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Welfare partnerships

How partnership events have helped the Veterans Welfare Service enhance their skills to support veterans…

Best practice events for Veterans Welfare Service staff and partner organisations - The Royal British Legion, Blesma, St Dunstan’s to name a few - ensure each has the appropriate skills to assist and support their mutual clients.

The themed events reflect requests from both staff and senior management about improving skills and practices when working with veterans and their families, in particular the younger generation. The emphasis is on the necessity to provide a seamless transition from Service to civilian life not only for the newly discharged veteran but also for their families.

A ‘Working with Younger Veterans and their Families’ event was held at Headley Court with the aim to provide a greater awareness of the psychological, practical, emotional and physical issues affecting younger veterans and their families. It was an opportunity for staff from different parts of MOD to have a better understanding of the impact of each others efforts in providing a holistic, all encompassing dedicated service.


“The event at Headley Court provided me with much needed skills whilst I was supporting Mark* a veteran who had suffered a brain injury,” Says Eileen Murray, Veterans Welfare Service Aberdeen.
“He was receiving ongoing help from Headley Court, as well as support from myself through the discharge and claim processes.

“Being able to relate more closely with my clients needs and difficulties and tease out details of incidents was a great aid to providing support and preparing the claim. Adapting communication methods and reminding the individual of the strategies they had used and what I had learned about, during the event, was of great benefit to the claims process, to myself and, most importantly, to Mark.”
* name changed to protect privacy

St Dunstan’s in Wales - Restoring Independence
St Dunstan’s - the charity offering lifelong support and rehabilitation to blind and partially sighted ex-Service men and women – has recently purchased the former North Wales Medical Centre in Queens Road, Craig-y-Don, Llandudno.

The Grade II Listed former convalescent home, most recently used as a private hospital, will be adapted to become an additional centre for St Dunstan’s, providing rehabilitation, training, respite care and holiday accommodation for its beneficiaries. The building, comprising 50,000 sq. ft., is located on a site of about 11.5 acres on the edge of Llandudno commanding views over the Irish Sea towards the Isle of Anglesey, Snowdonia and the Great Orme.
 
Robert Leader, Chief Executive, St Dunstan’s said of the purchase, “The new centre will be invaluable in helping us to meet the needs of ever increasing numbers of St Dunstaners. We shall be able to provide help and support to more beneficiaries, enabling them to adapt to their loss of sight, regain their independence and achieve a better quality of life. We also hope that our presence in Llandudno will make a useful contribution to the town and surrounding area”
Depending on planning permission, the centre is expected to have 40 double bedrooms, adapted to both residential and nursing care standards. The projected opening date will be in 2009.

For further information contact the Public Relations Officer 0207 616 8367
Or log on to www.st-dunstans.org.uk





• Focus on... supporting ex-Service women
• Keep Warm Keep Well
• Welfare partnerships
• Extending the Lighter Touch
• Welfare at the heart of the Veterans Community
• St Dunstans in Wales Restoring Independence

Top of page

Extending the Lighter Touch

A new pilot scheme has been introduced to build on the support available for Early Service Leavers.

Individuals who leave the Armed Forces earlier than planned can sometimes find the transition to civilian life difficult to manage. To counteract this, in 2004, the MOD introduced mandatory resettlement advice for Early Service-Leavers (ESL). The ESL scheme involves signposting to public services and ex-Service charities, and a personal interview at which the Unit interviewing officer assesses the individual’s vulnerability to becoming socially isolated.

For the past two years, the MOD, in consultation with the major ex-Service charities and building on earlier research, has developed a “light touch” mentoring scheme for vulnerable ESL at Catterick Garrison. This pilot scheme officially started in June 2007.

The scheme is run by the Veterans Welfare Service (an integral part of the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency), which, together with the charity SSAFA Forces Help, also provides a pool of potential mentors.

How it works

Interested vulnerable ESL are assigned randomly to either a mentored or un-mentored group.

Those in the mentored group are given a durable card with a telephone number to ring within six weeks of discharge, if they want to arrange mentoring support. When they ring, the scheme co-ordinator establishes their needs and preferences and nominates a mentor for an initial meeting. If the pairing is acceptable to both parties, “light touch” mentoring by telephone (as opposed to more formal case-working) is provided for six months on demand. At the end of this period the ESL’s situation is reviewed. A follow up with the unmentored ESL will also be undertaken, so that the benefit of the mentoring can be determined.

What happens next?

ESL will be recruited on to the pilot until mid-March 2008. Initial findings have shown that soldiers who leave during training rarely need mentoring support: and efforts are focussing more on ESL from front-line Units. Increased uptake of the pilot scheme is expected early in 2008 when Operational Units return to Catterick from overseas deployments.

The decision on whether to introduce a permanent mentoring scheme for vulnerable Service-leavers will probably be made in early 2009 following detailed evaluation of the pilot toward the end of 2008.

For further information email charles.williams191@mod.uk (Project Manager)

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