Supporting veterans and their dependants in primary care

Summary

Stephen Heard is a Patient Safety Partner at Norfolk Community Health and Care Trust. He is also, as an RAF veteran himself, employed by Arden and GEM Commissioning Support Unit as one of a small part time team of regional leads for the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) veteran friendly accreditation scheme.

In this blog, he explains how GP practices can support veterans and their families in ensuring they are and remain safe after transiting from the services into civilian life. He lists a number of services that veterans (anyone who has served at least one day in HM Forces) can be signposted to as part of their civilian care. Stephen emphasises that many veterans are vulnerable on transition and access to these programmes preferably via a veteran friendly GP practice can be critical to their safety.

Content

Research has shown that the first port of call for a veteran seeking help will often be the local GP practice. I would like to emphasise to you and your colleagues the significance of the Royal College of General Practitioners Veteran Friendly Accreditation Scheme for primary care, as endorsed by NHS England in alignment with the Armed Forces Covenant. 

The Veteran Friendly Accreditation Scheme shows staff at GP practices how to handle queries from the 2.4 million veterans nationally (+3m dependents) and signpost them to the most appropriate pathway or support group as per the list below:

• Op Restore: The Veterans Physical Health and Wellbeing Service provides specialist care and support to veterans who have physical health problems as a result of their time in the Armed Forces.  https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/commissioned-services/
• Op Courage: The Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Service is a dedicated mental health service for individuals leaving the Armed Forces (those within 6 months of leaving the military in England), veterans and reservists.  NHS commissioning » Nationally commissioned services (england.nhs.uk) or [email protected]
• Op Nova: Provides one to one non clinical support to veterans who are at risk of being arrested or already have been, are due to leave prison or have been released from prison. Op NOVA | Forces Employment Charity
• Op Community: Provides care navigation and signposting to the wider Armed Forces community with a specific focus on Serving families. www.armedforcesnetwork.org/armed-forces-community/families/single-point-of-contact/
• Op Fortitude: Delivers a centralised referral pathway into veteran supported housing.  www.riverside.org.uk/care-and-support/veterans/opfortitude/
• Op Sterling: Programme to help older LGBT+ veterans, service personnel and their families. www.ageuk.org.uk/our-impact/programmes/how-we-deliver-advice/operation-sterling/
• Veterans Prosthetics Panel (VPP): Funding on a named veteran basis to NHS Disablement Service Centres (DSC) to ensure that veterans who have service attributable limb loss can access high quality prosthetics. www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/armed-forces-community/veterans-service-leavers-non-mobilised-reservists/
• Integrated Personal Commissioning for Veterans Framework (IPC4V):  Delivers a personalised care approach for the small number of Armed Forces personnel who have complex and enduring physical, neurological and mental health conditions that are attributable to injury whilst in Service. www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/armed-forces/integrated-personal-commissioning-for-veterans-ipc4v/
• Personalised care for veterans.  NHS England and the MOD have published a new personalised care approach for those veterans who have a long-term physical, mental or neurological health condition or disability. www.england.nhs.uk/personalisedcare/ipc-for-veterans/personalised-care-for-veterans/

 There are also the following linked programmes:

• Veteran Aware: Operated by the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) to improve NHS care for the Armed Forces community by supporting trusts, health boards and other providers (Acute, Community and Mental Health) to identify, develop and showcase the best standards of care. https://veteranaware.nhs.uk/
• Step into Health: NHS Employers scheme to facilitate employment for service leavers and their families. https://www.militarystepintohealth.nhs.uk/
• Veteran Friendly Framework: Designed to accredit care homes to improve their awareness of the needs for veterans. https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/things-to-do/campaigns-policy-and-research/campaigns/veteran-friendly-framework

Many Veterans are vulnerable and access to these programmes is critical to their safety. Integrated Care Boards will often have Veterans within the Core20plus5 NHS England Health Inequality Improvement framework, designed to reduce healthcare inequalities.