The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT), established to help ex-Service men and women make a successful transition back to civilian life, has awarded a grant of £177,949 to Addaction to evaluate and extend their programme, Right Turn, which supports veterans with drug and alcohol problems.

The veteran-tailored programme, Right Turn, which is run by Addaction, is currently successfully working with veterans who need drugs and/or alcohol treatment in the North of England and Scotland. The grant will enable Right Turn to be extended to the South and South West of England.

It will also support a detailed evaluation of the project produced by the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University. By capturing the true scope and scale of the problem, the project aims to influence policy makers and improve the way services are delivered to veterans right across the country.

Addaction provides substance misuse treatment services across the UK. Right Turn was implemented in direct response to the growing number of veterans misusing drugs and alcohol who were accessing Addaction’s services.  Through a specific programme of awareness-raising, education, treatment and peer support, Right Turn aims to reduce the use of drug and/or alcohol amongst veterans.

Ray Lock, Chief Executive of the Forces in Mind Trust said: “After military service, a small but significant number of people can face particularly difficult challenges that can lead them to turn to drink and drugs in order to cope with the stress of transitioning back into civilian life. It can be very difficult for such vulnerable people to have the confidence to speak up and ask for help; in some cases they may not even be aware that such help is available. Addaction’s Right Turn programme is the perfect way for people to gain the vital help and support that they need and it is right that Forces in Mind Trust supports the extension and evaluation of it.

“By conducting an independent evaluation, we will provide the evidence-base that is needed to further support Service and ex-Service personnel to lead fulfilling civilian lives. We are proud to fund Addaction in this project and are optimistic that it will be a success.”

Simon Antrobus, Chief Executive of Addaction, said: “Addaction’s work with Veterans in Sheffield has already shown the importance of providing specialist support for former members of the Armed Forces, many of whom are struggling to re-integrate into civilian life. We are very grateful to the Forces in Mind Trust for this grant, which will give us the opportunity to extend our work with Veterans across the country and to collect the evidence that will help develop better services for them in the future.”

Professor David Best, who will lead the evaluation for Sheffield Hallam University, said: “This is a significant evaluation project for the University following the launch of our new centre for international justice in January.

“The recovery model is about providing hope, empowerment and connectedness to individuals whose lives are affected by alcohol and drug addiction, and this project offers a unique partnership between Addaction and Sheffield Hallam that will assess the power of peers in catalysing and sustaining recovery and in the resulting growth of well-being in communities and families.”

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Notes to Editors
For more information, please contact:

–          Talia Cohen at The PR Office on tcohen@theproffice.com / direct dial: 0207 284 6957

  • About the Forces in Mind Trust: The Forces in Mind Trust came about  from a partnership between the Big Lottery Fund (BIG), Cobseo (The Confederation of Service Charities) and other charities and organisations. FiMT continues BIG’s long-standing legacy of support for veterans across the UK with an endowment of £35 million awarded in 2012. Since 2004 BIG has given more than £88 million to programmes supporting veterans. http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/.
    •  During its first two years, FiMT has commissioned seminal research reports such as the Transition Mapping Study (TMS), which reviewed how the entire transition process from military to civilian life currently works and how it is viewed by stakeholders and recent Service leavers.  The economic model developed for the report calculated the total cost of poor transition to the UK as a whole to be £113 million in 2012, whilst the report itself has been discussed across Whitehall and debated in the House of Lords.
  • Useful links

 

About Addaction
Addaction is a UK charity which helps people and communities to overcome the effects of drug and alcohol misuse. For nearly 50 years we’ve been providing support to individuals and families. We run 117 services in 80 locations across England and Scotland, helping around 48,000 people every year to overcome addiction.

About The Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice
The Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice is part of the award-winning law and criminology department at Sheffield Hallam University. Its central values are those of widening access to justice and education, the promotion of human rights, ethics in practice, equality, and a respect for human dignity in overcoming social injustice. The mission of the Centre is to involve staff and students in national and international projects, innovative teaching programmes and research, focusing on criminal law, international human rights and the promotion of social justice through all components of the social and criminal justice systems. For more information, go to www.shu.ac.uk/dlc