We await the results of the 20-year, 10,000-family-strong study of impacts on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ kin, the largest of its kind ever conducted, that just got under way. 

This is a quantitative claim. The author includes specific numerical values about the thousands of families that are being conducted in the study.

Meanwhile, René Robichaux, social-work programs manager for US Army Medical Command, concedes that “in a family system, every member of that system is going to be impacted, most often in a negative way, by mental-health issues.” 

This is an evaluative claim because it includes an opinionated statement made by Robichaux. Someone could argue against the claim that it is “most-often in a negative way”. 

That was the impetus for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program, which since 2005 has added 70 therapists to military installations around the country.Mostly what the program provides is couples’ counseling. Children are “usually not” treated, but when necessary referred to child psychiatrists—of which the Army has 31.

This is a factual claim. It is not an arguable statement that can not be disputed. It could also be a quantitative or numerical claim because there have been seventy therapists added since 2005. That is a factual, numerical statement.

Meanwhile, the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office has trained hundreds of counselors in schools with Army children in and around bases to try to identify and treat coping and behavioral problems early on. “We’re better than we were,” Robichaux says. “But we still have a ways to go.”

This is a factual claim when it states that the Health Office has trained hundreds of counselors about the specifics of coping with behaviors. That can not be argued, so it has to be factual.

Of course, the Army only helps families of active-duty personnel. It’s the Department of Veterans Affairs that’s charged with treating the problems that can persist long past discharge. But “if you asked the VA to treat your kids, they would think it was nonsense,” says Hofstra’s Motta.

Both a factual and an evaluative claim are made here. It is indisputable that the army only helps specific people. However, the evaluative claim occurs when they said that if the VA was asked to treat the kids, it would be nonsense. It would be arguable that the VA could potentially treat the kids differently. 

When I asked the VA if the organization would treat kids for secondary trauma, its spokespeople stressed that it has made great strides in family services in recent years, rolling out its own program for couples’ counseling and parenting training. 

This is a categorical claim because it lists the different types of counseling services that it has. It also talks about the types of trauma that they offer to treat people. 

“Our goal is to make the parents the strongest parents they can be,” says Susan McCutcheon, national director for Family Services, Women’s Mental Health, and Military Sexual Trauma at the VA; according to Shirley Glynn, a VA clinical research psychologist who was also on the call, “for the vast majority of people with the secondary traumatization model, the most important way to help the family deal with things is to ensure that the veteran gets effective treatment.” 

This is an evaluative statement because it gives the common characteristics of the types of people that come in, while also making observations on the vast majority of those people. 

In cases where children themselves need treatment, these VA officials recommended that parents find psychologists themselves, though they note “this is a good time [for the VA] to make partners with the community so we can make good referrals.” Or basically: “You’re on your own,” says Brannan.

This is a recommendation. They specifically say that this is what they would recommend to parents who have children experiencing these things. They are offering a suggestion to the specific audience of what they “should do”.