that special take care referral
in a more timely manner . So that's a
really great question when you pcs you
shouldn't have to start all over or
learn a new system . So we started with
our exceptional family member program .
Family members um last summer and said
let's make sure that we arrange their
referrals when they for example leave
maybe California and then go to florida .
We don't want to leave it to them to
navigate and coordinate their own care .
We're now developing standard processes
to make sure that we do that for all
patients if they have an outstanding
referral . Now for starters we want you
to have medically necessary referrals
so we don't really want them hanging
out there for 365 days . We want to
facilitate those care processes . We do
have to tricare contractors so but we
want to do the coordination behind the
scenes on our patient's behalf . As
general place has asked us to do we
want to reduce the administrative
burdens on our patients so they can
focus on getting well . So that was a
great question and thank you for asking
it . Okay do we have any questions in
the room ?
Okay
uh can you hear me bob pastorally
retired army guy . But through the
question to the colonel ? Reference the
moves and having made many moves myself
and now being on this side as a defense
contractor . I've seen a lot of the
contracts that previously came out and
there are low price technically
acceptable , the ones that I saw . So
will this new contract that you're
going to go to assume it's going to go
out full and open ? So you have the
large carriers and the possibility of
small carriers going after it . I hope
it will be best value because if you go
low price technically acceptable ,
you're going to get what you deserve .
So I hope that's one thing . And then
what I saw in the last few years of
moving around is there's never enough
inspectors to go out whether it's on
the way out or the way in and there's
so many issues . I , I know when I was
here in the Virginia area , you could
never get through to the people at
belvoir to get anyone to come out . So
that's a major issue that I know a lot
of service members are still here today
that they can't get through to somebody
when they have an issue . Thank you .
Okay . I'm not really certain there was
a question there as much as a statement ,
but I'll be honest , I probably
couldn't have said it better myself on
the sense of the contract . Um , it's
still working through the acquisition
process . I don't want to say too much
but but it is best value . It is , it
is not the lowest bid . Okay , thank
you . Um I have a card here from mrs
Garrett . There's two questions . First
one is for Helen , the in home
childcare provider feet um , fee
assistant , why a pilot for five years ?
Sounds like a success already . Uh um
The reason for the five year pilot is
to allow us to try different
methodologies for access and to test
the first year to see that the process
is in place . Um , do result in a
placement for a family . So um , the
five year pilot was actually mandated
by Congress . Um , and like I said ,
we'll be trying different approaches
through the five year process , but
already we see an interest in it and
certainly I would just recommend for
any family who's on a waiting list and
has been there for a long time in these
five regions . two , please check it
out on the website that I provided .
Thank you Helen . Uh the follow on
question . Um also from Miss Garrett um
on virtual health can service members
and families continue with current
behavioral health counselor when pcs
across state lines . Um as the
connection has already been made ,
I suspect that is for me we are working
to make sure that we can continue that
continuity . We did have that right to
be able to or the entitlement to do
that during covid and we're working to
make those changes permanent . Um
continuity is important in primary care
if you're young like I'm not or you're
healthy like I am , you need , you need
that continuous relationship and you
need that in behavioral health as well
in order to have a good therapeutic
relationship . So we're looking at our
entire behavioral health program , both
the direct care system and the purchase
care system to try to find the best fit
for our patients to include having that
following relationship when you do pcs
so that we can make sure you get what
we call the thing we're most interested
in of all . It's not saving money . It
is getting the best outcome for you .
So that's the value on the investment .
So we are working on that . So thank
you . Thank you . Okay , I'm gonna take
this card . This is from Colonel ,
retired kelly knitter Fort Gordon a usa
chapter president . This is for general
jones and Helen as the army builds the
spouse employment program . It is
difficult to accept a job when there is
insufficient childcare on post and in
the local community . Fort Gordon ? In
Augusta needs more CDC's wait lists are
long , excessively long to get in
extended hours need to be implemented
beyond 626
when I go first and I'll hand it off to
you . Is that okay . Sounds perfect .
Okay . Um first thank you and I and I
agree and I think Dan in a very apt
introduction of , you know , kind of
what brought him to the panel today .
And I will , I will build on that , you
know , having been a service member for
just shy of 30 years now , my spouse's
both stayed home and took care of kids
and you now work to school counselor
and working through , how does she do
that ? Well , when I . P . C . S and
how to maintain her currency and
everything else and we have three kids
with all the associated moves , two of
the three that are currently serving
now . So I am very um acutely aware of
the spouse employment challenge as well
as the Associated Childcare challenges .
If you heard Secretary Wermuth comments
this morning at the opening ceremony um
she highlights specifically what we've
done with child development centers
just in the last year were renovated or
built six additional CDCs out in the
army um and over the next 10 years ,
which is a long time . Um but in the
next 10 years We're going to see um an
additional 114 c . ds across the
army that are either renovated or built
to help to get after that demand to a
certain extent . But in the short term
it's really the program that Helen
talked about . It's the FCC providers
and it's the other programs initiatives
that are out there to meet that demand
for clearly what is really the gold
standard for childcare , which is in
our CDCs on our garrisons . With that
being said hell let me turn it over to
you please . Thank you sir , Address
the 6-6 operating hours . You know we
do not prescribe guidelines specific
guidelines and policy to say that
centers must operate 626 the guidelines
provided say that the operating our
should meet the mission requirements .
So to that to that person I would say
you know we look at Fort Gordon and
address your installation commander ,
your garrison commander and talk about
maybe extending some of those hours .
Um There are certainly processes to go
through to do that but it's not outside
the realm of possible . Um But of
course family childcare is an option
for extended hours , fee assistance is
also an option for extended hours . So
I think there's just a matter of you
know communicating the programs that
are in place out there to to support
families who have that extended hours
need . Thank you Helen . Do you have a
question in the room ?
I'm going to take advantage of another
question but that was my last question
over there that I just you just
answered so I appreciate it . Um I'm
Colonel retired kelly not or I'm at
Fort Gordon ? Um And I just wanted to
highlight one other thing of the
comments that you just mentioned . I
appreciate it . I had an opportunity to
meet with 25 military spouses before
coming here to ask what's your biggest
concern and their biggest concern was
child or semi civilian employment of
course but it can be added with C . D .
C . We have two year wait list for
individuals and so being a dual
military person I completely understand
the prioritization for dual military
singles and all that . But as we're
promoting new programs and these
civilian employment or spouse
employment programs are super and
wonderful . We always think about the
secondary and third level effects . You
know when we build installations or
remove people soldiers from one
installation to another we always look
at is there enough um dining facilities ,
gymnasiums and barracks . And we asked
those questions always their I . T .
And we build to that capacity so now
that we're coming up with a new program
of the spouse employments . Are we
looking that deep thought on what also
needs to happen are you know a two year
wait list affects a spouse who wants to
go get a job and Fort Gordon Augusta we
just don't have enough . Not just on
Gordon ? And I'm sure a lot of other
civilian locations it's the you know
the local community just can't keep up
with the demand . So I appreciate the
new programs but it is a big concern
and it could affect and it will affect
and it is affecting the spouse
employment program that the army is
trying to push . Okay so thank you for
answering that question . A couple
other questions and I know I have a
card because I kept writing questions
on cards . But two things um Nwr does
financial coaching required to do that
financial coaching . I think it's
imperative that's out there for our
military families . My question is ,
are we hiring financial coaches that
are certified and that are at the top
of their game ? I don't think so . I've
experienced four of them in four
different locations and they're not up
to par . And so I would ask that the
army at least go back and look at
certified fiduciary type um
instructors . So the military families
are literally getting the best of the
best advice you don't want kelly that
are coming up to you and I just want to
be an educator and tell you about go
invest . I want someone who's really
certified , who can provide that
information and I don't think we're
currently doing that in the N . W . R .
Programs now and our sponsorship for
local businesses . So expensive . Nwr
sponsorship . We want the local
communities to come in on Fort Gordon
and other installations . But Mdf Nwr
sponsorships cost different , have
different cost values for each
installation Um and it's affecting how
local businesses get on post and
promote and support . And so I would
just ask that someone kind of take a
look at that as well . $500 to get a
booth for a two hour event . No
one can do that , especially the small
businesses , we just can't do it and we
don't have all the john Deere's and the
big club cards and Walmarts that are
providing boosts its the local
businesses that need help and they are
the ones that support the military . So
I just asked if we can look at that as
well . Thank you . Okay ? Yes sir ,
kelly . Just real quick paul , raise
your hand please , if you would . So
kelly , this is paul , paul , that's
kelly . Um , kelly . I would ask that
after what you want to come up . Paul
is the director of MW are for the
entire United States Army , uh , down
in san Antonio . I'm calm headquarters .
The short answer to your first question
is yes , our financial advisors are
certified , but I think it's worth
having that conversation . So I think
that's , that's some great feedback
there . And then also to talk a little
bit about the sponsorship cross clear .
That is going to be different by
installation 97 installations across
the army . Um , but I think that is
worth giving that feedback . So if you
can meet paul afterwards , let's take
that and so we can take a look at it at
the income level . Okay , thank you .
I'm going to make a comment to as the
software guy or is the technologists on
stage here . I surveyed some of my
friends before I came down here today
and they're all company commanders
right now . So one's at fort Bragg and
the others out in out in Tacoma and I
surveyed their wives actually Naomi and
Stephanie and I wanted to kind of hear
what their input was on that and I know
it's a small sample size and kind of
anecdotal , but the , the issue of
spouse employment in daycare as a point
in time problem is too late to solve
the problem . So when I talked to you
earlier about , we have all these
different systems that talk to one
another , Don't talk to one another .
We should be able to forecast
accurately and create some demand
management significantly before we know
that there's gonna be a baby that's
been born or that they're going to take
a that's needed . Not only are we
creating installations that have the
capacity to deal with it , but there's
technology that exists that allows for
us to say , All right , well whatever
the hospital is at Fort Bragg ,
whatever hospital is for Kim or
whatever the hospital is here , this is
how many babies we're gonna be having
in the next 3-5 to 10 years and then
create appropriate accommodations for
him . Because in each of those people
are struggling with staying in the
military and this whole panel I think
is about staying in the military and
trying to be able to serve and they're
all at a juncture now where they're
deciding that they want to leave the
army because they can continue to serve
and their wives are at the time where
they say I want to have a career and
not have a career . So I think your
issues a much bigger issue . It's
exactly the issue that all my friends
would have actually been very angry
with me if I didn't bring up so I
appreciate the opportunity to do so .
But that's that's exactly the precise
issue that I think modern technology
can support . Good mm awesome . Thank
you . The next question is for general
place and regina Julian tricare
requires P . C . M . S . Primary care
providers to submit every referral for
retirees to tricare . However cancer
requires a team of doctors and
specialties . Generally not those of
one's PCM in the case of cancer can we
look at a different process ? The PCM
isn't necessarily is informed when
um the surgeon wants you to see a
vascular surgeon , a radiologist ,
oncologist et cetera . Uh this becomes
complex when the oncologist says get a
second opinion . It's a night move .
I'm sorry I'm having problems with the
spelling here um for the patient and
approves at tricare don't approvers
that tricare don't usually know um why
another doctor is needed . You
want me to take this sir ? Right so
again this is an example of reducing
the administrative burdens on our
patients and I can think of few
situations where we want to do that
more is when someone has cancer . So in
tricare the reason we have the primary
care manager . The PCM put these
referrals in is they are responsible
for coordinating and integrating your
care . I've heard , conversely other ,
uh stories of people out in the private
sector , not in tri care where they go
from one provider to another and none
of the providers are speaking to each
other and there's no electronic health
record needing it all together . And we
need that entire story to know what
we're gonna , how we're going to treat
you now versus and treat meaning your
care plan versus your follow on care
plan . So what I will take back is it
is my understanding that if you were
sent to an oncologist , um or maybe a
general surgeon to get something
evaluated to have a biopsy to find out
it was cancer . The the referrals can
be arranged by that next provider , but
we do want the PCM to be aware . So
if that's not happening , we can
definitely look at those processes we
work with are great right now , it's
Humana and Health Net and International
S . O . S . Overseas . I meet with them
monthly to look at what kind of
challenges are out there and how can we
make it better between all three of us ?
Um are all three parties . So I'll take
that back . The the the other comment I
think I heard is , you know , goes into
Humana or Health Net and they decide
whether it's clinically appropriate .
That's not really what we want to have
happen and that's not what should be
happening instead , we want to make
sure it's a covered benefit because if
it's not we don't want our patients to
have to bear a undue burdens . We need
to make sure it's actually something
that we're going to pay for . So they
don't get a bill at the end . Um but no
one is going to question the clinical
appropriateness of a referral
documented properly and in accordance
with the care plan . So I want people
to realize this isn't a gatekeeping
meth methodology that we use . It's a
methodology to make sure you get the
right care and the right setting at the
right time . And there is one single
person , your PCM who knows what's
going on with you . My parents are
tricare for life there in a P . C . M .
H . Out in Arizona and you know my as
they get older they've had a couple
healthcare issues and they've had to
see multiple specialists but their P .
C . M . C . S at all knows it all and
it is following all their care . But um
I will take it back to make sure that
this is not um confusing to our
patients and if there's there's gaps
that we can fix to make it easier on
you to include um educating our
patients and our staff . Um and our
civilian providers will definitely do
that because we we do not want to cause
you burden and worrying about paperwork
when you're trying to recover from
disease . Thank you . thank you so much
If I could add just a couple of things
you did a great job and probably do
better than I would have had . I
answered all by myself but to other
things first is each of the U . S .
Space tricare health plan managers ,
Humana and health net have a
responsibility to provide nurse case
managers . So in almost every case
whether it's cancer or really anything
else that's complex . They have a
requirement to at least offer the
appropriateness of nurse case managers
to do some of that integrating . Now
the next generation track your contract
which is on the street now for source
selection has significant increases in
that particular capacity . We'll talk
about source selection and how we're
going to do it . But that that will be
included . Next generation track your
contract overseas . It's often a little
bit of a bigger challenge in that not
everybody is english speaking for who
we see when when when we're out there .
So this current addition of the tractor
overseas contract , same contractor ,
international S . O . S . But an
additional construct is called a
navigator . So that's a bilingual or
trilingual speaking someone who
understands health care but understands
the case management role and knows at
least two if not three or four
different languages to help be that
person to help whoever it is that
seeking care on the network or in the
economy to make sure that they
understand not just what they think
should be happening , but with the
health care team is telling our team
throughout international S . O . S . So
care , navigation nurse , case
management . Those are the touch points
for the complex care . Otherwise what
Gina said , I couldn't agree more .
Thanks . Jim . Thank you sir . Our next
question . Uh Colonel so frantic . I
personally like many others have
experienced thousands of dollars in
damages to include my entire radio
removed from my vehicle during a return
from overseas . I have made a point to
provide feedback and request to not
have specific movers . Again , can you
give examples of how companies are
penalized if at all when they receive X .
Amount of complaints ? Sure . So
there's a there's a lot of different
mechanisms . One is uh it's kind of
like uh staggered if you will . The
lowest one is just simply suspend them
for 30 days which obviously hurts their
bottom line . You can also then put
them in a status of non use if things
get bad enough and then basically you
just don't use them . The other thing
is what we're working into their rules
is various types of requirements that
they have to meet . And if they don't
meet those requirements , something as
simple as just getting it delivered on
time , then they pay inconvenience fees
directly to the members in the last
2021 season alone , About $3.7
million dollars have been paid back to
service members for inconvenience fees .
I think the number for the army alone
is about 1.4 million that's been paid
back to service members . So there are
varying levels of of punitive actions
that can be taken just depending on
what the situation is . Okay thank you .
Our next question is from heather
Llewellyn from facebook . What non
medical mental health resources are
available for other than english
speaking family members .
You want to take that first ? Ah Do you
have that ? I'm sorry . Do you have
that with military one source ? We have .
Mhm . Yes within our network um within
military one source and then um to some
degree within the military and family
life counseling program we're going to
be looking to identify a non medical
counseling resource that fits the needs
of the participants . So if that's
other than english speaking
participants and that's what we'll be
seeking out . Um And then just to
stress nonmedical because I think non
medical is a super popular phrase or
super used phrase outside of the
military community . Nonmedical is
everything under that threshold of a
mental health diagnosis . So more non
clinical issues relationships support
grief loss , anger management ,
communication issues , things like that .
So for the medical counseling we we
have translation services in our
military medical treatment facilities
starting with our emergency rooms . Um
sometimes that's a live service .
Sometimes it's a auto translator . Um
uh We are required to provide
information to patients in the language
that they speak . So what we were
required , what we do with our PCM HR
patient centered medical home program
is we query and find out what languages
are predominant in our patient
population and try to make sure that we
have the capacity and capability to
provide them translation services . And
that's not just for behavioral health
but behavioral health is talk therapy .
So it's even more important . Um if we
have that uh language in our military
medical treatment facilities will
provide it . But right now we're also
looking at a number of tricare um
covered virtual health behavioral
health services um that have multiple
languages . And we think that's going
to fill a gap because sometimes we have
people and not everyone speaks english
and we want to help them all . So that
is something that we're expanding . One
of them is called tele mind is the one
that springs to mind right now and they
told me they were going to have up to
14 different languages in which they'd
be able to provide care . Also on our
tricare directories for behavioral
health , it does say what languages are
spoken . So patients who are not active
duty can seek medical counseling in the
network without a referral . We want
them to have that right to privacy and
de stigmatize it . And so hopefully
they can find the language they need
and if not we want to bring those
virtual health capabilities with the
greater breadth and depth of language
capabilities We can't promise we're
going to have 100% of every language
spoken on the globe but it seemed like
it covered the majority of those .
Thank you very much . Do we have any
hands in the room ? No
thank you . Um Kristy Anderson , I'm
actually a member of the army survivor
advisory working group as well as the
spouse advisor for army emergency
relief And first of all um thank you
all for um really taking into account
the survivor community and everything
that you do . Thank you general Evans
and general place and all of you
especially you um I think that just
being able to have an inside um kind of
view on the incredible work that the
um survivor advisory working group has
been able to do in the community is a
gift for me and I don't think people
realize the actions that are senior
leaders take every single day to make
sure um that they're caring for not
only our active duty um reserve
components and our retirees and
veterans but also the surviving
community as well . Um one of the
things that I wanted to mention and for
the financial counselors , I know that
the D . O . D . Has that the program
military one source or I'm sorry that's
your program um has the the mill
spouse money mission which is
incredible . I'm not sure if the um I
think it's kelly in the back knew about
that but they are also has the
financial counselors in a . CS and so
that's been really um really great .
And then one more thing in
terms of the um for a full didi
and I think you call it something
different now um personally Procured
move . Okay . Okay . It depends on how
old you are . Am I showing my
age ? No , but I just
did um one of the things that
we've seen actually um from the A . R .
Standpoint is being able to provide
assistance unfortunately for families
that didn't actually ensure the
contents of their truck . Um And then
something happened along the way . We
had a family that was traveling from
one duty station to the next cancelled
their rental insurance . Um and and the
vehicle was stolen , everything in the
contents were stolen and they didn't
have um insurance on the they had
insurance on the truck but not on the
contents of the truck . So I'm
wondering if that's something kind of
on the checklist that you all um try to
encourage or at least as a reminder um
to make sure that the contents of the
vehicles when they're doing this
because I understand the um obviously
the issues and and there's probably a
lot more families that are moving
themselves these days um due to the
lack of maybe labor that is available .
Thank you for that christa . I know um
since we touched on that financial
literacy topic . Again , I know Robin
Marasek is here and um yeah , there she
is . Right there . Just go ahead .
Robin . I know , I know you might have
something to say on the topic . Great ,
thank you . So yes , I'm one of the
financial education program managers
for the army and we are really
transforming what we are doing for all
things financial education according to
the National Defense authorization act
from Fy 16 that mandated financial
education at all various points and a
soldier's life cycle . This is common
military training , it is required . So
with that you had mentioned them about
the financial coaching . We call them
financial counselors . So those are the
personal financial managers that are
are government employees and our
personal financial counselors who are
the D . O . D . Contractors . Every
single one of them have a nationally
recognized certification myself
and my counterpart on over there , who
is the other program manager are both
accredited financial counselors . A FCS .
We have to hold fiduciary standards .
So I would love to talk with you
afterwards . So that way we can go and
discuss this , but I will assure you
that we are absolutely transforming
what we are doing . Please please go
and look at our website . Financial
frontline dot org . It is the army's
official financial education website .
Thank you . Thank you , Robin . I see .
I thought she might have something to
say . I was pretty sure . Okay . Um ,
so we , I have a card here . Two
questions . One is for lee , one is for
vergina . Uh First question is will
military one source at resources and
information for L . G . B . T . Q .
Plus military families . The second
question um for regina is where does
tricare stand on services for L . G . P .
T . To youth ? Uh huh . Thank
you . That's a that's a wonderful
question . Yes I will . We're
actually um my boss , mrs Patty Baron
will be here tomorrow to do a keynote .
She's our Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Military Community and
Family policy and she um She tasked me
with reimagining military one source .
And so um so after this session I will
go and and look to see where we can do
better um in raising awareness um uh
for our L . G . B . T . Q . Community
and families about resources to ensure
that um that kind of again we're
meeting people where they are that we
are getting information into the hands
of our community members in the easiest
way possible . And um importantly and
again this is one of mrs Barons
priorities is amplifying the voice of
the military community member but also
ensuring that our community members see
themselves within our programming . And
so I think that's a wonderful question
and I really appreciate it and I'm
happy to take it back . Thank you lee .
So that is a really great question
because you hear about that all the
time and our primary care providers in
our patient centered medical home
programs in our military medical
treatment facilities are facing this .
So remember I mentioned the word
outcome , outcomes come from engagement
between the relationship with the
patient and the provider and that only
happens when there is mutual respect .
And it was brought to my attention
about three or four months ago that a
lot of the questions we ask in the
forms that we have are not inclusive
enough . It is very binary male to
female . So we've asked our patient
experience group which falls under me
and Major Reynolds sitting over there
who's joined me here today and our
patient engagement team which is the
clinical side of the house to look at
all the ways we do business and and all
the questions we ask our patients
because you don't , if you don't feel
known and you don't feel respected ,
you're not going to want to comply with
your care plan . Now we'll talk about
the L . G . B . I'm sorry , I'm going
to get this wrong that youth , okay ,
That's the same as the same situation .
They may be under 18 but they deserve
respect . So our patient centered
medical home community will be able to
provide them the counseling and the
care that they need based on the
standard of care and depending on what
kind of referrals are needed depending
on their age , they'll make sure they
get that care . So we totally recognize
and support our patients on whatever
journey they are on . And so we're
catching up with the times and we're
going to make sure that from the
forefront in the way you're addressed ,
we were going to address you in the way
you want to be treated and or referred
to um starting there and then make sure
you get the care that you need and want .
Thank you so much . Um I've got two
questions , I've got one in the room on
the card and I've got one um from the
out station , so um and we're getting
close to time here . So uh this
question is for Helen , it is from
Clare Strand for 12 theater Engineer
Command U . S . Army Reserve concerning
eligibility for childcare services for
single and dual duty Guard and reserve
on active duty . Does active include
Battle Assembly and training if not
what is available to them ? Well ,
unfortunately the answer to that
question is no , it does not include
bad the battle of simply training . We
are working on initiatives right now
to see how we can address those .
Battle unit Assembly weekends in two
weeks , um summer drills . Um it's a
it really the challenge is finding
folks who want to do that kind of care
on a weekend . And so um we're working
with both the Guard and the Reserve
right now to look at programs to
address that but um as far as full time
Active duty um eligible for on post
care , um Family childcare and also
both the Guard and Reserve have their
own um childcare fee assistance
programs that are um operated by the
installation management command . Thank
you Helen . Um And I think what will be
our final question is for colonel so
frantic , have we seen an increase in
personally procured moves or did he
moves if your result is me and Krista
over the past year ?
Yes , but it's a slight increase in the
hard part really is projecting it . So
we've got the total numbers for All of
last year and we've only got give or
take 3/4 of this year . But if we look
at where we were last year compared to
this year , it's a slight increase .
Now the difference between last year
and this year is with the coronavirus
hitting last year . A lot of those
moves were delayed , which then meant
there may have been more moves done in
the fall and what necessarily would be
lined up now . So it's a little apples
and oranges . But yes , there is a
small increase . Great , thank you so
much . Um I think we've reached our
time um at this time . I well , I first
want to thank everyone for their great
questions . I want to thank the panel
members and um such a great dialogue
today . Um I'd like to bring holly back
to the stage . Mhm .
Yeah .
Well , thank you sincerely de for
moderating today's forum . You are the
best . I want to
also thank all our panelists for their
expertise , their insights and their
valuable information that they have
shared here today . It is impressive to
see how the army is working and
changing to meet the needs of our
soldiers and families and also also
so so grateful for the collaborative
effort as you all see here today and
how it continues forward . So thank you
so much . So please give another round
of applause to our panelists . Thank
you . Mhm .
Thank you also again , Mrs Greenstone
and for um to Mrs McConville for your
message and for your continuous
dedication and love for all our
families . Thank you so much .
So this concludes day one of the USA
family forums . Thank you . Thank you
for everyone that's in person and
online for joining us today . And we
will see you tomorrow at 9:30 PM time
to discuss how the army is transforming
the family readiness system of support
and through its collaborative efforts
with Dodi operated and community based
organizations . Also , please be sure
to join us tomorrow afternoon for the
Army Senior Leader Town Hall , which
will begin at 1500 Eastern time . So
thank you everyone and have a great
afternoon