You are here:

National Veterans Forum

National Veterans Forum

Equal input for everyone

Co-production is an integral part of the culture at Combat Stress

We believe in working together with veterans whose lived experiences and views are equally as important as the expertise of our staff. Everyone’s input counts equally here.

Trust is a cornerstone of effective mental health care, particularly for veterans who may already be hesitant to seek help. Our co-production approach has been instrumental in building that trust. Veterans who know that their peers have helped shape the services available to them are more likely to engage with those services.

By teaming up with the veteran community, we can create world-class mental health services that truly make a difference. 

To do this we have set up our National Veterans Forum. Led by our veteran engagement officer, the forum meets virtually every three months. It brings together Combat Stress staff, veterans and other sector professionals to co-produce elements of Combat Stress that directly impact veterans and to give veterans a space to share their expertise.

Veterans who take part do not need to have been through our services, we welcome contributions from all veterans. We invite veterans and professionals from the health sector, the veterans’ sector and the military sector to take part. All participants will be contacted and prepared in advance of the meeting by our veteran engagement officer.

Each forum meeting will last for 90 minutes and generally takes place during the early evening.

Davina, National Veterans Forum participant

“The forum is an opportunity to give a voice to those seldom heard and help ensure the charity provides mental health services that truly meet their needs. It really is a viable mechanism for change and development. I would encourage any veteran to take part to help support the needs of this community.”

Dave Aitken, Head of Engagement and Social Care

“At Combat Stress, we pride ourselves on being veteran-centric. We have many veteran members of staff, many staff have a loved one who has served, and we have several employees who accessed our treatment in their recovery process. We’re looking to ensure the veteran is embedded in the DNA of our Charity. Our National Veterans Forum gives our veteran community an equal voice in the development, evolution and delivery of our services.”

Join our next Veterans Forum

Getting involved in our National Veterans Forum is open to veterans and professionals from the health sector, the veterans’ sector and the military sector. Veterans who take part do not need to have been through our services, we welcome contributions from all veterans.

If you have a complaint, we respectfully ask that you use our complaints procedure.

Upcoming dates for our National Veterans Forums: 

  • 5 February, 5.30pm – 7pm
  • 7 May, 5.30pm – 7pm
  • 6 August, 5.30pm – 7pm
  • 5 November, 5.30pm – 7pm  

Register your interest via the form below

Who can join?

Please fill out the form below (or contact us at VeteransVoice@combatstress.org.uk) and we’ll be in touch to provide you with more information and answer any questions you might have.

What happens at the forum?

The event, which is held online via MS Teams, is aimed to be constructive and to make Combat Stress as veteran-centric as possible.

Each meeting will have a discussion point from Combat Stress in order to better deliver our services. Equally there will be an opportunity for veterans to raise issues and this can be discussed with our veteran engagement officer. Following each meeting, all veteran participants will be invited to attend an informal online peer support group, this will be led by a member of the peer support team.

If you would like to submit a topic, please email VeteransVoice@combatstress.org.uk by the last Friday before each forum.

We hope to see you there.