Support for women veterans
Support for women veterans
Author
Introduction
Approximately 10% of the UK’s armed forces are women. They serve in a predominately male environment and yet few dedicated services exist to help women veterans cope with life after service. Women veterans have unique healthcare needs compared with their male counterparts.
2020 Award
Tony Wright (CF 2011) is the founder and CEO of Forward Assist, a charity that provides support and guidance to former servicemen and women who experience difficulties in adjusting to a new life as a civilian. He comes to this from a social work career spanning 34 years. Since his Fellowship, Tony has developed numerous innovative interventions for veterans struggling to adjust to life after service and many of Forward Assist’s interventions are now recognised as best practice. Forward Assist has long campaigned for gender-specific mental health support for women veterans. In 2017, Forward Assist was awarded funding by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to develop a specific service for women veterans. The ‘Salute Her’ programme came to being in 2018 and has, via a series of consultation groups, identified significant gaps in the services available to women veterans. It has attempted to fill those gaps by conducting pioneering ethnographic research, providing women-only group activities and one-to-one consultation sessions, peer-led support groups and residential retreats.
Tony has been awarded one of our Activate grants to develop a gender-specific charity and dedicated support service for women veterans transitioning back to civilian life. The grant will allow him to champion the rights of women veterans by creating a dedicated women-only charity aiming to raise awareness of the long-term impact caused by service-related trauma. He will also develop practical information and training materials and share these with other services and organisations. Finally, Tony is planning an international women veterans conference to showcase best practice from around the world.
2020 Award
Tony Wright (CF 2011) is the founder and CEO of Forward Assist, a charity that provides support and guidance to former servicemen and women who experience difficulties in adjusting to a new life as a civilian. He comes to this from a social work career spanning 34 years. Since his Fellowship, Tony has developed numerous innovative interventions for veterans struggling to adjust to life after service and many of Forward Assist’s interventions are now recognised as best practice. Forward Assist has long campaigned for gender-specific mental health support for women veterans. In 2017, Forward Assist was awarded funding by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to develop a specific service for women veterans. The ‘Salute Her’ programme came to being in 2018 and has, via a series of consultation groups, identified significant gaps in the services available to women veterans. It has attempted to fill those gaps by conducting pioneering ethnographic research, providing women-only group activities and one-to-one consultation sessions, peer-led support groups and residential retreats.
Tony has been awarded one of our Activate grants to develop a gender-specific charity and dedicated support service for women veterans transitioning back to civilian life. The grant will allow him to champion the rights of women veterans by creating a dedicated women-only charity aiming to raise awareness of the long-term impact caused by service-related trauma. He will also develop practical information and training materials and share these with other services and organisations. Finally, Tony is planning an international women veterans conference to showcase best practice from around the world.