The military mental health care system is feeling the strain placed upon it by growing needs of children whose parents are deployed, says the chief psychiatrists at Madigan Army Medical Center on Fort Lewis, Wash. When combat operations began in 2003, the Army health care system reported 800,000 visits by children age 15 and under, says Col. Kris Peterson. That figure has risen steadily each year, hitting 1.6 million visits in 2008. “What we’re dealing with now is the cumulative impacts of parents, moms and dads, gone for not months but years,” Peterson said in an Oct. 7 speech before the Family Forum of the Association of the U.S. Army. Issues children are facing include depression, problems in school, and difficulty in socialization. Peterson and his colleagues have established a Military Child and Adolescent Center of Excellence at Madigan, in an effort to address the upswing in demand and mitigate behavioral and mental problems for children on the post who need help.