From overlooked to understood
The mental health needs of women veterans
Abigail Wood is a Research Fellow with the Veterans & Families Institute for Military Social Research (VFI) at ARU.
Established in 2014, the VFI carries out research on the impact of military service. Its work informs and improves the wellbeing of veterans, service personnel and their families.
One such project focused on the mental health needs and experience of women veterans in England. Here, Abigail explains the research process and some of the project's findings and recommendations.
Background and motivation
As a minority, the mental health needs of women veterans have often been overlooked, despite their growing numbers. Recent studies (Dodds & Kiernan, 2019) have shown that only a small percentage of research specifically addresses the unique experiences of women veterans. This project, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), aimed to fill this gap by exploring the mental healthcare support needs and experiences of women veterans in England.
Women veterans face unique challenges when accessing mental healthcare, often not being recognised as veterans, and experiencing issues within veteran services that have historically been designed around the needs of men. These issues contribute to their underutilisation of veteran-specific services, including those provided by the NHS and charitable organisations.
This project sought to understand the mental health support needs of women veterans and develop practical guidance for mental healthcare professionals. By working with a co-design group of women veterans, the project aimed to create recommendations for how services can best meet the support needs of women veterans, and ensure they are sensitive to the unique experiences of women veterans.
Research process
The research employed an experience-based co-design approach and a qualitative exploration of the mental health support needs and experiences of women veterans in England.
"This project sought to understand the mental health support needs of women veterans [and] create recommendations for how services can best meet their support needs."
Key stages of the research
- Co-design and planning: women veterans helped shape the project from the start, ensuring the research questions were meaningful and sensitive.
- Recruitment: information about the project was shared via social media, veteran organisations, and community groups to reach a diverse group of participants.
- Data collection: interviews and focus groups explored the mental health challenges faced by women veterans and their experiences with accessing mental healthcare.
- Analysis and recommendations: the research team conducted a thematic analysis of the data, which was then reviewed and refined with input from the co-design group and key stakeholders.
- Dissemination: the findings and recommendations were shared through workshops, conferences, and briefings to raise awareness and promote change.
Whilst our sample reflected experiences across different sexualities, ranks, service branches and access to support, we found recruiting a diverse sample of women veterans a significant challenge. The team used various methods to reach underrepresented groups, including LGBTQ+ veterans and veterans from the global majority. Despite these efforts, the final sample was predominantly white British, highlighting the need for future research to focus on more diverse populations.
"The project emphasised the importance of trauma-informed care, clinician understanding of women’s military experiences, and the inclusion of women veterans in service branding and materials."
Findings
The study revealed that women veterans face mental health challenges related to gender-based bullying, discrimination, sexual violence, and previous discriminatory policies associated with military service. Women veterans also reported challenges related to deployment and combat-related experiences, non-deployment occupational stress, and difficulties during transition and life post-service. Many women felt there was limited understanding of their experiences during service, did not identify with the term 'veteran' and felt that veteran-specific services could not meet their needs. The project emphasised the importance of trauma-informed care, clinician understanding of women’s military experiences, and the inclusion of women veterans in service branding and materials.
Collaboration
This project was conducted in collaboration with the East of England NHS Veteran’s Transition, Intervention, and Liaison Service (TILS), and Salute Her, a charity providing gender-specific mental health services for women veterans. Veteran peer researcher Patricia Pride also played a key role in the project.
Future directions
The findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive mental healthcare services. Recommendations include providing trauma-informed care, giving patient’s choice in clinician military background and gender, offering women-only treatment and peer support groups, and ensuring service branding reflects the experiences of women veterans. These changes can help women veterans feel more comfortable and supported when seeking mental healthcare.
The Centre for Military Women’s Research at ARU will continue to engage with women in the military community and key stakeholders to share the project findings. Future steps include evaluating the guidance for providing trauma-informed mental healthcare and conducting larger-scale studies to further understand the needs of women veterans.
The ultimate goal of this project was to improve mental healthcare services for women veterans, leading to better mental health outcomes and increased satisfaction with care. By raising awareness and promoting gender-sensitive practices, the project aimed to make veteran-specific mental health services more accessible and effective for women veterans.
This project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) under its Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme (Grant Reference Number NIHR202226). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
