Back in Civvy Street: An Exploration of Military Veterans’ Experiences of Mental Health Services and the Support Needs of Their Families

In recent years, the health and wellbeing of military veterans has generated soaring interest politically and in the media, highlighting the need to develop services to support the transition and resettlement to civilian life of ex-service personnel. Research in the UK indicates that after leaving military service the majority of ex-service personnel have favourable outcomes; however there is a significant minority who will experience difficulties in this transition.
Military veterans will confront various obstacles in their return to civilian life: many will experience a lost sense of purpose, thus finding it harder to resume social activities and re-organizing family life will challenge both the veterans and their families. Many of these difficulties in transitioning to civilian life can be associated with a common mental health problem (anxiety, depression, and alcohol misuse), family violence, child abuse and neglect, and offending behaviour.
This presentation will explore some of these gaps in our knowledge about the mental health needs of military veterans and it will report on the preliminary findings of a study exploring veterans’ engagement with and experience of mental health services. The discussions will address the distinctive gap in UK research about the impact of transitioning back to civilian life on veterans’ families and the best practices for delivering services to military veterans’ and their families.