Specialised support for women veterans launched by mental health trust
Women veterans are being offered bespoke support as part of a co-produced project by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT).
Clinical nurse specialist Vicki Bailey, who works in NSFT's Veterans Integrated Service, developed the specialised forum after launching a co-production group with 14 women veterans across the East of England, supported by Op Courage.
Vicki identified a gap in research around support for female veterans when she was completing a master's degree in military health and family studies at Anglia Ruskin University in 2019.
She said: "There wasn't any research around the barriers female veterans face when accessing mental health services and that ignited a passion to offer something bespoke. I developed the co-production group, where we started to plan what we could do."
The group has launched a forum online for female veterans in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge and Peterborough, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The first of these will run on Monday, 2 June, 10am - 11am.
"The aim is to provide an online social space and network for female veterans to build on relationships with other female veterans, the chance for a coffee and a catch up," said Vicki. "We encourage those of any rank or length of service to come join our group."
To expand on this, there will be the chance for other services to give talks on support and specific areas of interest.
The next part of the project is developing a weekly stabilisation group for women veterans, with sessions around psychoeducation and techniques tailored to what women would feel they would benefit from. These could include PTSD, anxiety and moral injury. The sessions will be held on MS Teams from autumn 2025.
Vicki set up the group after initially reaching out via social media, primarily through LinkedIn: "People saw the posts and then shared them with others, I even had one person get in touch whose friend in Canada had told her about the group," she said.
RAF veteran Mandy Small was one of the first people to get involved, having previously used NSFT's Op Courage service.
She said: "It's important for everyone whether male or female to have a safe space, somewhere that they feel comfortable enough to be able to open up. I hope these new drop-ins will encourage more people who are struggling to come forward, so they realise they are not alone going through their issues."
Mandy added that the women only group was important, particularly with cases of sexual abuse and harassment coming to light: "So many people are still living with the trauma of this, and they have only just been given a voice.
"Women only groups are so important as people don't always feel confident enough to discuss this in front of men."
Chief patient experience officer and deputy chief executive Cath Byford praised the project and the co-production involved.
She said: "Our service users are the best people to ask about how to provide support and improve services, so it is excellent that our women veterans have had so much input into this work. Working together with the wider NHS system and local community is an excellent way to improve care for the benefit of the people who use our services."
The project will be evaluated by Anglia Ruskin University at Chelmsford.
If you would like to register for the support group, please email vicki.bailey@nsft.nhs.uk.
Photos and audio recording with Mandy Small available for use here: NSFT women veterans support PR assets.zip [zip] 4MB