Manhattan ? Army officials and academics are coming together at a new Kansas center to work on solving problems faced by soldiers and families after years of war.

The Institute for the Health and Safety of Military Families will focus research and resources at Kansas State University on issues facing soldiers from the nearby 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley.

Army Lt. Gen. Robert Durbin spoke Friday at events marking the institute’s opening. Durbin called the institute a good fit with what he termed a “deep dive” inward by the Army at ways to support soldiers and families.

“Much has been done, but there’s much more to be done,” Durbin said.

Durbin is a former commander of the 1st Infantry Division. During Friday’s events, he and his wife discussed the challenges to military families of repeated, prolonged deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. There are close to 16,000 soldiers at Fort Riley, with several hundred returning over the weekend from a year in Iraq.

“We really have no idea how the multiple, prolonged deployments are affecting the lives of our soldiers and families,” Durbin said.

He said there were a record number of soldier suicides in 2008 and “unfortunately 2009 may set another record.”

Durbin said the toll of being deployed affects everyone in uniforms and their family members. He was in Afghanistan for 19 months before taking command of the 1st Infantry Division in 2007. But he said it was a good five months after he returned from Afghanistan before his wife recognized him as the man who left.

Diana Durbin said the Army has changed in the past 34 years she and her husband have been in the military, including more focus on health care and housing. She recalled feelings of being abandoned when her husband had back-to-back deployments for extended periods after they were first married.

“That was not what I signed up for,” she said.

Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks, current division commander, said 60 percent of the soldiers with family don’t live on Fort Riley. He said the university and surrounding communities can help soldiers and families by “making it personal” and getting to know those in uniform and their needs.

“The problem set is more complicated and the solution set needs to be more complex,” Brooks said. “There are a number of programs at Fort Riley that are already entry points for the institute to tap into.”

Brooks and Durbin also said it will take change within the Army’s organization and leadership to encourage a culture where soldiers and families seek help, breaking the historical stigma that discouraged such efforts.

“We must lead by example and it will take time,” Durbin said.

Col. George Dilly, the chief dietitian for the Army, said soldiers and families need to take steps on their own to get integrated into communities to develop lines of support.

“The military families in the communities shouldn’t wait for people to come to them,” said Dilly, a Kansas State graduate.