As the NHS pick up and run with the veteran health care ball (Operation Courage), I am beginning to wonder if we actually need a service charity sector?

It’s fantastic to see hundreds of isolated veterans now accessing professional help and support from the plethora of expert practioners already embedded in the NHS. Its long overdue, and I like many others can’t quite get my head around where it went wrong in the first place. One of the reasons we didn’t have, until recently, a Department for Veterans Affairs, (a development I really support by the way) was because the NHS was designed to pick up all the holistic health needs of returning veterans when it formed on 5th july 1948.

In its short tenure, the UK Department for Veterans Affairs has, in just over four years managed to put veterans back in the position they should have been in at the end of World War Two. Perhaps that’s because there just wasn’t anyone back then to champion the cause of veterans other than a small group of service charities that were formed at the end of WW1. These charities picked up the tab for Government and operated, in the main, via a network of volunteer support. The landscape really changed when ‘Help for Heroes’ stepped into the service charity arena to meet the unmet needs of veterans who were seriously injured in both Iraq & Afghanistan. It was a game changer.

Lets not forget the old guard didn’t like it, but the great British public knew all too well that veterans were for all intents and purposes, dumped when they left the military. When I was growing up my Father and Great Grandfather both suffered from depression, alcohol misuse and episodes of violent behaviour. Yet, no one made the link between their service in WW1 & WW2. Like others, they would never talk about their time in the services.

It’s only now as I search my family tree that I find out that they were both in the thick of in France 20014-18 and Europe 1944 -45. As they returned home, thousands of veterans were told to get on with their lives and suffer in silence, many living in poverty and having to take any work they could to survive. Interestingly, in my house the only person to be given medication for depression was my Mother and that was due to trying to cope with my Fathers explosive anger issues and violence.

I predict that as care planning and coordinated care pathways become the norm veterans will eventually, of their own volition, gravitate towards the various support services that are being developed in the NHS to meet individual veteran need. This is a good thing. The need for veterans charities to identify, engage and connect with specialist NHS services will become redundant as, quite rightly, veterans take responsibility for accessing their own health care needs. A similar process is happening in the States as thousands of Vietnam Veterans gravitate back to the free health care provided by the US Dept Veterans Affairs after years of rejecting the services on offer.

Simultaneously, the NHS will, as it collects data become more savvy at identifying the causal factors of some of the presenting issues. At the moment veterans are viewed as an homogenous group and bizarrely, the general public are under the misguided impression that all veterans are combat veterans with PTSD. Nothing could be further from the truth and it will become apparent in due course, as we enter another economic downturn, that millions of pounds are spent on those who meet the criteria of Veteran simply because of the anachronistic misnomer of ‘one days service’. I would like to see this criteria reclassified so that funding reaches those that need it most.

Someone should ask the large charities just how much is spent annually on individuals with under 12 weeks service? It will be interesting and shocking data.

What will also become apparent, is that the vast majority claiming monetary support cannot attribute the cause of their problems with any aspect of Military Service. Yet the cash cow keeps on paying up and as one veteran said …”If the cows there… milk it ” This has to stop.

We need to ensure that those that deserve a gold star service get a gold star service.

Tony Wright CEO

This year is the 10th anniversary of the introduction of Armed Forces Community Covenant which was launched in 2011. Since that time every local authority in the UK has signed ‘ a community covenant partnership’ with their local Armed Forces Community. Many local authorities introduced the role of Armed Forces Champion. The Ministry of Defence Guidance, Armed Forces Covenant for communities guidance states:

“The role of a ‘champion’ is often to make sure that the local authority achieves its commitments to the armed forces community and any blockages are resolved.”

Since then we have also witnessed the formation of the UK Office for Veterans Affairs in 2019 whose raison d'etre is;

“Lead UK Government efforts to make sure the United Kingdom is the best place to be a veteran anywhere in the world, helping the nation fulfil its lifelong duty to those who have served in the Armed Forces”.

Yet, there is considerable disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality. There are thousands of grass roots veteran centric, charities, CIC’s, unincorporated community groups and individuals who support military veterans 365 days of the year. Yet, it sometimes feels that its ‘open season’ on small charities as their contribution is frequently dismissed, ignored or discredited.

The C-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns are a perfect example of how the wider community came to the aid of isolated lonely veterans and families , some delivering Christmas Dinners to those in need on Christmas Day. Sadly, these outstanding examples of community cohesion and endeavour go unnoticed and remain unrecognised by the very people who are supposed to be representing and championing the needs of the community.

Similarly, the Government continue to consult with the larger service charities who at times are unaware of issues on the ground and/or unable to understand the grass roots need of those they claim to represent. There is little if any recognition given to those whose contribution is voluntary, in fact there are looked down upon by many in the sector. Yet, where would we be without them?

We would be a very wealthy charity if I had a pound for every time I heard the well hackneyed lament that there are too many charities in the service sector or that any organisation working with veterans must be accredited in keeping with an ‘Ofsted’ style inspection and registration system. Yet, the vast majority of those suggesting such a move, have no professional qualifications in the Health and Social Care sector.

Armed Forces Champions come and go, so its almost impossible to build a long term working relationship with one particular individual , others don’t come from an Armed Forces background and some of those that do, work or volunteer for larger military charities with the potential that the needs of their employer or subconscious bias come before those of the community they represent. This leads to mistrust, it is divisive nature and certainly not in the interest of those we seek to serve …Veterans!

Several of my associates across the country have described the bi-annual forums as nothing more than ‘taking shops’ with no direction or cohesive strategy to work collectively or stop the never ending duplication of services, which if not managed properly, causes confusion for those seeking help and support. Others argue that at best, they signpost veterans to support … a start and better than it used to be, but an irresponsible act if there is no follow up on progress made or if the veteran in question doesn’t actually engage with the service provider. Navigating government bureaucracy is at best confusing, but amidst a worldwide pandemic, its almost impossible.

When life eventually returns to the new normal many veterans will feel angry, disillusioned, unsupported and ignored. So we should all expect a tsunami of complaints and requests for mental health support in the coming months and years. Not connecting to a society that promises so much help will lead many into self imposed isolation, loneliness , marginalisation, and self harming behaviours. Lets remember there is so much more to life than getting a job and getting somewhere to live, albeit its a starting point, but not the ‘be all and end all’ Its at that point the work really begins as veterans struggle to adjust to an alien civilian world with all its capricious vagaries.

In the anticipated economic downturn getting a job may not be an option. Homelessness, incarceration, domestic violence, addiction, suicide, and poor mental health may become bigger problems than they already are. Yet, I haven’t seen any evidence that the powers that be, are doing anything all to put in place a strategy to address the anticipated need for a significant uplift in, personalised. practical and mental health support for veterans and their families.

In the absence of direction from the centre, this is the perfect time to reintroduce and adapt the guiding principles of Asset Based Community Development & The Big Society. See: https://vimeo.com/15218724

This time we need to promote citizenship which fosters Post Traumatic Growth by allowing veterans to be of service to others. Now is the time to embrace the healing powers of ‘Associational Life’ and tap into the support from the plethora of individuals with ‘lived experience’, community support groups and informal networks already in existence.

(Thanks to Cormac Russell for permission to use his infographic)

Tony Wright CEO Forward Assist