Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT), in collaboration with Centre for Mental Health and King’s Centre for Military Health Research, has issued its second highlight notice under its multi-million pound Mental Health Research Programme, a five year programme established to encourage high quality research in the field of veterans and their families mental health.

The aim of this highlight notice is to encourage applications through the Mental Health Research Programme (MHRP) that propose innovative ways to identify, evaluate and/or propose new methods to address employment rates of former Services personnel with mental ill-health.

Ex-Service personnel suffering from mental ill-health are likely to be the most susceptible ex-Service group to a range of hardships, including unemployment. A FiMT commissioned review of serving and ex-Service personnel (2013) identified those who leave military service due to mental ill-health as being at an increased risk of social exclusion and continuing poor health, and highlighted 11 areas to address, including:

  • The prevalence of diagnosed mental health problems in UK serving personnel
  • Methods and techniques to enhance the resilience of Service leavers with mental ill-health
  • Potential change mechanisms to help improve ex-Service personnel’s awareness of and engagement in pathways to employment
  • Identify long-term analysis of unemployment rates for ex-Service personnel with mental ill-health, specifically beyond 6 months of leaving service

The MHRP would like to encourage applications that address any of the 11 areas of employment for ex-Service personnel and their families. The full highlight notice can be found here:  https://www.fim-trust.org/mental-health/funding/funding-opportunities/

The MHRP continues to welcome applications to their six standing research priorities, which can be found at:  https://www.fim-trust.org/mental-health/research-programme/

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Notes to editors For more information, please contact Tina McKay, Communications Officer at FiMT, on mobile 07956 101132 or email co@fim-trust.org

About the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT): 

FiMT came about from a partnership between the Big Lottery Fund (‘the Fund’), Cobseo (The Confederation of Service Charities) and other charities and organisations.  FiMT continues the Fund’s

long-standing legacy of support for veterans across the UK with an endowment of £35 million awarded in 2012.  http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/

The mission of FiMT is to enable ex-Service personnel and their families make a successful and sustainable transition to civilian life, and it delivers this mission by generating an evidence base that influences and underpins policy making and service delivery.

FiMT awards grants (for both responsive and commissioned work) to support its change model around 6 outcomes in the following areas: Housing; Employment; Health and wellbeing; Finance; Criminal Justice System; and Relationships. All work is published in open access and will be hosted on the Veterans Research Hub at Anglia Ruskin University, which is going live in Summer 2017.  A high standard of reportage is demanded of all grant holders so as to provide a credible evidence base from which better informed decisions can be made.

Useful links

Website: www.fim-trust.org

Reports: www.fim-trust.org/reports/

Who we have helped: www.fim-trust.org/who-we-have-helped/

Twitter: @FiMTrust

About the Mental Health Research Programme: www.fim-trust.org/mental-health/research-programme/