Military veteran engagement with mental health and well-being services: a qualitative study of the role of the peer support worker

Abstract

Background: Many UK military veterans experiencing mental health and well-being difficulties do not engage with support services to get the help they need. Some mental health clinics employ Peer Support Workers (PSWs) to help veteran patients engage, however it is not known how the role influences UK veteran engagement.

Aims: To gain insight into the role of peer support in UK veteran engagement with mental health and well-being services.

Method: A qualitative study based on 18 semi-structured interviews with veterans, PSWs and mental health clinicians at a specialist veteran mental health and well-being clinic in Scotland.

Results: Four themes of the PSW role as positive first impression, understanding professional friend, helpful and supportive connector, and an open door were identified across all participants. The PSWs’ military connection, social and well-being support and role in providing veterans with an easily accessible route to dis-engage and re-engage with the service over multiple engagement attempts were particularly crucial.

Conclusions: The Peer Support role enhanced veteran engagement in the majority of instances. Study findings mirrored existing peer support literature, provided new evidence in relation to engaging UK veterans, and made recommendations for future veteran research and service provision.

Keywords:

• Peer support
• peer support worker
• military veteran
• engagement
• mental health
• qualitative

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the participants of the study. The authors also thank the University of Stirling and NHS Scotland for support received. BW conducted the study as part of an MSc Psychology, with academic supervision from Professor Lindsay Wilson, travel expense reimbursement from the University of Stirling’s post graduate research budget, and financial assistance from NHS Lothian to transcribe participant interviews.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.