A new guide has been produced to help care homes provide better support for service men and women in assisted living in the UK.
Produced by Demos think tank, in partnership with the Forces in Mind Trust and the Care Cluster of Cobseo (The Confederation of Service Charities), the guide will be sent to all UK care homes and care home provider headquarters.
Polly Mackenzie, director of Demos says: “We created this guide in response to our 2015 report Under-Served. The report found that veterans can face a range of challenges while living in residential care, yet managers and staff lack the information and resources they needed to know how best to support them. The aim of the guide is to fill that gap.”
‘Supporting Military Veterans in Residential Care – a practical guide’, provides five practical steps to help care home managers, staff and local authority commissioners to understand more about how to support veterans living in residential care. It draws on best practice and offers tips and resources to make it easier to deliver bespoke care.
Ray Lock, chief executive of the Forces in Mind Trust, says: “’Dignity’ and ‘respect’ should be the watch words when it comes to the care of those who served in the Armed Forces. For many, it is central to their identity. Getting it right for veterans means being aware of the service they served in, their rank and the sort of service and deployments they saw. The message is clear: do your homework, and shape support plans to fit.”
Andy Cole, chair, Care Cluster of Cobseo, says: “By the end of the decade, a quarter of a million veterans and their dependents will need residential or nursing care, with over 40,000 veterans living with dementia. This guide offers practical support and advice to care homes across the country about how a growing population of veterans can be even better supported.”
