A new military focus on "leaving well" as well as serving well is essential for the health of veterans, society and defence, experts have said.
Researchers have made a powerful plea for more to be done to ensure armed forces leavers go on to play a valued role in organisations, companies and their communities.
They have called for a focus on identity and social connectedness to be recognised as core parts of defence strategy, with investment in evidence-based interventions that strengthen identity, belonging and social support during and beyond service.
The plea was a focus at a meeting, held at the Royal United Services Institute in London to mark the launch of the University of Exeter's Centre for the Public Understanding of Defence and Security. The meeting also marked the publication of a volume of essays written by academics associated with the Centre.
Analysis by Dr Stefan Schilling, from the University of Exeter, shows transition programmes could focus more on issues around social challenges.
Research conducted by Dr Schilling and colleagues at Nottingham Trent University, the University of Queensland and at Exeter shows the benefits of helping service leavers to improve their "social connectedness". Mental health is improved when connections with social groups are maintained during and after transition and new connections are more likely to be made.
Dr Schilling and colleagues have been piloting their Veteran Connection Programme, designed to help veterans manage their social life. Participants who completed the programme showed improved social connectedness, psychological wellbeing and civilian adjustment, reporting reduced stigma and normalising talking about their mental health. The research team, who are supported by more than 20 partners from the UK Armed Forces, charities, and the National Health Service, are now aiming to further test the programme.
Dr Schilling said at the event: "The social and psychological dimensions of serving in and leaving the military are of strategic importance to society and defence. When it fails this is costly, but in this case it is predictable and preventable.
"The dominant focus on practical support for veterans neglects the deeper challenge: the loss of military identity, purpose and meaning, and meaningful group belonging.
"Supporting social connection before and during transition is therefore not just a welfare issue but is key to developing a more resilient defence force, and sustaining veterans' continued, voluntary affiliation with defence. One solution is tools to help manage social identity and help people make social connections."
At the event Dr Harry Pitts, also from the University of Exeter, outlined how defence policy now requires a "massive national effort" from workers across different sectors, and the need for them to acquire new skills. But this can also bring about a "defence dividend", with huge potential for areas such as Cornwall, host to the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus.
Although there is some innovative practice, under-investment in skills means the pace and scale of the work needed should be reviewed. There is a need to raise "strategic literacy", and work within universities can assist with this process.
At the event attendees heard powerful poetry about the war in Ukraine by Corporal Yaryna Chornohuz of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, whose work has been translated by a team led by the University of Exeter's Professor Hugh Roberts.
Other contributors to the volume of essays included Catriona Pennell (war and cultural memory), Catarina Thomson (conflict and public opinion), Roo Haywood Smith (the UK Armed Forces Covenant), Frances Tammer (the UK Intelligence Community), Paul Hough (UK and European defence industry) and Peter Roberts (the UK 2025 Strategic Defence Review and its aftermath). General Sir Patrick Sanders (Retd), former Chief of the General Staff, contributed a foreword to the volume.
The aim of the Centre for the Public Understanding of Defence and Security is to promote intelligent, informed public debate about pressing issues of national and international defence and security.
Director Professor Paul Cornish said: "It is vital that the public are engaged in the UK's defence policy, but at the moment there is a deficit of understanding. Having contact with the world of defence and the armed forces because of parades or memorials is not good enough, and this gets the government off the hook.
