'From the Frontline to Recovery'

The Defence Medical Welfare Service (DMWS) is a little-known but hugely important registered charity, which has been providing free, impartial, and confidential medical welfare support to the armed forces community since 1943. The charity works 365 days a year, seven days a week, and 24 hours a day to ensure that they receive all the practical and emotional support that they need when they are recovering from illness or injury.

It could be a simple as providing a wash kit,
a change of clothes, or a phone charger, but it is usually much more than that. Supporting patients through life-changing injuries. Being with them to receive life-limiting diagnoses. Guiding families through the pain of stillbirth and bereavement. Providing information, reassurance, and support, and liaising with the military chain of command and the medical teams to ensure that the patient and their family have the best possible information.

DMWS staff are the 'guardian angels' of the armed forces at incredibly difficult and stressful times in their lives - largely unseen, but always present and always ready to help. So, where did it all begin?

DMWS's rich history can be traced back to the First World War, when the Order of St John of Jerusalem and the British Red Cross were tasked with providing personnel to assist medical officers in military hospitals worldwide, including on deployment in field units. The staff provided
were called welfare officers.

In 1944 the two organisations were once again tasked with providing welfare support in service hospitals and medical facilities all over the world. They later became known as the Service Hospital Welfare Department and adapted their role to complement and underpin the clinical work of their medical colleagues. Wherever the military were, welfare officers would be found, working within both established and field medical units.

From the roots of these parent charities, the DMWS emerged as a separate charity in 2001.
It is still consistently the first welfare agency that members of the armed forces community will see after they have been admitted to hospital.

Welfare officers

Today, DMWS staff are spread across the UK, Germany, and Cyprus, where they provide round-the-clock support to those unfortunate enough to become unwell or injured. The welfare officers are highly qualified and usually come from a military or medical background, giving them a unique insight into the needs and requirements of the Ministry of Defence and the NHS - two hugely different organisations with different priorities and expectations. Simply put, the staff speak the language of the military, of the NHS, and of the families.

Patients can talk to DMWS staff freely and express worries and concerns which they may
be reluctant to discuss with the military chain
of command, leaving the medical teams to get
on with providing the required treatment.
In 2013/14, DMWS contacted 34,379 patients, of whom 6,527 were on military operations in Afghanistan.

To this day, DMWS is still the only military charity to deploy to areas of conflict alongside the troops, living and working in difficult conditions in military field hospitals. Its staff have been deployed to every major conflict since the Second World War – most recently, the teams have returned from Afghanistan, where they provided support to patients of all nationalities. They are proud to receive the same operational medal for their service as that awarded to the troops.

DMWS would not function without its team of dedicated welfare officers. They are highly trained, and are able to use their initiative and display good judgement in solving problems as they arise. They are simply people who like people.

They are ‘uniform attached’, working, living, and deploying wherever the armed forces are, based alongside their military colleagues. Each officer has a deep-rooted understanding of military culture and the unique nature of life in the forces.

Most importantly, welfare officers provide total holistic care, providing practical and emotional support when it is most needed by service personnel or their families. They are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, including health professionals and former military personnel with welfare experience. Every one of them is trained in Mental Health First Aid and holds a level three diploma in Welfare Studies. The troops’ wellbeing really could not be in better hands.

New qualification

DMWS has gained a huge amount of knowledge, expertise, and experience over the last 72 years and, recognising that there was no formal welfare qualification, the charity has created its own.
In 2014 DMWS launched the groundbreaking
level three diploma in Welfare Studies, giving organisations the tools and knowledge to protect their staff's wellbeing and to ensure their service users receive the best care and support.

The five-day course runs bi-monthly and is accredited by the Institute of Welfare. Several major organisations, such as Help for Heroes, Racing Welfare, and the Veterans Welfare Service, have sent their staff on the course, ensuring that they are trained to the best possible standard.
The DMWS also offers Mental Health First Aid, with both a standard version of the qualification and one adapted for the armed forces.

Moving forward, DMWS is keen to offer its services to other frontline workers. The charity wants to ensure that those who put themselves
in harm's way to protect the public get the best
of care when they need it the most. DMWS makes
a difference to patient experience, family stress, and in reducing recovery time, getting frontline workers back doing their jobs quicker - just where they should be and just where the public needs them to be. SJ

Fiona Walters is the marketing and fundraising officer at DMWS