News

Consultation on the new ways to tackle Serious Stress in Veterans, Carers and Families Programme

Target audience: veterans, charities, third sector organisations

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust has launched a consultation to help shape a new £4 million programme designed to providing funding for innovative and new ways of working to reduce serious stress in veterans, their carers and families.

The consultation will explore how the programme should be delivered and the types of projects that should be funded. They are keen to hear from anyone with a view, but it is particularly relevant to veterans, charities with an interest in the Armed Forces Community, charities with an interest in mental health or health bodies.

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Combat Stress’ Deputy Treatment Centre Manager awarded prestigious Churchill Fellowship

The Deputy Treatment Centre Manager of Combat Stress’ centre in Scotland has received a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to visit the US and Canada to see how they’re supporting families of veterans with mental health problems.

Hayley Thompson, who works at the charity’s treatment centre Hollybush House in Ayr, will spend six weeks in the autumn studying what support is available to partners and carers of veterans in North America.

Among the organisations she’s hoping to meet is a US helpline that educates, supports and empowers family members and friends seeking support for a veteran.

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New FiMT Award: Swansea University awarded funds to better understand levels of gambling in ex-Service personnel

Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) has awarded Swansea University £279,503 to undertake the first ever UK survey to understand and explore the levels of gambling participation and attitudes to gambling in ex-Service personnel.

International evidence reveals a hidden gambling problem among ex-Service personnel but there is a lack of relevant data as to the nature and extent of gambling problems in UK Armed Forces Service-leavers.

This two-and-a-half-year study aims to identify how ex-Service personnel may be more vulnerable to developing issues with gambling than the wider population, and estimate any resultant healthcare costs by exploring the relationship between financial management and mental health problems.

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Poppyscotland open day to raise awareness of mental health issues

Poppyscotland is to host an open day at its Ayrshire Welfare Centre, with the aim of reducing the stigma surrounding mental health, and to promote the mental health support services which are available to the Armed Forces Community in the area.

The event, which is taking place on Thursday, 17th May 2018 from 11am-3pm, will bring people together in an informal setting to meet with specialist providers, and to help them understand what support is available and how to access it. All serving, or former serving personnel in the Ayrshire area, including Reservists and family members, are more than welcome to come along.

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Veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress to host business symposium

The power and potential of veterans in the workplace is the focus of this year’s free-to-attend Military Mind business symposium.

Sponsored by Thales and presented by Combat Stress, the UK’s leading charity for veterans’ mental health, the symposium will explore practical ways companies can ensure the workplace wellbeing of their veteran and reservist employees.

Held on 15 May in London and 17 May in Edinburgh, the event coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week and will centre on what support companies can implement, regardless of their size or sector.

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Help for Heroes highlights the needs of wounded Veterans to Defence Secretary

Veterans’ mental health and the needs of the Very Seriously Injured and Brain Injured were among the issues raised by Help for Heroes on the Secretary of State for Defence’s first visit to one of the charity’s Recovery Centres, Tedworth House, on Monday.

The meeting comes a week before Help for Heroes appears before the Defence Select Committee, alongside other charity partners, as part of its inquiry into the mental health of Veterans and Serving Personnel. In written evidence to the Committee, the Charity raised concerns about MOD data collection in relation to mental health, as well as concerns with the MOD model of care which only allows for 6 months of treatment through the Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMH) before responsibility for care is passed to the NHS.

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Conference: “The positive impact of respite breaks on Military Families”

Give Us Time is delighted to present our conference “The positive impact of respite breaks on Military Families” which will be held on the 16th of May at Canaccord Genuity HQ, London, EC2R 7AE.

The conference aims to highlight the positive impact that respite breaks have on military families. Professor McCabe, Nottingham University will set the scene for a case study based on the clinical feedback from our group break to Malta.

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NHS England to transform mental health care for military veterans across the country

Hundreds of military veterans are set to benefit from a nationwide scheme to tackle the most complex mental health needs of ex-armed forces personnel, launched today (Sunday) by NHS England.

The Veterans’ Mental Health Complex Treatment Service has been designed after veterans and their families from across England were invited to tell the NHS how services would work best for them.

Backed by £3.2m of funding a year, the new service aims to help 450 veterans every year and will include help for substance misuse, physical health, employment, accommodation, relationships and finances, as well as occupational and trauma focused therapies.

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Thank you to everyone at Belton Wood Hotel

Give Us Time would like to thank the owners of the Belton Woods Owners’ Club in Lincolnshire for their very generous donation of time for one of our military families in need of time away to reconnect after the stresses that military life can cause. We would especially like to highlight their kindness as this is their first donation of time and the positive impact this respite break had on our family is priceless. The family’s thank you letter to both Belton Woods and Give Us Time is included below.

“Myself and my family were recently very fortunate to spend a weekend at Belton Woods. Through the Give Us Time charity we were offered a week in one of the superb lodges situated around the edge of the golf course.

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Explorer Levison Wood delivers inspiring speech to military veterans at Combat Stress centre

Bestselling author, explorer and photographer Levison Wood, visited the UK’s leading charity for veterans mental health on Wednesday to talk to former servicemen and women about his career as an officer in the Parachute Regiment and his transition to becoming an explorer.

While at Audley Court, the Combat Stress centre in Newport, Shropshire, Levison was taken on a tour to see how the charity supports veterans with mental health conditions. The services provided at the centre include occupational therapy workshops, which help veterans improve their physical health and wellbeing, relationships, behaviour, beliefs, emotions and thinking. This enables veterans to become more resilient and cope better with their condition.

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