With Armed Forces Day coming up this weekend (Saturday 25^th), Solent Mind is releasing a toolkit designed to help the family of serving personnel cope with deployment.

Anchoring Minds is a service specifically for the loved ones and family of those serving, and Lucy Irvine who leads the service used her expertise and experience as someone whose husband serves to put together the toolkit.

Lucy worked with fellow military spouse and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner with iTalk Holly Mainstone. iTalk is commissioned in partnership between Southern Health and Solent Mind, and provides free, tailored treatments for people with mild to moderate mental health and wellbeing difficulties, using evidence-based therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

Holly said: “When you are a military partner people often say or there is a feeling that ‘you know what you signed up for’. It really fosters a culture of feeling like you can’t complain and that you just have to ‘suck it up and put up with it’. This couldn’t be further from the truth; Military families face unique challenges that can be difficult to navigate.

“Often families are spending a lot of time away from each other or dealing with uncertainty about when they will next be seeing each other. This can really have an impact on how people feel and their wellbeing. If you are feeling this way, I would really encourage you to reach out for support because you didn’t know what you were signing up for!”

The ‘Coping with Deployment as a Family’ toolkit is available from the ‘Resource Library’ on our website, offering tips and advice for families as they deal with the serving personnel in the family being deployed.

Anchoring Minds and iTalk are also partnering up with Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, as well as Talking Changing, to deliver a ‘Surviving being a Military Partner’ focusing on workshop on Monday July 18^th.

To register your interest email anchoringminds@solentmind.org.uk. Please note this is for those registered with a GP in Portsmouth and the wider Hampshire area, excluding Southampton, Farnborough and Fleet.

If you are in Portsmouth, Fareham, Gosport or the Isle of Wight, take a look at what Anchoring Minds can offer you: https://www.solentmind.org.uk/support-for-you/our-services/anchoring-minds/

You can also find out if you are eligible to self refer to iTalk here: https://www.solentmind.org.uk/support-for-you/our-services/italk/