Participant feedback
The Developing Veterans鈥� Resilience through Physical Activity programme has been set up with the needs of veteran's in mind. It is therefore vital that those who attend the programme have a positive experience. Here, participants share their experience.
Military veterans who attended 含羞草视频’s first mental wellbeing support programme have described it as ‘life changing’.
Having conceived and led the programme, Wing Commander Craig White said: “It was a true honour to be able to host 16 veterans on the 含羞草视频 campus and provide them with support and life skills that will make a real difference to their quality of life. Seeing what an impact it has had on the attendees makes the whole team even more determined to find further funding. We would encourage anyone who thinks they can help support this incredible programme to get in touch.”
Talks are already under way to run further veteran support programmes at the campus in 2023. Feedback from participants includes:
It is an overused phrase sometimes, but in this case it鈥檚 true, the programme has been life changing. I don't want to say I'm my old self because you'll never be the person you were before. I discovered a Japanese tradition 鈥� Kintsugi 鈥� which is where they'll deliberately break a pot and put it back together using gold so that the cracks show. None of us get through life without some cracks, but the cracks aren't the thing that breaks you. You just need to repair them and carry on and the cracks will then become part of the beauty of your life. And that's what's happened to me in the last year, I have started fixing the cracks, not ignoring them, pretending they aren't cracks. And it started with this programme.
This course sets the standard for how veterans struggling with their mental health should be helped. You gave me a safe space to work through some incredibly difficult thoughts, whilst also providing practical education in how to get and keep myself well going forward. You gave me the opportunity to succeed, but within my own limits. I really feel like I have accomplished something this week, and you were both cheering us on and gently driving us forward the whole time. The team spirit that you fostered from the moment we met on zoom was critical to the course鈥檚 success, and I hope that this course continues to flourish. You have created something extremely special and I am very grateful to have been part of the first course. I am already looking forward to future follow-ups (and a ski trip?)!
My head was in a bad place, I'm not going to say it wasn't. But the way we were welcomed into the group 鈥� onto the actual programme 鈥� was great. I usually hold back and wait for somebody else to do something, but the environment made me look at things completely differently. I had all these people around me, and they didn't have an agenda, and I knew I didn't have to worry about being in the room with these people.
Even to get up there was a nightmare for me because I have to plan it days in advance. When I got there my anxiety was high, but it came down pretty quickly. By the time I left, I didn't have any anxiety to be honest, apart from driving home. I would say I had still have my health problems and stuff, but it wasn't as bad as when I got there.
鈥淚 have had no friends for over 30 years as I find it hard to open up and trust people. I have contemplated suicide in the past, and am currently going through a tough time with my family. The veterans course was a life saver for me and I wouldn鈥檛 be coping now without the course. I have become good friends with two of the veterans I met on the course and we have been meeting up every week to support each other. I have used the coping strategies to manage my feelings better. I have bounced around different support services for 20 years but this course I have been on as a veteran. Thank you all very much.鈥�
What you have done for me over the last week has been tremendous and life changing. Having no friends (by choice), I now have several and we have continued to chat on the app and via phone every day since. A big missing part of my life appears to be coming back. This course, has not only provided me with some essential tools but has also giving me a lifeline and network of friends, who not only remind you of those tools but are also a sounding board. This has now provided the light I needed and a compass of where I want to go and how to get there. I cannot thank you enough for all you have allowed me to achieve, so thank you.
To be honest I didn鈥檛 reckon that this would be much cop, I just thought well I鈥檇 give it a go. It鈥檚 changed my life and it鈥檚 changed my life massively.