Women veterans

See Me, Combat Stress and SAMH have gained funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Trust to work in partnership to understand the nature of mental health stigma and discrimination experienced by women Veterans (including cis and trans women) and take forward work to tackle it in Scotland. The project will work alongside ex-servicewomen to amplify the voices of women veterans, challenge stereotypes, address stigma and advocate for systemic change.

We aim to understand the barriers and enablers to Women Veterans feeling able to talk about their mental health and access appropriate support that is suited to their needs and the impact of intersections of other oppressive systems of power such as sexism, racism and homophobia.

We want ex-service women to feel heard, understood and supported around their mental health, as well as being an active part in making positive change.

This funding will help us build a multi-layered programme of work, emphasising lived experience leadership, anti-stigma champions leading anti-stigma work in communities, awareness campaigns, social movements and advocacy for systemic change.

This work is building on our previous campaign with Veterans, The Guard (Veterans | End Mental Health Stigma and Discrimination (seemescotland.org) which aimed to tackle self-stigma and barriers to accessing mental health support through sharing the lived experience of veterans via stories, photos and podcasts.

We would love to talk with women veterans who would like to have their voices heard as part of this project. This can be done in various ways – from anonymous sharing, to peer research, to volunteer roles. If you would like an informal chat then please feel free to contact Anna Cook anna.cook@seemescotland.org.

We would also love to hear from any organisations who would like to be a part of this work. Any interested organisations can also contact Anna anna.cook@seemescotland.org.

We are currently in the early stages of the project, watch this space for updates.