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The University of California, Los Angeles, received a $7.2 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide family support services for U.S. military personnel being deployed overseas. The services include group level briefings for pre- and post-deployment military and family, individual consultations, skill-building sessions for families, and multi-session family interventions. The services also include consultation to military staff, schools, family, and community on parenting and combating stress, traumatic grief, and other deployment-related stresses.

The contract awarded by the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) is part of the FOCUS Project (Families OverComing Under Stress), which is a resiliency-building program designed for military families and children facing the challenges of combat operational stress during wartime. DID has more on the FOCUS program…

FOCUS was originally developed at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS). In 2007, BUMED built a partnership with the Semel Institute to utilize the FOCUS program for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps families in order to address the impact of multiple deployments, combat stress, and high operational tempo on children and families. BUMED anticipates program funding through 2015.

UCLA will perform the work at the following military locations: Headquarters Marine Corps and the Wounded Warrior (WW) Regiment in Quantico, VA; Marine Corps bases in Hawaii, Okinawa, Twenty-Nine Palms, CA, Camp Pendleton, CA, and Camp Lejeune, NC, as well as the WW Battalion’s in Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune; Naval Stations Norfolk, VA and San Diego, CA; the Naval Special Warfare sites in Coronado, CA and Little Creek/Dam Neck, VA; Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, WA; and the Naval Construction Battalion Commands in Gulfport, MS, and Port Hueneme, CA. UCLA expects to complete the work under this contract in June 2010. This contract was a sole-source requirement in accordance with U.S. federal law. The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk Contracting Department in Philadelphia manages the contract (N00189-09-C-Z057).