TAP Online Courses

March 29, 2024

Did you know that you can access the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) courses online?

This wasn’t an option even just a few years ago when my family left active-duty service, but it’s a fantastic resource to start your transition preparation early.

Let’s talk about what you’ll find in these TAP online modules.

TAP Online Courses

You’ll find four sections in the TAP online courses. First, “Core Requirements.” Second, “Family Members.” Third, “Transition Tracks.” And finally, “Military Life Cycle.”

There isn’t a lot of information about what each track entails, but the great part is that it doesn’t matter if you’re a family member or a servicemember you can get access to any of the courses and work through them at your own pace.

Family Member Track

Because this is aimed at military spouses, I thought we could explore what is in the Family Member track just a little more in-depth. At the time of writing this post, there are currently six modules that the Department of Defense thinks a family member would be interested in.

Mental Health for Families
Survivor and Casualty Assistance Resources
Transitioning to Federal Employment
VA Education for Spouses and Dependent Children
VA Home Loan Guaranty Program
Vet Centers

I took the Mental Health for Families Members course just for the experience and to share with you my personal take for this module. Here is what you can expect.

Getting Started

To start you enter your user type. The options are Service Member, Veteran, Family Member, Caregiver, and Other. For all options except Service Member, you must provide your name, and email address after that. Service Members have much more data to input. I am guessing that it’s so the program can record that they have completed the module as part of the TAP requirements.

The module takes you through a quick “how-to” on using the online course structure.

The content is very basic information about what mental health is and why it is important from the viewpoint of the Veterans Administration. They have short personal stories embedded in the video as part of the learning process to emulate the fears and challenges that military families might be having.

The video focuses mostly on support for transitioning military families who are separating and will be unable to use the TriCare system.

They offer three methods of finding support. The first is online locator tools such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) tool to find mental health services in your area. The second is key websites such as HealthCare.gov. And the third is National Helplines for organizations such as SAMHSA or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They demonstrate in the module how you can use each of these methods to find mental health care.

Near the end of the module, they address serious mental illness and remind you to make sure you are accessing the appropriate care using the methods mentioned above and that you need to be in charge of making sure you are getting what you need.

There is a review and summary area as well as a download of the resources you can use from the video.

The resource download was probably the most helpful. As well as the SAMHSA locator tool. Keep in mind none of these resources specifically address using TriCare or finding a TriCare provider for transitioning military families that will retain healthcare after leaving active duty.

You don’t have to watch each module all the way through and you can click from section to section using the navigation menu.

Overall, I do think this is a great way to start the conversations you should be having with your servicemember about what comes next. You may find valuable resources in what they are offering because each military family’s transition experience is so different. I encourage you to take the time to go through the modules that apply to your family.