AUTHOR=Gordon Kim , Burnell Karen , Wilson Clare 

TITLE=Outside the Military “Bubble”: Life After Service for UK Ex-armed Forces Personnel

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00050

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2020.00050

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Military personnel who have seen active service can be affected by their experiences. Much of the literature on the mental and physical health battles faced by men and women who leave the Armed Forces is dominated by research in the United States (US) (Iversen, et al., 2008), and is particularly focused on exposure to combat conditions and effects on mental health. Research in the United Kingdom (UK) tends to focus on depression or alcohol misuse and the impact these issues have on currently serving personnel. At present, military research in the UK has increasingly investigated life after service, access to and use of treatment interventions, post-service life and, more recently, impact on the family. Semi-structured interviews explore experiences of 30 participants (27 male, 3 female). Participants ranged in age from 26 to 92 years (M=53.33), and across multiple war cohorts (from WWII to Iraq and Afghanistan). Data were analysed using Thematic Analysis and Narrative Analysis. Experience with mental health service provision differs across military service divisions, length and type of service. Shared experiences across veteran cohorts, focused on themes such as pre-service adversity in childhood, striving despite pre-and post-service challenges, effects on mental health after transition from the Armed Forces, and impact on veterans’ families. Expanding clinical research from the experiences of UK serving personnel to include the effects of pre-military adversity, should be considered alongside military deployment experiences of the individual. Interventions designed to address transition into life after service are discussed.