The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT), established to help ex-Service men and women make a successful transition back to civilian life, has awarded a grant of £39,400 to the cross-party think tank Demos, to carry out an exploratory study into the provision of residential care for working age ex-Service personnel with long term physical conditions or who have been injured.

The project will include qualitative field work with ex-Service personnel to enable informed recommendations to be made on how policy and delivery should be developed over the next decade. These will be drawn by establishing any gaps between their residential requirements and what they actually receive. Researchers will also visit residential care settings to help outline any areas where support is lacking. A report will be published later this year.

There are tens of thousands of working age ex-Service personnel, many of which have physical conditions, who live permanently in communal settings including care homes and hostels as they require intensive help with daily life. This project aims to benefit these people in considering their care and support needs and whether current care provision is meeting those needs.

Chief Executive of the Forces in Mind Trust, Ray Lock, said: Chief Executive of the Forces in Mind Trust, Ray Lock, said: “It can be a significant challenge for ex-Service personnel of working age who are coping with the added pressure of having a long-term physical condition to find residential care which matches their needs and aspirations. The report will provide a very insightful addition to our evidence base on the needs and expectations of this group”

Claudia Wood, Chief Executive at the think-tank Demos said:  “We know very little about the needs and preferences of younger adults living in residential care, and even less still about ex-service personnel. This makes it hard for care providers to cater to this group and provide support that not only meets physical, but also emotional and social needs, interests and aspirations. This project will be a first step in building a more robust evidence base, for both policy makers and practitioners.”

~ENDS~

 

Notes to Editors: For interview requests, photos or more information, please contact:

Talia Cohen at The PR Office on tcohen@theproffice.com / direct dial: 027 284 6957

Notes to Editors: For interview requests, photos or more information, please contact Alice Farrow at The PR Office on afarrow@theproffice.com  / mobile:  07788 540 924 / direct dial: 027 284 6955.

  • About the Forces in Mind Trust: The Forces in Mind Trust came about  from a partnership between the Big Lottery 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. Since 2004 the Fund has given more than £88 million to programmes supporting veterans. http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/.
  • During its first two years, FiMT has commissioned seminal research reports such as the Transition Mapping Study (TMS) which reviewed how the entire transition process from military to civilian life currently works and how it is viewed by stakeholders and recent Service leavers.  The economic model developed for the report calculated the total cost of poor transition to the UK as a whole to be £113 million in 2012, whilst the report itself has been discussed across Whitehall and debated in the House of Lords.
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  • About Demos: Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events. We have spent over 20 years at the centre of the policy debate, with an overarching mission to bring politics closer to people.