Understanding and mapping the psychosocial wellbeing support needs of veteran family members across the UK: a multi-methods study

Abstract

The UK Veterans Family Study (UKVFS) is a cross- institutional, multi-stage, collaborative research project aimed at better understanding the psychosocial health and wellbeing needs of family members of veterans throughout the UK. The first published report of the UKVFS was a systematic review of studies,1 designed to provide a comprehensive picture of research conducted so far with this demographic amongst 5-Eyes alliance countries. This report, the second produced by the UKVFS, aims to address existing research gaps, in the veterans family space. It does so by firstly mapping the landscape of psychosocial wellbeing support provisions for family members of veterans across the UK. The mapping exercise was conducted in three sequential stages – a) searches of multiple databases of military and veteran charities and word-of-mouth referrals, b) searches of the web presence of each organisation, and c) searches of the Charity Commissions for England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland and Companies House websites to determine size, location and structure of each organisation including the size, location and number of organisations actively providing services to this demographic in each of the four nations. Qualitative interviews with family members and service providers across the UK then offered in-depth perspectives on how family members’ psychosocial wellbeing needs are currently being supported. Perceptions of accessibility and availability of existing support services, the degree of structure and formality of support services and how support services were meeting un/under met needs and preferences of family members were also explored