RMA-RMC-Impact-Report-2023-24 - Flipbook - Page 25
Getting help
Op COURAGE
Veteran Trauma Network
Our Health and Wellbeing Team works
closely with NHS ENGLAND in all
areas of the Op COURAGE delivery.
The Veterans Trauma Network (VTN)
works alongside Op COURAGE
and is a NHS service for veterans
that provide specialist care and
treatment to those who have physical
health problems resulting from
their time in the Armed Forces.
Op COURAGE was initially designed
to help those due to leave the military,
Reservists, Armed Forces veterans
and their families and has developed
to include Complex Treatment
and High Intensity Services.
We are privileged to work with them
in ensuring that the Corps Family
receives the best support, advice,
treatment and onward referral
for their mental health needs.
Op COURAGE is supported by trained
professionals who are from, or have
experience of working with, the
Armed Forces’ community. Working
with us as well as with other Armed
Forces’ charities, Op COURAGE can
help individuals access the right type
of support for their specific need:
and in these areas, there are similar
organisations in Wales and Scotland
with whom we also work closely.
Following an NHS assessment, Op
COURAGE teams and those from the
devolved nations will often request
the use of our extensive network
of military-aware psychotherapists
through our Veterans’ Mental
Health Referral Programme.
Scan the QR code
below to find out
more about Op
COURAGE services.
RMA – The Royal Marines Charity has
been involved in shaping this service
from the outset. Led by Imperial College
Healthcare NHS Trust and alongside
colleagues from Help for Heroes, Blesma,
the Defence Medical Welfare Services
and, more recently, the Royal Navy and
Royal Marines Charity, we have together
created this pathway of care for veterans.
The holistic nature of this care supports
the physical, social and emotional
needs of the individual and their family.
Members of the Charity’s Health and
Wellbeing team attend clinical and
holistic multidisciplinary meetings to
help find the most appropriate recovery
pathway for veterans, working together
regardless of organisational boundaries
to address any health inequalities and
reduce unwarranted variation in access,
experience and outcomes related to
recovery. This sharing of knowledge
and skills has helped forge bespoke
opportunities for veterans in support
of their recovery, on top of addressing
their immediate clinical needs.
All veterans must first be referred by their
GP before being seen by the best clinician
for their service-related injury, who
may or may not be local to the patient.
This access does not give veterans
quicker treatment, but does ensure that
they receive the best that is available,
before then connecting them to other
organisations on the recovery pathway
to further enhance the support with the
aim of embracing the whole family.
Find more about
how the Veterans
Trauma Network
can support the
Corps Family.
www.rma-trmc.org
Northumbria University
mapping the needs of veteran
and serving Royal Marines
RMA – The Royal Marines Charity
has been working with Northumbria
University for over four years to better
understand the needs of veteran and
serving Royal Marines living across the
UK by creating a ‘Map of Need’. This
is an ongoing project and over the
next 18 months will be fine-tuned to
provide yet more detail, enabling us
and others to make even better and
more informed funding decisions.
It is estimated there are some 2.75M
veterans living in the UK and many, as
well as their families, require support
from a variety of services available to
them. To date, there has been little
understanding of veterans’ specific
regional needs, the social and health
services available in those regions,
and the numbers of ex-servicemen
and women and family members
who need access to such services.
The next phase of this research will aim
to create a national, unified, aggregated
dataset of military charity service usage.
This will not only help us understand
the basic needs and locations of
veterans, it will also help identify trends,
complexities, and access challenges.
This will enable the charitable sector,
as well as local authority and NHS
partners, target clusters of population.
We have also been a key enabler
to the University’s co-production
narrative research studies with the
Baton Organisation. In partnership
with service families who have been
bereaved by suicide, the project is
forging evidence and a model of safety
to develop services and integrate
them with statutory healthcare
across the UK, to provide long-term
support to reduce suicide. This is so
aligned to our own ‘Lifting the Lid’
project, that we have become natural
collaborators in sharing information,
best practice and learning, in order
to shape our services of the future.
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