Andy Cole, Chief Executive of Royal Star & Garter, a charity that offers care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia. He is the driving force behind a recent initiative developed by the charity and its partners.
Royal Star & Garter was established in 1916 and is at the forefront of delivering exceptional care for the nation’s military family. We have three care homes and services reaching into the community.
We have long considered how to extend the benefits of our experience to veterans living in other homes across the country. I decided to review the scheme designed for NHS Trusts, which helps hospitals to better support the veterans in their care, alongside a similar programme for GP surgeries. The principles of both were positive, so we decided to test the NHS Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) Veteran Aware scheme in our Homes to understand how this might work in a social care setting.
While the foundations of the scheme were good, there were processes that didn’t translate to a care home setting and there was little understanding of what busy home managers and their teams could achieve. So, we developed our own version – the Veteran Friendly Framework (VFF) – tailored specifically for care homes, with the Royal British Legion (RBL) and VCHA. We secured financial support from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and RBL.
We know how important it is to our veteran residents to have their Armed Forces service recognised. We acknowledge it in our Homes, we train our staff to understand service life and we mark commemorativee events which are close to residents’ hearts. Our focus on shared military experience brings residents together and tackles isolation. Providing person-centred care is a vital part of our work. To deliver this, we have to understand the life experience of the individuals we support.
Understanding the positive impact of supporting veterans in our homes was the driving force behind developing the VFF. We also believe that it is important that the whole sector better recognises the experiences that veterans have had, as has been so vividly marked at the recent D-Day events.
It’s a comprehensive framework, supported by a dedicated team, which guides care homes to identify any changes. The first action is to check whether a resident has served in the Armed Forces. It sounds simple but one of the challenges we find is that people just don’t ask and veterans themselves may not mention it.
There are many local services provided by the NHS and charity sector that are available to the Armed Forces community. The VFF helps care homes to understand what’s available for veterans and how they can link into them.
The feedback we’ve had from homes achieving VFF status is hugely encouraging. One home connected two previously solitary veterans, who were encouraged to swop their military stories. They now meet regularly and find companionship in their shared experience. Care home managers have also told us about the valuable links they’re building with their local Royal British Legion associations, cadets and military bases.
We currently have 100 homes that have achieved VFF status, or are in the process. We’re really pleased with the uptake, but there are thousands of care homes in the country with veterans living in them, and we want as many as possible to become part of the growing network.
And that’s our goal – for every care home to achieve the VFF status. While this is currently a two-year project, we are working with our partners to secure longer-term funding, so that we can continue delivering this vital programme for the veterans who have served the country with such pride.
For more information, visit: https://veteranfriendlyframework.org.uk
StarandGarter
starandgarter.org
