News

Kit for Veterans First Point Lanarkshire

Wed 31st October 2018

Veterans football team Veterans First Point (V1P) Lanarkshire were able to take part in a recent football tournament thanks to new strips from the Foundation’s Armed Forces Fund.

The Armed Forces Fund selects services-related charities to work with each season but for the first time this season is also setting aside £6,000 to help smaller projects which aim to improve the lives of veterans and serving personnel.

Veterans First Point Lanarkshire, which works with veterans from all three services struggling with a variety of issues and operates in conjunction with the Scottish Association for Mental Health and the NHS, was the first beneficiary of this new initiative. 

The team took part in a recent Suicide Prevention 7 a side tournament, proudly wearing their new kits sponsored by the Foundation.  The team also received training equipment and footballs.

The tournament was a great success, with the V1P Lanarkshire team finished in the leaders table of their group. V1P Lanarkshire plan to enter a team into the tournament again in the future and are exploring opportunities to use the kit for other football based activities for the veterans who use the service.

Veterans First Point (V1P) is a specialist service that provides accessible, credible and coordinated support for veterans and their families with life after the armed forces in Lanarkshire. V1P Lanarkshire seeks to support veterans in all aspects of their lives, including welfare, housing, mental and physical wellbeing.

The free to use service is staffed by a specialist team of psychologists and psychological therapists as well as veteran peer support workers (PSWs) who are all ex-servicemen or women and offer a first point of contact for anyone approaching the service. 

Dr Maria Gascon, V1P Service Lead explained: “The PSWs ensure that veterans see someone – from the very outset – who understands the military context and has first-hand experience of the issues involved in transition from military to civilian life.

“PSW and clinical staff then work collaboratively, ensuring that veterans receive coordinated support, appropriate to their needs at the time.

“People can contact us by email, phone or can just turn up to one of our access points. We will then arrange a registration appointment with one of our PSWs, where a full assessment of the veteran’s needs will be carried out and an individual plan created.”

V1P is open to anyone who has served 1 day or more in any of the Armed Forces (full-time or reserve), who needs either peer support or psychology and who wishes to use a specialist service.

V1P will also support family members who are over 16, have a one degree connection to the veteran (spouse, parent, child, sibling), and who have an identified need to access appropriate help.

For more information visit V1P’s website here.

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