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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
28 February 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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I’ve worked with the Armed Forces community for many years, both in military help-seeking research at the King’s Centre of Military Health Research and in healthcare policy at the Royal British Legion. I was fortunate enough last year to be a Forces in Mind Trust Fellow on Clore Social Leadership’s Fellowship Programme.
An area I care very deeply about is the mental health of our Armed Forces community. We live in a stressful world, there is no doubt. The World Health Organisation reports that mental health and substance misuse problems are the leading cause of disability worldwide, and one in four of us will experience a mental health problem in our lifetime.
In the UK Armed Forces community, the most common mental health problems are depression and anxiety. Most recent research suggests these may be experienced by Service and ex-Service personnel at double the rates of those in the general population. Despite much effort to improve service provision and mental health attitudes by the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and Service charities, help-seeking rates in the Armed Forces community continue to remain extremely low.
My provocation piece asks us to rethink our conceptions of mental health and help-seeking in the Armed Forces. The piece begins with an imagined character in the Armed Forces giving advice through a letter to those struggling with mental health problems. Whilst this letter is my creation and exaggerated for effect, it is based on some real views I have had recounted to me in my research interviews with the Armed Forces community. The language in the letter seeks to highlight some very important issues that prevent individuals from seeking help for mental health problems in the Armed Forces.
I highlight the main barriers to seeking help for mental health problems in the Armed Forces. These include mental health stigma, the preference to solve problems alone, a lack of social or family support, and finally the pervading culture of masculinity that equates help-seeking with weakness.
In terms of what can be done to address these barriers, I suggest that:
- We need to get talking about our mental health to one another and to our families;
- We need to educate ourselves on how to look after our own mental health, how to spot signs and symptoms of mental ill health and know what services are available that can support us;
- We need to challenge the weakness culture. We cannot continue to uphold the notion that seeking help is akin to failure. True courage is found in honesty, in facing up to problems, taking action to help ourselves and being strong through support found in others.
Our significance as leaders is measured by the courage of the questions we ask in order to confront and change negative cultures and attitudes that should not be promoted in our communities. The barriers and cultures that prevent Armed Forces individuals, past and present, from seeking help is a problem that all people in the Armed Forces community can take a stand upon and demonstrate leadership in promoting the type of environment we want to live in. It is time we changed the conversation and refuse to accept the state of things as they are now. I believe changing the culture around help-seeking for mental health problems in the Armed Forces will need all of our combined strength and leadership.
You can download Marie-Louise Sharp’s provocation piece here.
Please share your views and comments below, or you can contact Marie-Louise on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
31 January 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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I have worked in world of ‘crisis support’ in various roles for 15 years. For me, crisis support is for people who feel they cannot cope or move forward without external help. The people I have worked with who are in crisis are often dealing with a multitude of issues they need support with such as rough sleeping, mental health needs, domestic violence and substance misuse.
All of my roles have all been for small specialist charities, and I have often wondered about the impact on charities and their workers when responding to people in crisis. Similarly, I have also questioned how important these charities really are for those accessing it. Surely there are statutory services that are better setup for this type of work such as hospitals, the police, or GP services?
I used the opportunity open to me through my Clore Social Leadership experience to look at these questions. Specifically my research asks: ‘What do male sex workers experience when they engage with frontline support services?’ Due to my professional experience I felt that the people I had often worked with would not engage with statutory services, so this was my opportunity to see if my thoughts were echoed by other professionals, and also those accessing the services.
My research findings
What became apparent is that the reality of how things should be done and how they are experienced are in stark contrast. Policy and guidance documents that have been around for as long as I have been working are not being followed - either through a lack of resources and time, or a lack of understanding or care. These are my top line findings:
- Multi agency working practices are just not happening in this sector;
- Specialist sexual health services are often seen as being aimed at ‘white heterosexuals’ which therefore stops some people feeling able to access them;
- Funders do not understand the time, money and resources it takes to support an individual in crisis.
My research highlights some of the voices of male sex workers and the staff who support them when they are in crisis. Charities are often not funded or resourced enough to respond to these crises, and this has a huge impact on these men’s lives. Since conducting and publishing my research, several specialist sex work services have closed down. My research consistently states that when in crisis these services were often the only places these people felt they could go for support and respect, so where will they go now?
I have focused my research on male sex workers, but I believe the findings and questions raised from it are applicable far beyond this area of work. Both the workers and men’s experiences are indicative of people across the UK who find themselves in similar crises or lacking specialist support.
To read the full research report, please download it here. Feel free to share your comments about Hayley’s blog and research below, or you can contact Hayley on Twitter.
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