Forces in Mind

The UK’s Big Lottery Fund (BIG) recently announced that it would be setting up the Forces in Mind trust, whose purpose will be ‘to provide long-term support and advocacy for former forces personnel to make a successful transition to civilian life, including those who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf War’. In outlining the need for the new trust, Sir Clive Booth, the chair of BIG, stated:

Nearly 20,000 people leave the armed forces each year. In spite of help available from the Armed Services, Ministry of Defence, NHS and a wide range of charities, there are still gaps in the support available for our veterans. Some struggle with the transition to civilian life. Problems can emerge, sometimes many years into the future, leading to mental health, family breakdown and alcohol related difficulties, among others.

Regardless of whether diagnosed or undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) plays a part, former British forces personnel have historically found adjusting from the military to the civilian way of life (‘civvy street’) a tough challenge (and in some cases, even an impossible one), often resulting in the types of problems specified by BIG. Indeed, the statistics listed by BIG make sobering reading: almost one in ten of the prison population are veterans, for example; there are an estimated 1,100 homeless veterans in London on any one night; and ‘32% of [forces’] families reported their loved one’s behaviour had changed as a result of their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan; two thirds said that the change was negative or very negative’. The figures given for alcohol abuse, mental-health conditions and PTSD among serving and former servicemen are also worrying.

Forces in Mind, which will receive funding of £35 million, will be fully independent, with a twenty-year operational span. According to a press release issued by BIG:

BIG wants the Trust to focus on addressing a range of problems that some veterans and their families can experience back in civilian life, which can include poor mental health, social exclusion, family breakdown and alcohol problems.

The Trust’s advocacy work will include research to improve knowledge of the issues affecting veterans and their families as well as awareness raising campaigns, including peer advice, and advocacy and support to other veterans who might be at risk.

BIG envisages the Forces in Mind trust as being formed, shaped and run by representatives from forces charities and other charities with knowledge and experience of the problems that can arise when members of the armed forces and their families stop following the drum and enter civvy street. And while many forces-focused charities have considerable expertise in providing practical and psychological support where it is needed, BIG recognises that more research into the issues affecting veterans and their families is necessary.

It is right that the main recipients of the trust’s support will be the veterans themselves, but it is nevertheless vital that their families, and especially any dependant children, are not treated as afterthoughts. They may already be civilians, but the typically rootless military lifestyle is all that many forces children know, making the transition to civvy street just as challenging for them as for their parents, as a number of contributors to The Army Children Archive (TACA) have described. Add to this sudden, fundamental change in a young person’s circumstances a family situation that may be rapidly deteriorating through a toxic combination of stress, joblessness, mental-health issues, alcohol abuse and so on, and there is a danger that, without the appropriate support, the negative consequences will be long-lasting, and perhaps irreversible.

Click here for further information about Forces in Mind.