Funded projects

This project co-funded with the National Institute of Health and Care Research and the Medical Research Council is a trial into the use of neurolinguistic programming as a use for

A newly developed clinical treatment for veterans suffering from Moral Injury will enter into a second phase of testing.

A grant of £310,143.98 over 28 months to conduct a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of the InDEx smartphone application (app) to assess if it is effective in reducing alcohol consumption of veterans who drink at hazardous levels and are receiving, or have received, support for mental health symptoms in a clinical setting. Secondary aims are to assess the impact of InDEx on the quality of life of veterans, and to evaluate the benefit(s) to using digital technology in supporting service charities and the veteran community in the management and treatment of alcohol misuse in veterans.

The Contact Group is the collaboration of third sector, statutory providers and support organisations which deliver mental health support to the UK Armed Forces community. Contact members work to ensure that the Armed Forces community is provided with the best possible mental health advice and support, and that treatment pathways are as good as they can be. The award will fund a project officer and help with travel costs for the Group. This will enable Contact to continue to develop a substantial programme of work to help it achieve its aims of increasing the capacity of mental health services, developing best practice guidelines, supporting the planning of future services and understanding the needs of veterans.

A 28-month study led by Professor Sturt to undertake a small-scale randomised trial comparing two treatments: ‘Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories (RTM)’ against ‘Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (TF-CBT)’ for ex-Service personnel with PTSD.

A 15-month study led by Dr Sharon Stevelink to investigate the increase in PTSD among ex-Service personnel who deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, and why the highest level is found in regular personnel who deployed in a combat role and have subsequently left Service.

The implementation of a pilot mental fitness initiative, named HeadFIT, is to be evaluated over 12-months by King’s College London thanks to a grant of £92,757 awarded by the Forces in Mind Trust. The initiative has been developed collaboratively by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Royal Foundation to promote awareness and management of good mental fitness within the Armed Forces Community and to prevent the onset of poor mental health.

A 2-year project to develop a toolkit (Mindfit) to help ex-Service personnel overcome the barriers to seeking mental health support as identified in the earlier KCL (Stevelink; Rafferty) Stigma and Barriers to Help Seeking project.

A 2-year project to expand on current research by examining positive and negative employment and economic trajectories across the transition process, with a particular focus on the role of mental health, pre-enlistment factors, service history and the experience of at risk groups (women, ESLs and reserves).

A 15-month project to support families of veterans who have substance use problems by developing a specific model of peer support. Read the press release.

A follow on project to build on the findings of the first SLaM 1 (manual search) project aiming to strengthen the data collection methods, interpretation and findings of the SLAM 1 report, and to design and test the accuracy of a novel machine learning-based NLP veteran detection tool to aid identifying veterans in electronic health records within South London and Maudsley's biomedical research case register to enable speed, ease and accuracy of future veterans research.

An 18-month feasibility study to explore the type of mental health problems UK veterans who actively seek medical help present with and how this compares to the general population who access the same service. The study is unique in that it includes veterans who access secondary care and so have more complex mental health needs than those remaining in primary care. Read the press release and report. A 7-month follow on study was approved in 2018.

A 12-month innovative research project, to be carried out by Professor Thanos Karatzias, that will test the prevalence of a new type of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) known as Complex PTSD, in ex-Service personnel in order to provide more appropriate treatment.

An 18-month project to explore the impact and experiences of a CDT discharge on subsequent substance misuse, mental health and overall readjustment to civilian life, and compare how they fare with other ESLs.

A 15-month study to be carried out by Dr Victoria Williamson entitled ‘Experiences and impact of moral injury in UK veterans’ to conduct the first scoping study to explore the experiences of moral injury in UK ex-Service personnel.

A year long project, to be carried out by Dr Ian Whyte, that will identify the prevalence, motivations and mental health status of users of Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs and Supplements (PIEDS) amongst ex-Service personnel. Read the press release.

A 9-month commissioned piece of research conduct a systematic review of all relevant quality literature on the current scientific evidence, and changes and gaps in evidence, concerning the mental health needs of serving and ex-Service personnel and their families since 2012, including the perspectives of key stakeholders.

A two-and-a-half year study to identify how ex-Service personnel may be more vulnerable to developing issues with gambling that the wider population, and estimate any resultant healthcare costs by exploring the relationship between financial management and mental health problems. Read the press release.

A 15-month study into understanding which ex-Service personnel are more likely to recognise they have an alcohol problem, and then who goes on to seek help for it. Read the press release.

Understanding, supporting and serving the NI veterans’ community: a grant awarded by FiMT in partnership with the Northern Ireland Veterans Support Committee for a three year project in Northern Ireland.

Was awarded a grant of £175,800 to conduct an 18 month study to conduct a study exploring the experiences of those who have been discharged from the British Army for drug use.

A 15-month project investigating domestic violence and abuse (DVA) within military families in the UK by talking to people who currently provide, use, and refer to specialist DVA services, in order to determine what constitutes ‘specialist DVA provision’ for military families, and then sharing these findings with UK Refuges Online who will add services meeting these criteria to their online system specialism to enable workers to better support military families suffering DVA. Read the press release.

An 18-month project awarded to King’s College London (KCL), in partnership with the University of Liverpool, to evaluate whether the mental health and treatment needs of UK veterans, and their treatment outcomes, differ from those of the general population, using data from generic NHS treatments (in this case using ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) services).

3-year’s sole sponsorship of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research’s (KCMHR) annual ‘Veterans’ Mental Health Conference from 2017 to 2019 in an award worth £15,000. KCMHR, part of King’s College London, has hosted successful ‘Veterans’ Mental Health’ one-day conferences since the inaugural conference in 2015, bringing together academics, charities and policy makers with an interest in the field to network and to hear the latest research from speakers of world-class reputation from across leading UK and international institutions.

A 15-month study linking King’s College of Mental Health Research data with Department of Work and Pensions records of benefit claims and work programmes to assess the pattern of welfare benefits among UK veterans and examine associations between pre-, in- and post-Service factors, veteran unemployment, and disability benefit claims, as well as the effects of work-related training courses.

A 6-month study to investigate gambling behaviour among post national service veterans using the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey to assess any relationships between length of active service and extent of gambling problems (if any), and to explore associations between gambling related problems and comorbidities such as alcohol and family issues.

Sponsoring a 2-year Randomised Control Trial of modular motion-assisted memory desensitisation and reconsolidation (3MDR) for treatment-resistant PTSD (new treatment). The report is due to complete August 2019.

A 15 month study to explore whether remote access tele-therapy (ie telephone and ‘video-telephone’ services such as Skype) could be used to improve access to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder therapy for UK veterans, and to assess the impact of the treatment.

Initially awarded as a project in its own right under the MHRP, working alongside its (non-MHRP) sister project, 'Understanding, supporting and serving the NI veterans’ community', these two projects became joined in February 2017 under what is now known as the Northern Ireland Veteran Health and Wellbeing Study (NIVHWS). The mental health (Hidden Veteran) element is now intertwined within the main project, but will have its own specific section within the final NIVHWS report, looking specifically at the Hidden Veteran Community within the sensitive context of Northern Ireland.

An 18-month study into the internal and external barriers to help seeking experienced by ex-Service personnel with mental health problems. The final report completed in Autumn 2017.

Building on the well-received Joint Health Needs Assessment (England) review of 2015 (known as ‘Call to Mind: England), this is a one-year follow on study, tailored to the unique circumstances of each of the devolved nations, to review whether the mental and related health needs of veterans and their family members are being assessed appropriately (read the press release).

Initially a 3- year project to generate a comprehensive understanding of Northern Ireland that would be used by policy makers and service deliverers across the sector. The mental health element was split out and awarded under the MHRP 3 months later, entitled, 'Mental Health Needs of the Hidden Veteran Community in Northern Ireland’. These two projects became joined in terms of work packages in February 2017 under what is now known as the Northern Ireland Veteran Health and Wellbeing Study (NIVHWS).

A grant (£​210,859) to help ex-servicemen and women make a successful transition back to civilian life. The Project identified gaps in the cultural differences between military and civilian life. An additional grant of £​21,681 was awarded in June 2015 for the dissemination of the original project.

A national review of Health Needs Assessments in collaboration with NHS England and Community Innovations Enterprise Ltd to ascertain what is known about Veterans’ mental health and related health needs within those assessments.