Military families’ experience of health and social care transition

Our four volunteers who led the project:

• Worked with an experienced researcher to construct, test and revise a survey that could be completed online, on paper, or via a face-to-face interview.
• Planned the method of survey distribution and arranged visits, considering location and distribution of military family populations.
• Carried out a range of engagement visits, resulting in 106 survey responses.
• Analysed the survey responses and wrote this report.

Key findings

• Most people we spoke to told us that they had been able to register with a GP, and found this a relatively easy process.

• Finding a dentist was reported to be much more difficult and over a third of our respondents were not registered with a dentist.
• Transfer of records was reported as being problematic and causing delays and a lack of continuity of treatment.
• The process of transferring on to a waiting list when moving from another area did not appear to be consistent.
• Some of our respondents felt that there was a lack of understanding of military life amongst health and care services and that this affected their experience of using these services.
• Information about how to access mental health support was not always available and accessing these services was reported as difficult for some people.
• Information about available health, care and community services was not always available to people, and they told us that this would be useful.

Recommendations

The report makes eight recommendations that are based on the views and experiences
that have been shared with us. These will be shared with our stakeholders across Wiltshire who are involved in supporting and providing services to military families, so they can use these findings to consider what is working well and what could be improved.