Challenges for serving personnel and their families

Whether you’re serving personnel or part of a military family, you face a unique set of challenges that can put pressure on your mental health or wellbeing - for example, frequent moving and stress around deployment and loneliness.

Sally commented: “We know deployments are for much longer periods of time now, but are also going into more complex operations around the world. The impact that can have on both serving personnel and their families can be difficult.

“When personnel are deployed at short notice, there isn’t time to think through how family life will work without a partner. You’re also having to come to terms with a loved one being away in a challenging environment, while you still take care of all the practicalities involved in family life.”

Seeking support for mental health and wellbeing

Whit explained that it can still be difficult for some military personnel to talk about their mental health and wellbeing, and others simply aren’t allowed to talk about, which could make things worse.

Sally added: “We all recognise that if you don’t have the opportunity to talk about how you’re feeling, those feelings can get worse and spiral in a negative way. For us, it’s important that we can connect with people as soon as we can, and provide a really human response to talking through people’s stories.”

One of the unique things about Solent Mind’s Anchoring Minds service is that it is run by people with lived experience, meaning they have personally experienced the challenges that come with being part of a military family.

Sally continued: “Having someone from our staff team there to talk to serving personnel or family members about their emotions, and to be able to relate to them, is incredibly important.”

Mandy reiterated the importance of accessing Anchoring Minds as soon as possible, and not to wait until you need something, or are at crisis point.

“Even if you’re just thinking about something and you want someone to chat with, you can access Anchoring Minds. It’s great for advice or for simply having someone to listen to you,” Mandy said. “The point is you’re not alone, and there’s always someone who can walk with you on your journey.”

Meeting the needs of serving personnel and their families

“We recognise that being part of the military is challenging, with serving personnel put in difficult positions. And military partners don’t know what to expect,” said Whit.

“It’s our responsibility to work in partnership with them. We listen and understand, and provide support where we can, but we also work with organisations like Solent Mind and its Anchoring Minds programme to make sure there’s support there that makes sense - at the right time and in the right place.”

Mandy added: “I think it’s absolutely essential - and critical - that we have experts on hand to work with our families, and the team at Anchoring Minds are the subject matter experts. Our families deserve the best and that’s what we seek to give them when we put support in place.”

Solent Mind has wellbeing centres in Gosport and Portsmouth - two places that have a huge population of Royal Navy and Royal Marine families and serving personnel. Serving the needs of these communities is “a really important part of our work”, says Sally.

This could be through home visits by service leaders with lived experience for those in the local community, or a friendly chat with someone who understands. It could also be access to free courses and resources to improve wellbeing or signposting to additional support in a person’s area whether that’s local or further afield or across the UK.

Read more on our Anchoring Minds webpage or to access support, call our national support line on 0300 303 1725 or email us at anchoringminds@solentmind.org.uk