Publish date: 25 September 2023
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust commits to supporting veterans
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has pledged its support to veterans and serving personnel by signing up to a military covenant.
The Armed Forces Covenant aims to ensure members of the armed forces community and their families are treated fairly.
The document was signed by chief operating officer, Birju Bartoli, alongside practice development facilitator, Ryan Burkhard, and Royal Air Force veteran, Sarah Barnard.
The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise by the nation ensuring that those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces, and their families are treated fairly.
Birju Bartoli said: “We were delighted to be able to sign the Armed Forces Covenant. As a trust we recognise the important role that armed forces personnel play in our community and we are committed to supporting them and their familiies.”
The trust is committed to supporting the UK’s Armed Forces community both individuals who have served in the Armed Forces and individuals affiliated with the Armed Forces, including military family members and dependants.
As part of their pledge to serve the Armed Forces community, the trust has a dedicated reserve forces training and mobilisation policy, they guarantee interviews for service leavers, veterans and reservists who meet the essential criteria for roles, they ensure additional paid annual leave for reservists and cadet adult volunteers to attend their annual camps, they support reservist and their managers with mobilisation and demobilisation and they have an active Armed Forces staff network.
Where possible, the trust aims to provide prioritised care to Armed Forces members and their family too. This includes those who have relocated to Northumberland and North Tyneside.
Most recently the trust has been shortlisted for the English Veterans Awards for its work around the Staff Veterans and Reserves Network.
Chris Yates, anaesthetics teaching fellow at Northumbria Healthcare, nominated the trust due to their Reserve Forces and Veterans staff network. Talking about the nomination, Chris said: “I’m thrilled that Northumbria has been shortlisted for the English Veterans Awards in the Health and Wellbeing Award category. I nominated Northumbria due to their excellent Veterans and Reservists staff network and the support that the trust has provided to me within both my Reservist and NHS careers.
"I recently started a 'hot debriefing' quality improvement project within the Trust (based on my experiences within the military using Trauma Risk Management), aimed at improving staff mental wellbeing, and the trust has embraced this wholeheartedly as well as pioneering several other initiatives aimed at improving staff health and wellbeing. Good luck for the finals!"
The Reserve Forces and Veterans staff network is for staff who joined the NHS from a military background and/or who are reservists and their families. It aims to create a welcoming peer support network to share experiences, signpost support and give staff a voice. It also offers mentoring support for adjusting and settling into life outside the military.