Thousands of armed forces veterans across Wales
with mental health and substance misuse problems and the family members who often
struggle to look after them will have a helping hand thanks to a more than £1.4
million government grant to an all-Wales service led by Llandudno-based drug
and alcohol charity CAIS.
‘Change Step’, a peer mentoring service
delivered by veterans for veterans since early this year, and ‘Listen In’, a sister
service now being launched in North Wales to help family members and carers,
have been awarded £995,918 and £434,659 respectively by the UK government’s
Armed Forces Covenant LIBOR Fund.
Utilising the pan-Wales framework of the Drug
and Alcohol Charities Wales (DACW) consortium, ‘Change Step’ peer mentors will
work alongside CAIS in North Wales, Kaleidoscope in Gwent, TEDS in Rhondda
Cynon Taf, WCADA in South Wales, Cyswllt Contact in West Wales, and Drugaid in
Mid West Wales. ‘Listen In’ will be delivered by CAIS across North Wales in
partnership with mental health charity Mind and the Association of Voluntary
Organisations in Wrexham (AVOW). Both services are funded from February 2014
for two years.
CAIS Chief Executive Clive Wolfendale said:
“Change Step is already proving its worth in North Wales and we can now engage
energetically with partner charities to roll-out the service across the whole
of Wales to help those armed forces veterans who have given so much for their
country but who now find themselves, for a variety of reasons, in distress.”
“Veterans can often feel misunderstood and that
is why we take on well-motivated veterans as peer mentors because there is an
instant connection between them because of their shared experience. Relatives
and carers often feel they have no-one to turn to either, which is why we are
delighted to be launching the new Listen In service too,” said Mr Wolfendale.
Mr Wolfendale added: “Veterans frequently miss
out when it comes to getting the help and services they need, not least because
they may have lost confidence in themselves and the society in which they live,
and so partnership working between CAIS and other charitable and statutory
sector providers will be crucial to the success of this project.”
Change Step is a CAIS-led peer mentoring,
welfare and advice service for military veterans and others from the blue-light
emergency services who want to make positive changes to their lives. It
supports those seeking or needing help for mental health and psychosocial problems
such as loneliness, anger, anxiety, confusion, distress, poor self-esteem and many
other issues arising from trauma or extreme stress encountered during military
or operational duty. The programme offers peer support, training and
educational opportunities, as well as counselling and detoxification from drugs
or alcohol where required. The programme is modelled on the Welsh Government’s
ESF funded all Wales peer mentoring service.
Change Step already works collaboratively with
the NHS’s All Wales Veterans Health and Wellbeing Service and the Royal British
Legion to ensure a comprehensive and focused service for armed forces veterans.
It will be working with Bangor University’s School of Lifelong Learning and the
University of Chester’s Enablement and Holistic Care Project for veterans.
As Change Step rolls out across Wales during 2014,
peer mentor veterans – all trained in peer mentoring to a minimum of BTEC Level
2 – can apply to take up paid posts as team leaders and go on to recruit a
wider network of peer mentor volunteers, thus ensuring an increasingly
comprehensive level of service delivery. Change Step aims to reach 4,000
veterans between 2014 and 2016.
Its sister service, Listen In, will provide a
bespoke Mental Health First Aid Course for family members and carers of
veterans, equipping them with the awareness and skills to recognise signs of
mental distress in their loved ones and providing access to practical and
emotional support.
Change Step programme director Geraint Jones
said: “Listen In will provide family members with the knowledge and skills to
recognise crisis at an early stage, act effectively to get the support they
need, facilitate the recovery of their loved one and his or her integration
back into civilian life and, equally importantly, manage their own health and
well-being.”
Brigadier Gerhard Wheeler CBE, military patron
to Change Step, said: “I understand all too well the challenges of life in the
military and the problems many veterans encounter when re-entering civilian
life. Veterans have pride in having served in the military and many find it
difficult to ask for help, which is why Change Step works because veterans are
helping their peers. I am delighted to be supporting this extremely worthwhile and
necessary venture as it expands across Wales.”
Veterans wanting to access the service or
wishing to apply to become peer mentors can contact Change Step on 0845 06 121
12.
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