November 2020 sees the exciting expansion of our support for military families. The Armed Forces Covenant Fund has granted a further two years’ funding to deliver our service to those family carers currently serving in the UK Armed Forces community based in Suffolk.
In addition, and in response to a growing need to provide support for ex-service personnel, the Veterans Foundation has granted us a year’s funding.
This brings together the elements of our Armed Forces work, and gives a steady base to build upon. To further complement this work, we are also part of a creative arts project for Armed Forces children in the area.
Suffolk Family Carers welcomes all family carers to register with us, no matter what their background, or their caring role. However, over the past 5-6 years we have become aware of an increasing need within Armed Forces families – past and present.
We feel is important that, as a local organisation, in a county with significant military presence, Suffolk Family Carers understands how military life can affect your caring role. It is our duty to work alongside the military, and military related charity partners, to bring into focus, and raise awareness of, family carers wherever they are in their military career.
So, who is a Military family carer?
We support serving Suffolk families where a family carer or carers are identified, and someone within that caring relationship is in the following armed forces services:
- British Army
- Royal Air Force (RAF)
- Royal Navy
- Reservists
Serving Suffolk families can include:
- Single unaccompanied soldiers who may be supporting a family member elsewhere in the country
- Couples
- Couples with children, including those where the children are young carers.
- Unaccompanied soldiers who are based in Suffolk with their family unit living elsewhere.
- Families living in Suffolk, with the serving person living away or on deployment.
From November, with the extension of the project we will reach Veterans or ex service personnel and their families who are either a family carer or are being cared for. Veterans are defined as anyone who has served for at least one day in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (Regular or Reserve), or Merchant Mariners who have seen duty on legally defined military operations.
Why are their needs different?
Whilst family carers from the Armed Forces community may face similar challenges to other family carers, some of the issues they face will be very particular and relevant to being in the Armed Forces community. Families we have supported tell us these are some of the issues for them:
- A family member who is away on tour, while you’re caring for those at home
Being away on tour, or based hundreds of miles away, worrying about the person you normally care for
Changes to schools frequently and setting up support within schools
Frequent moves and changes to health, social or education support systems
Accessing different healthcare systems within your family
Being away from wider family networks and support, often in very geographically isolated settings.
Being a family carer to someone whose emotional or physical condition has been caused by, or heavily impacted by, their service.
What do we do?
Well, the honest answer is lots of things(!) and things that we feel will help military carers and their families. In this way we are led by users of the service and our colleagues’ feedback in other charities and the military.
Essentially, we work with our partners – by this we mean military bases, welfare units, charities and a wide range of others – to help identify family carers and to also help explain why a military family carer has different needs to some other family carers, and what steps can be taken to help support them.
We work directly with individuals and their families to understand the pressures for them, what’s important to them and how we can work together to start to address some of the challenges. Our service is confidential, but a significant part of our work also involves helping people in caring roles talk to their employers, family or community about it, if that’s what they would like to do. Where we identify that training or a group session would be useful, we aim to deliver this. Recent examples are Mental Health First Aid training for staff and families and Mental Health Awareness sessions for reservists.
The identification of carers in the military community is still evolving, and where we are able, we link into wider initiatives on a local and national level, and share information with the forces Family federations.
How to get in touch
You can contact us to find out more about our support or to register with us. When you contact us, we will ask… “Have you, or the person you care for, ever served in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces?” or “Are you part of a serving UK Armed Forces family or Veteran family?” We ask this as it helps us to support you better and we can often identify other additional routes for support if needed. This also helps us demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant, which we signed in February 2019.
If you would more information, contact our Military Families Lead on 01473 835477 or kate.hinchliff@suffolkfamilycarers.org
