What Matters to Veterans?

Abstract: In 2017, there were an estimated 2.4 million UK Armed Forces Veterans residing in Great Britain1. Research suggests that although serving military personnel have accessible support through the armed forces, it is portrayed that military veterans feel they are sometimes ‘forgotten’. Colchester in Essex is a military town and therefore a primary focus in relation to engaging with veterans. The engagement carried out within this report captures the voice of military veterans in their own words. Previous research carried out by Healthwatch Essex looked at the mental health support on the frontline within emergency services personnel2. This steered the concept to consider the support for military veterans leading to the enquiry ‘What Matters to Veterans?’ In 2017 the Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service (TILS) carried out research around support for veterans. It was apparent that there were issues around trust and that there was a lack of understanding when it came to receiving support. ‘There is also a fear by many NHS staff that they are not skilled enough to work with veterans. Veterans often think of civilian staff as “pink and fluffy tree huggers”. They worry that NHS staff could never understand what they have been through’3. During a time where loneliness and isolation is more prevalent than ever before, it only feels right that support is put in place to capture lived experience of military veterans, who form a large part of our community.This report captures the lived experience of military veterans and includes the issues they may face during transition from a military to a civilian life.