Every day, military personnel return from the front line with both physical wounds and less visible psychological ones.

Psychological wounds can have a devastating effect on family life and The Royal Navy & Royal Marines Children’s Fund is dedicated to supporting families and children.

As evidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Operational Stress Reaction (OSR) grows, the legacy of this continues to affect the families involved, with children especially, finding it difficult to understand, “why doesn’t daddy just get better?”

After receiving a grant from the LIBOR Fund, a Government pot of money collected from the fines levied on banks, the RN & RM Children’s Fund has created a book aimed at helping families understand and cope with the impact and stresses both pre, post and during deployment.

The title of the book Knit the Family reflects the spirit of the overall campaign, which is aimed at assisting families reintegrate by helping with ways of broaching the issues and providing valuable tips and advice for dealing with them. Knowing the right steps to take can often be difficult for families. Knit the Family looks at the different types of alternative therapies available for those suffering with the effects of PTSD and OSR and the treatments recommended are designed to help with controlling worry, stress and the constant fear that so often surrounds the sufferer, plus advice on how those same treatments can be beneficial to the entire family, many of whom suffer in silence.

Monique Bateman, director of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Children’s Fund, said: “Through conversations with family therapists and councillors, we identified there was a real lack of information and help readily available to families of returning military personnel.

“The effect PTSD has on a person not only affects their life but also their families and can cause families to fall apart as they try to battle through.

“At RN & RM Children’s Fund we find children, especially, suffer when a parent returns home from the front-line, the parent has changed and this is an issue that children struggle to come to terms with this.

“The self-help book is intended to not only to help families understand PTSD but also to aid families in finding a way to re-establish their bonds and giving partners the support needed to Knit the Family back together.”

The Knit the Family book will be sent to families connected to the RN & RM Children’s Fund to help them prepare for when their partners shortly return from deployment. Put together by various influential members of the RN & RM Children’s Fund and experts on alternative therapies.

For more information and videos on The Royal Navy Royal Marines Children’s Fund or to donate, please visit http://rnrmchildrensfund.org.uk/