I now have more awareness of who is actually classed as a veteran and the vast amount of difficulties one may have , ranging from physical difficulties , to mental health difficulties and issues with more domestic tasks , such as managing finances ."
I now have more awareness of who is actually classed as a veteran and the vast amount of difficulties one may have , ranging from physical difficulties , to mental health difficulties and issues with more domestic tasks , such as managing finances ."
• Moral Injury , children and carers in military families .
• Homelessness , housing and housing adaptations , and transition .
• Vocational rehabilitation and the armed forces third sector .
A systematic review was carried out on over 300 research articles and key word searches used related to the topic , British military , and occupational therapy . There was limited published material with OT and the armed forces , especially in the UK , and therefore evidence was also gathered from veterans themselves , military third sector , other health care professionals , and included overseas research .
Due to time constraints , each topic was limited to the 10 best articles , which were then summarised into 21 individual reviews and used to develop a PowerPoint training package . Information was also collated on useful videos and apps that could be used for signposting , as well as a military third sector guide for occupational therapists .
Following the research phase , a four-hour interactive training package was developed . This included two quizzes , case study discussions in mental health and housing adaptations and information presented under each topic headings . Attendees were sent homework prior to the training , which included three housing case studies to discuss as well as an armed forces and veterans quiz . This prepared everyone to be interactive and the quiz was used at the end of the training to reinforce the key themes in a more light-hearted way .
The online training package ran for 10 weeks , via MS Teams , and was offered to all occupational therapy teams . It was well attended by approximately half the relevant workforce and received positive feedback .
For those who could not attend , a recording of the presentation was made available to watch and there was access to the OT summary on an AF & V Community handout , as well as the guide to third sector charities .
Key learning points
In regard to physical and mental health there is a vast amount of research , but some key themes were highlighted , that is , survival rates of polytrauma ( injuries to multiple body parts and organs ) caused by blast wounds have increased due to improved PPE and rapid extraction of casualties .
However , veterans with appearance altering combat wounds / Injuries are more likely to have PTSD . Hearing loss was very common and mild traumatic brain injury .
Regarding mental health , veterans are more likely to experience mental illness ( 23 % versus 16 %), alcohol misuse ( 11 % versus 6 %), PTSD ( 8 % versuss 5 %) when compared with their civilian counterparts ( Rhead et al 2020 ).
Perhaps surprisingly , PTSD appears to only affect the minority of veterans , but was often more complex and severe than civilians .
Moral injury ( MI ) was a concept that was not well known to our team and we were interested to learn is not a mental health condition and was first
Pain , especially chronic pain , is prevalent in almost
42 % of veterans
categorised in relation to medical services in the US .
MI can be characterised by feelings of shame , guilt , disgust and self-blame . We found that military families can experience unique stressors for example moving frequently at short notice , changing schools and losing the supportive network of friends .
Service spouses and partner will lose employment and potentially career progression and are all likely to experience changes in their healthcare as they move between NHS trusts or boards across the UK and health services abroad .
Homelessness at point of discharge is actually very rare , but some service leavers , especially
30 OTnews May 2023