New report explores the role of combat injuries in medical discharge from the UK Armed Forces

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· 435 seriously injured ex-service personnel took part

· Participants highlighted, among other things, a dissatisfaction about the perceived lack of collaboration with the military with regards to their leaving, a lack of tailored career advice

· The report highlights the difficulties that many medically discharged personnel face

A new report from the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) has explored the outcomes and experiences of UK Armed Forces personnel who were medically discharged having sustained serious injuries when deployed to Afghanistan.

The report, funded by Forces in Mind Trust and the ADVANCE study charity¹, highlights the difficulties that many medically discharged personnel face and puts forward several recommendations that the authors hope will ease the transition process.

Researchers surveyed 435 ex-service personnel who’d been seriously injured in combat while on deployment in Afghanistan and undertook a series of 28 in-depth interviews to better understand the experience of medical discharge and post-service life.

Participants reported a range of issues, including dissatisfaction about the perceived lack of collaboration with the military with regards to their leaving, a lack of tailored career advice that meets the needs of those who had sustained a combat injury, and frustration over the lack of communication between medical care pre- and post-transition.

Professor Nicola Fear CBE, Director of KCMHR and the report’s senior author said, “To serve in the military is, for many personnel, an important aspect of their identity. Combat injury and medical discharge can represent an unexpected end to that identity and can have a lasting impact on a person. It’s vital therefore that personnel who face medical discharge are provided with the necessary support to ease that transition wherever and whenever possible.”

The report offers ten recommendations designed to provide solutions to the challenges faced by former personnel. These include ensuring that those in the chain of command work alongside Service leavers to increase their sense of agency at the end of their contract, providing robust financial advice to help manage compensation payments, and providing tailored career advice that takes into account a person’s physical limitations following injury.

Dr Howard Burdett, a Research Fellow at KCMHR and the study’s joint first author said, “Despite being eligible for the highest levels of support from transition services, personnel who are medically discharged face lower rates of post-Service employment compared to those who left via other methods of discharge. This report seeks to better understand the unique challenges of those who leave following serious combat injury, and provide evidence-based recommendations to improve their transition outcomes.”

Anna Verey, a Research Associate at KCMHR and the study’s joint first author said, “After sustaining serious injuries, many personnel needed to ‘reinvent’ their professional futures swiftly; providing injured personnel with career support and professional development opportunities early on in their physical rehabilitation should be encouraged and endorsed”.

Minister for Veterans and Peoples, Al Carns MP, said, "While services for veterans have expanded and improved since this data was collected, this important research highlights the challenges that some personnel who are medically discharged can face.

"We’re committed to ensuring medically discharged veterans receive comprehensive support. This includes through providing dedicated career guidance, tailored to the individual and guaranteed employment support through our Career Transition Partnership.

“This year, the government has invested more than £25 million in Op COURAGE, the specialist veterans' mental health service, and Op RESTORE, for physical health needs. This is alongside the Defence Transition Service, which provides up to two years of targeted transition support. “We will carefully consider these recommendations to ensure our services continue to meet the evolving needs of our wounded veterans as we work towards renewing the contract with those who serve."

Professor Lisa Scullion FAcSS, Lead Professor for Social Sciences at University of Salford said, “The support provided during medical discharge is crucial, not only for immediate wellbeing but also to ensure that the final chapter of service does not overshadow what were otherwise meaningful and rewarding careers.”

Michelle Alston, Chief Executive of Forces in Mind Trust said, “Whilst most ex-Service personnel transition from the Armed Forces successfully, being medically discharged can make transition sudden and especially disruptive. Understanding and adapting support for those injured in Service can make transition successful for those who face some of the steepest challenges.”

Ends

For more information, please contact Patrick O’Brien (Media Manager) on 07813706151.

Medical discharge from the UK Armed Forces and the role of combat injury: a short report from the ADVANCE-INVEST study (Burdett, Fear et al) was published by King’s College London.

1. The ADVANCE study’s key contributors are Headley Court Charity (principal funder); HM Treasury (LIBOR grant); Help for Heroes; Nuffield Trust for the Forces of the Crown, Blesma, The Limbless Veterans Charity; and the UK Ministry of Defence.

About King’s College London and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

King’s College London is amongst the top 35 universities in the world and top 10 in Europe (THE World University Rankings 2023), and one of England’s oldest and most prestigious universities.

With an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research, King’s maintained its sixth position for ‘research power’ in the UK (2021 Research Excellence Framework).

King's has more than 33,000 students (including more than 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,500 staff. The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s is a leading centre for mental health and neuroscience research in Europe. It produces more highly cited outputs (top 1% citations) on psychiatry and mental health than any other centre (SciVal 2021), and on this metric has risen from 16th (2014) to 4th (2021) in the world for highly cited neuroscience outputs. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), 90% of research at the IoPPN was deemed ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*). World-leading research from the IoPPN has made, and continues to make, an impact on how we understand, prevent and treat mental illness, neurological conditions, and other conditions that affect the brain.

www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn | Follow @KingsIoPPN on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn

About Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT)

Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) was founded in 2011 with a £35 million endowment from the National Lottery Community Fund to improve transition to civilian life for Service leavers and their families. Our mission is to enable successful and sustainable transition to civilian life. FiMT delivers this mission by funding high quality, credible research where there is an identified gap in relevant understanding, and by then exploiting the findings, FiMT aims to effect positive change.

www.fim-trust.org |@FiMTrust

Authors

Dr Howard Burdett, Anna Verey, Dr Laura Palmer, Gp Capt Alex Bennett, Prof Paul Cullinan, Prof Christopher Boos, Prof Anthony Bull, Prof Nicola T Fear.

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A Motta