A unique school counseling program with the dual role of helping children from military families experiencing stress at home and civilian children with their own life challenges has been added as a pilot program at Wahiawa Elementary School.

Tripler Army Medical Center, the state Department of Education and the Queen’s Medical Center Wednesday dedicated Ike Pilialoha (bonds of knowledge, friendship and love), a program run from a mobile unit on the school’s grounds.

With the United States now in its second decade of war, stress on children of regularly deployed parents — and the youngsters’ propensity to act up or withdraw in school as a result — has become well known.

But experts say the economic slump, job loss and financial problems at home are causing a spike in similar problems for nonmilitary children at school.

"The economy is a major stressor on families. Children are like little sponges — picking up all the anxieties and frustrations in the family," said Loraine Fleming, director of behavioral health at Queen’s.

Vicki Olson, a key organizer of the Wahiawa Elementary program whose husband, retired Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, is a past commander of the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, said a behavioral health program has been in effect at schools on Schofield and the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay for about 10 years.

With elementary schools getting full on Schofield and the need to send 150 Army children to Wahiawa Elementary, the education department wanted the Army to expand its behavioral health counseling to the school, Olson said.

"The Tripler doctors felt that they wanted to treat all of the students at the school," but they are limited to treating military children only, Olson said.

Leadership at Queen’s, Tripler and the department worked to develop the program at Wahiawa Elementary so that military children with problems are seen by Tripler counselors and nonmilitary children are seen by Queen’s counterparts.

Olson said Leilehua High School and Helemano Elementary School — which also have a mix of military and civilian children — would like the program as well.

"This is a pilot nationally for a cooperative partnership of military-civilian, medical and education. It’s the only one of its kind," Olson said.

Olson said the Wahiawa program, which has been up and running since November, already has been a success, treating 17 civilian children and 10 military children.

The program is integrated with the school, so children receive counseling for maybe an hour, then are back in class, she said.

"The feedback from the families who have participated is 100 percent that this program has been a significant aid in their relationship with their children and how the children do in school," Olson said.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who helped untie a maile lei Wednesday, said the program is in the best interest of the community.

"I commend Tripler, I commend Queen’s, and I commend the Department of Education for holding hands (and) making a partnership that will work," Inouye said.

The Wahiawa Elementary School program is the result of more than two years of effort and $750,000 in donations. How other programs would be funded is not entirely clear. Fleming, from Queen’s, said one possibility is to have a mobile team go to different schools.

"If you know somebody who’d like to donate to this program, we would accept donations, yes," Olson said.