Military Veteran Psychological Health and Social Care

Citation

Caan, W. (2017), "Military Veteran Psychological Health and Social Care", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 127-128. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-07-2017-0024

This book covers a key area of UK mental health policy that is in need of development: veterans’ health and social care needs. A recent issue of the Journal of Public Mental Health demonstrated widespread interest in the mental health of veterans (Green, 2017). Professor Hacker Hughes has extensive, personal experience with both the UK Military and with NATO (so this book contains some interesting international material, especially a Dutch perspective on their National Veterans Healthcare System). The back cover mentions a number of potential types of reader and the Preface ten more types. Here, I can only respond on behalf of three types of reader: commissioners of services, academic researchers and family carers.

Routledge have published what Air Vice-Marshal Lock rightly calls “a mass of contemporary knowledge”. That mass is presented in 13 chapters with 26 authors. The risk with publishing such a multi-author book is an inconsistent literary style and difficulty synthesising information from different chapters. For example, three chapters deal with the services in specific geographical areas (Scotland, Wales and North West England), but it is impossible for readers to compare data from these three chapters directly. The Introduction does an excellent epidemiological job of setting the scene, explaining why veterans compose “a population with unique qualities and specific needs”. However, if the order of the next ten chapters was shuffled randomly, I doubt if a reader would notice any change in this book’s disconnected literary flow or development of ideas. General the Lord Dannatt thinks that the book will have value for “the general reader”, but I cannot imagine who reads it from cover to cover, just for reading pleasure or intellectual stimulation. My guess is that the commissioning editors at Routledge did not maintain consistent dialogue with the 26 contributors during the evolution of this mass of contemporary knowledge?

Military Veteran Psychological Health and Social Care contains much rare and valuable material. For a commissioner, the chapter on the Scottish perspective is outstanding. This places services for veterans within the wider systems of care and gives a clear voice to service users. There is a balanced picture of social and health needs, and a sense of building relationships across people and organisations. In public health training that competence is called “collaboration for health”. Commissioners typically have responsibilities for a range of service users over time, so it is valuable to see evidence of their trajectories within the health system (e.g. Rona et al., 2017). The chapter on the Veterans and Reserves Mental Health Programme for British Forces (VRMHP) provides food for thought on future research. There can be many strands to the life story of one ex-service person, and their mental condition may change over time, after their service ended. A reservist’s experience of care involving both an NHS general practitioner and the specialist VRMHP suggests future research on the integration of care, and links with community support at critical times. Another chapter which gives a voice to service users deals with veterans’ children. This includes a key lesson for schools:

Schools should make every effort to really understand the culture and context in which these children have lived when part of the service community and how this may impact on children going forwards.

The final chapter gives an international perspective on transition. For readers who dip in and out of this book as a reference text, or who use it in coursework within a postgraduate degree, this chapter offers some balance: a veteran is not just some liability, but also bring assets to civil society:

Veterans are most noted for their ability to work in a fast-paced, changing environment; as well as their leadership, teamwork, flexibility, dependability, integrity and loyalty.

Probably the last, comparable, book to Military Veteran Psychological Health and Social Care on the health of UK veterans was published in 2009 (by the Kings Centre for Military Health Research). This new book provides a valuable update. It also contains some nuggets of real gold.