The Military Lives and Transformative Experiences project was a study funded by the Royal British Legion's Aged Veterans Fund.

The project aimed to consider the impact of personal narrative in connection with wider philosophical questions about flourishing and wellbeing for older veterans.

Military Lives and Transformative Experiences: Exploring narratives and aged veterans’ wellbeing was a research project conducted between 2017 and 2019. It brought together academics from medical sociology, philosophy, psychology and health research to consider how older veterans’ wellbeing may be improved by autobiographical storytelling in various forms. Our aim was to consider the impact of personal narrative in connection with wider philosophical questions about flourishing and wellbeing for older veterans. The project had two strands of data collection:

1. Interviews with 50 older veterans, focused on the role of personal narrative autobiography and autobiographical accounts and their impact on wellbeing.
2. Five workshops conducted in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancaster, London, Manchester and Preston working with a total of over 70 veterans (approx. 15 per workshop), examining the use of storying prompts, concepts such as transformative experience, and focused on a particular theme in military life such as enlistment, comradeship or leaving the forces.

Our research acknowledges, and works towards addressing, the challenges that some members of the veteran community may be facing. Veteran stories must be heard for those working with the veteran community to deliver best practice support if required. A valuable part of these stories is knowledge of what veterans enjoyed and valued about service and the impact it had upon their lives both during and after service. Working with older veterans in workshops and interviews, we shared stories from classic martial autobiographies, and heard aged veterans’ stories in response, in order to:

1. Investigate the therapeutic benefits of autobiographical storytelling in response to prompts
2. Understand the relationship between aged veterans’ storytelling and philosophical analyses of martial autobiographies and of flourishing.

Our finding show that older veterans can be isolated by perceived gaps between military experiences and civilian understandings.

In particular, the study found:

• Understanding the older veteran community, drawing on the principles of cultural competencies, is essential to facilitating positive outcomes in their improved wellbeing
• Older veterans are concerned about keeping the veteran identity alive by telling stories of military experience, connecting with other veterans and supporting a younger generation of veterans
• Often, older veterans had not identified a need for support until later in life, at the intersection of age and veteran identity. Service providers should be aware that veterans’ needs change over time and be prepared to support these changes.

We recommend using peer-led models that acknowledge the importance of older veterans’ capacity to discuss their needs and concerns. Using guidance provided in our publication, ‘The Understanding Older Veterans Toolkit: working with post-military lives,' will help those who are not from a military background to communicate with and support older veterans, particularly around story-sharing.

Findings arising from the Military Lives and Transformative Experiences project have been disseminated a number of ways. Please find out more below.

Toolkit

• Toolkit for organisations working with older veterans

Reports

• Participant Summary
• Executive Summary
• Final Report‌

Academic journal articles

In press:

• Brewster, L, McWade, B, and Clark, S . 2020. A point of connection?: Well-being, the veteran identity and older adults. Ageing and Society. ISSN 0144-686X

Forthcoming:

• Additional articles 'in process'. Please check back for updates.

Presentations

• Seminar at the Changing Character of War project in Oxford
• Interview on BBC Radio Lancashire about the project and our findings
• Presentation at the 15th biennial ERGOMAS conference, Military Studies in a Post-Truth Society: Challenges and Perspectives, in Lisbon, Portugal
  
• Two presentations at the British Sociological Association MedSoc conference in York.

Policy

• Response to the ‘Strategy for our veterans’ UK government consultation paper in February 2019.

Our team comprises researchers from across Lancaster University with expertise in different disciplines, including health research, sociology and philosophy.