Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) has awarded £168,813 to King’s Centre for Military Health Research to conduct the first scoping study to explore the experiences of moral injury in UK ex-Service personnel.
The aim of the 15-month study is to address gaps in understanding of moral injury and researchers will focus on a number of areas including:
- Exploring the experiences of moral injury in UK ex-Service personnel.
- Investigating the impact of moral injury mental health and well-being.
- Examining ex-Service personnel and clinician perceptions of potential risk and protective factors for mental health difficulties following moral injury.
Most current studies of moral injury are of US ex-Service personnel, and evidence produced from these revealed that military-related moral injury was a significant predictor of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and alcohol abuse.
Ray Lock, Chief Executive of Forces in Mind Trust, said: “The purpose of Forces in Mind Trust is to enable all ex-Service personnel to have a sustainable transition back into civilian life. This can be done by providing robust evidence to policy makers and service providers to inform decision making.
“This ground-breaking research to be undertaken by King’s Centre for Military Health Research will give us a better insight into the impact of moral injury from the perspective of the UK Armed Forces. Services and support structures can then be tailored to provide the specific support needed to assist recovery and progress through the transition pathway.”
Dr Victoria Williamson, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, King’s Centre for Military Health Research, said: “We are delighted to receive a grant from FIMT which will allow us to investigate this very important topic from a UK viewpoint. Service personnel have to make highly challenging ethical decisions and live with the consequences if they go wrong. This study will help us better understand Service personnel’s experiences and their support needs.
-ENDS-
Note to Editor: Ray Lock and Victoria Williamson are available for interview. To arrange please contact Tina McKay, Communications Officer at FiMT on co@fim-trust.org or on 07956 101132 or 0207 901 8916.
About the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT):
FiMT came about from a partnership between the Big Lottery Fund (‘the Fund’), Cobseo (The Confederation of Service Charities) and other charities and organisations. FiMT continues the Fund’s long-standing legacy of support for veterans across the UK with an endowment of £35 million awarded in 2012. http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/.
The mission of FiMT is to enable ex-Service personnel and their families make a successful and sustainable transition to civilian life, and it delivers this mission by generating an evidence base that influences and underpins policy making and service delivery.
FiMT awards grants (for both responsive and commissioned work) to support its change model around 6 outcomes in the following areas: Housing; Employment; Health and wellbeing; Finance; Criminal Justice System; and Relationships. All work is published in open access and hosted on the Forces in Mind Trust Research Centre’s Veterans and Families Research Hub https://www.vfrhub.com/. A high standard of reportage is demanded of all grant holders so as to provide a credible evidence base from which better informed decisions can be made.
Useful links
- Website: www.fim-trust.org
- Reports: www.fim-trust.org/reports/
- Who we have helped: www.fim-trust.org/who-we-have-helped/
- Twitter: @FiMTrust
- About the Mental Health Research Programme: www.fim-trust.org/mental-health/research-programme/
About King’s College London www.kcl.ac.uk
King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2017/18 QS World University Rankings) and among the oldest in England. King’s has more than 26,500 students (of whom nearly 10,400 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and nearly 6,900 staff. The university is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King’s has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) King’s was ranked 6th nationally in the ‘power’ ranking, which takes into account both the quality and quantity of research activity, and 7th for quality according to Times Higher Education rankings. Eighty-four per cent of research at King’s was deemed ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*). The university is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of more than £600 million.
