Background;
Suicide, trauma and mental ill health are significant issues within the UK, and indeed the global, Veteran community. There are currently no credible statistics available to quantify veteran suicide numbers within the UK, but unofficial veteran support groups, monitoring suicides within the community, see that the numbers of men and women from the veteran taking their own lives is both significant and concerning. At the heart of each of these instances of suicide, trauma and mental ill-health is loneliness. Loneliness within the veteran community has it’s own unique characteristics, catalysts and mitigators.
In this interactive webinar we will seek to showcase, discuss and explore loneliness within the veteran community, looking at both it’s unique characteristics and also any potential similarities with the lived experience of other marginalised and stigmatised communities.
Richard Gettings and Mark Humphreys will co-present the webinar and will explore loneliness within the veteran community through their combined lived experience and will draw also upon research in the area, some of which they have both been actively involved in themselves also. Both Richard and Mark continue to work within the veteran community, supporting through the work that they do which they will discuss thoroughly during the webinar.
This webinar is for everyone involved in supporting those living with loneliness in their lives and their respective communities; it is only by becoming more aware and cognisant of how loneliness manifests across our communities, in both unique and common ways, that we can work together and collaborate effectively to target and mitigate it’s toxic consequences.
Attendees will gain the following from joining this webinar;
– Fresh insights of loneliness from within the UK Veteran community; raising awareness and smashing stigma.
– Conversation that aspires to bridge lived experience, policy and research relating to loneliness in the Veteran community.
– Practical takeaways for those experiencing loneliness, across all communities, and working within the field of mitigating loneliness and supporting those experiencing it.
– Live audience Q&A
Visit the following link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/I0A_ignjS6SxKSqFEPZOBw
Speaker Info:
Richard Gettings is an Embedded Researcher with Doncaster Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), who has lived experience of mental ill-health, trauma and suicide within the Bluelight and Veteran communities and is founder of the Daparian Foundation, a lived experience research community centred upon trauma mitigation across communities. To see more details about the Daparian Foundation access their website
Mark Humphries BA (Hons) is a UK veteran who served in HM Forces, in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and Parachute Regiment, in the Falklands and Gulf Wars, Northern Ireland and on United Nations duties. Mark is integrally involved in Veteran Wheelchair Rugby, with the Endeavour Wheelchair Rugby Community Sports Club and is the founder of The Veterans In Focus photographic project that pays tribute to Veterans from all walks of life; understanding the full power that sport and holistic activities have in mitigating trauma, mental ill-health and loneliness.
