Young people have problems enough without the fear that members of their family may be killed in combat. And although some Forces personnel are on their way home from the war in the Gulf, many are still out in Iraq and could be there for some time yet.
Youth workers for the British Forces Youth Service (BFYS) have been dealing with the anxieties and, in some cases, severe behaviour changes among young people who have family members serving in Iraq. In one case a normally stable teenage boy, whose father was in the Gulf, suddenly became extremely aggressive and began smashing windows on the army base where he lived.
Other cases have involved young people being bullied at school.
Helen Smyth, an Army Welfare Service youth worker in Aldershot, says: "Their classmates have told them their dad's a murderer or a baby killer, which is obviously very traumatic."
The BFYS, or Army Welfare Service as it is known in many parts of the UK, deals with young people whose families are often on the move, within the UK and in overseas destinations such as Cyprus.
While being part of such mobile families means young people become more adaptable and make friends quickly, it can also lead to isolation and difficulties in forming long-term friendships - problems that may suddenly come to the surface when parents, brothers or sisters are in the front line.
The service is based wherever there are concentrations of service families, which could mean Northern Ireland, Germany or within Britain.
Adrian Bolton, a senior community development worker in Dorset, says: "Mainstream youth services often see us as isolated and a bit inward-looking and how good the relationship with the local authority is depends on where you are."
The Forces youth service gets money from the Ministry of Defence for staffing and infrastructure, but often misses out on Department for Education and Skills or local authority cash for specific initiatives, says Frank Cousins, the service's chief youth and community officer. In some areas, there are links between Forces youth workers and the local authority, which may offer free training to youth workers. But developing provision is an uphill struggle, he adds.
As a result of the Iraq conflict, the MoD has set up a fund to support services families and the youth service is able to tap into that on a case-by-case basis.
Cousins says: "We are running a lot of Easter activity programmes, such as residentials and play schemes: more so than in the past."
Youth workers are being advised to find the time and space to talk to anxious children. "We've started working with schools to send packages of information to help them deal with their feelings of anxiety, and that will increase the longer their dads, and their mums in a few cases, are away," he adds.
Bolton says schools have contacted him about behaviour changes among some young people with family in Iraq: "Pupils who have been stable and well functioning have become withdrawn."
In response, Bolton and his team have been contacting visitor attractions in the area to get free tickets that can be used by service families.
"I'm also trying to get Dorset County Council to provide a befriending/counselling service, and a drop-in counselling service in Plymouth has told me it is happy to support young people with parents in Iraq," he says.
But one of the key things that Forces youth workers can do in a time of conflict is simply be available to give support and advice to young people.
"Some of these young people may be the wives of young soldiers, and a lot of them have been watching TV coverage almost 24 hours a day," says Bolton. "I try to organise activities that get them away from the TV and encourage them to continue life as normal."
Cousins agrees that media coverage of the war has been a challenge: "We try to discuss the coverage, which tends to be very speculative and repetitive, and talk about what may really be happening."
In Aldershot, Smyth says part of her role is reassuring young people following media stories: "For example, when there were stories about soldiers not getting enough food, we were able to give young people information showing that rations were getting through."
But there is no substitute for enabling young people to talk to their family members overseas directly, she says: "We have military email facilities at the youth club, so young people can stay in communication with their family members."
BRITISH FORCES YOUTH SERVICE
- The BFYS was set up more than 25 years ago, mainly for service families living in Northern Ireland or overseas. Since then it has been expanded to cover many military locations in the UK
- In the UK, these young people technically fall under the jurisdiction of local authorities, but some are more involved in providing services than others
- Often, there is shared funding, with the local authority providing the staffing and the MoD the building, or vice versa
- But the BFYS often fails to get DfES or local authority money for specific development or training initiatives, which has made it hard to develop the service.
