Military Veteran Psychological Health and Social Care
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-07-2017-0024 |
| Pages | 127-128 |
| Date | 18 September 2017 |
| Published date | 18 September 2017 |
| Author | Woody Caan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Public mental health |
Edited by Jamie Hacker Hughes
Routledge
Abingdon
2017
ISBN 978-1-138-94949-2
Review DOI
10.1108/JPMH-07-2017-0024
Keywords Social care, Veterans,
Psychological health, Mental health policy
This book covers a key area of UK mental
health policy that is in need of development:
veterans’health and social care needs.
A recent issue of the Journal of Public Mental
Health demonstrated widespread interest in
the mental health of veterans (Green, 2017).
Professor Hacker Hughes has extensive,
personal experience with both the UK Military
and with NATO (so this book contains some
interesting international material, especially a
Dutch perspective on their National Veterans
Healthcare System). The back cover
mentions a number of potential types of
reader and the Preface ten more types. Here,
I can only respond on behalf of three types of
reader: commissioners of services, academic
researchers and family carers.
Routledge have published what Air
Vice-Marshal Lock rightly calls “amassof
contemporary knowledge”.Thatmassis
presented in 13 chapters with 26 authors.
The risk with publishing such a multi-author
book is an inconsistent literary style and difficulty
synthesising information from different chapters.
For example, three chapters deal with the
services in specific geographical areas
(Scotland, Wales and North West England),
but it is impossible for readers to compare data
from these three chapters directly.
TheIntroductiondoesanexcellent
epidemiological job of setting the scene,
explaining why veterans compose “apopulation
with unique qualities and specific needs”.
However, if the order of the next ten chapters
was shuffled randomly, I doubtif a reader would
notice any change in this book’s disconnected
literary flow or development of ideas. General
the Lord Dannatt thinks that the book will have
value for “the general reader”, but I cannot
imagine who reads it from cover to cover, just
for reading pleasure or intellectual stimulation.
My guess is that the commissioning editors at
Routledge did not maintain consistent dialogue
with the 26 contributors during the evolution of
this mass of contemporary knowledge?
Military Veteran Psychological Health and
Social Care contains much rare and valuable
material. For a commissioner, the chapter on
the Scottish perspective is outstanding.
This places services for veterans within the
wider systems of care and gives a clear voice
to service users.There is a balanced picture of
social and health needs, and a sense of
building relationships across people and
organisations. In public health training that
competence is called “collaboration for
health”. Commissioners typically have
responsibilities for a range of service users
over time, so it is valuable to see evidence of
their trajectories within the health system
(e.g. Rona et al., 2017). The chapter on the
Veterans and Reserves Mental Health
Programme for British Forces (VRMHP)
provides food for thought on future research.
There can be many strands to the life story of
one ex-service person, and their mental
condition may change over time, after their
service ended.A reservist’s experience of care
involving both an NHS general pract itioner and
the specialist VRMHP suggests future
research on the integration of care, and links
with community support at critical times.
Another chapter which gives a voice to
service users deals with veterans’children.
This includes a key lesson for schools:
Schools should make every effort to really
understand the culture and context in which
these children have lived when part of the
service community and how this may impact
on children going forwards.
The final chapter gives an international
perspective on transition. For readers who dip
in and out of this book as a reference text,
or who use it in coursework within a
postgraduate degree, this chapter offers
some balance: a veteran is not just some
liability, but also bring assets to civil society:
Veterans are most noted for their ability to
work in a fast-paced,changing environment;
as well as their leadership, teamwork,
flexibility, dependability, integrity and loyalty.
Military Veteran
Psychological Health
and Social Care
VOL. 16 NO. 3 2017, pp. 127-128, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729
j
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTALHEALTH
j
PAG E 127
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