Hansard

Veterans, service personnel and their families contribute a huge amount to our society. I welcome the great strides that the Scottish Government has made towards ensuring that our veterans and armed forces community receives the best possible support and care, including as we emerge from the pandemic.

While they served, veterans might well have been involved in operations that were integral to our safety, security and wellbeing. Their duties might have placed them in dangerous situations, which could have had a significant impact on their physical and psychological health. The current situation in Ukraine demonstrates that. We see the turmoil as people flee and families are split up as civilians stay behind and put themselves in harm’s way. All of that will have consequences for wellbeing.

From the outset, I note the role of the third sector in promoting the importance of our veterans’ health and wellbeing. I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to supporting the third sector as we move forward on Scotland’s journey to becoming a wellbeing economy.

The Scottish Government accepted the recommendations in the Scottish Veterans Commissioner’s paper, “Veterans’ Health and Wellbeing: a Distinctive Scottish Approach”, and commissioned the Scottish Veterans Care Network to draw up a veterans mental health and action plan.

The action plan’s 38 recommendations are based on three key principles, which are worth repeating. Principle 1 is:

“Veterans will have equal access to mental health and wellbeing services, regardless of where they live”—

that includes veterans in rural areas, which is an important issue in my region of South Scotland. Principle 2 is:

“Veterans should be able to access the right help at the right time”,

and principle 3 is:

“NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, Local Authorities and the Third Sector should be appropriately supported to meet the needs of veterans”.

To meet those principles, the Scottish Government has made available £1 million to create a fund that will provide direct financial relief to third sector organisations and projects, including the veterans garden at the Crichton campus in Dumfries and Galloway, which I will talk about a wee bit later. The Scottish Government has been able to continue to fund the unforgotten forces consortium, which is a partnership of 16 civilian and ex-services charities, and it has contributed £500,000 over the next two years to support those organisations’ work to improve the health, wellbeing and quality of life of older veterans in Scotland.

I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government is working to ensure that all veterans and armed forces personnel have access to suitable and safe housing and do not end up homeless. Following consultations with the housing sector, including the Veterans Scotland housing group, the Scottish Government published “Housing to 2040”, which is Scotland’s first long-term housing strategy. It is welcome that, since 2012, more than £6 million has been made available to deliver more than 100 homes for veterans in Scotland. In the context of that work, I pay particular tribute to Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership, which has undertaken veterans awareness training and has been part of the veterans housing allocation scheme in Scotland.

Across my South Scotland region, fantastic individuals and organisations are committed to supporting our veterans and former armed forces personnel. At the Crichton campus in Dumfries, Mark Harper and his dedicated group of volunteers and local veterans run and maintain the Dumfries veterans garden. Their focus is on supporting ex-service personnel by giving them a safe space in which to socialise, learn, garden and access confidential advice and support services, with a focus on PTSD. The Veterans Garden Dumfries runs a monthly breakfast club and drop-in centre, which provides participants with access to relevant information and advice, with support from NHS Dumfries and Galloway and the Crichton Trust.

In 2021, I was able to support and work with The Veterans Garden Dumfries and NHS Dumfries and Galloway to secure endowment funding for the garden. It meant that a relationship could be solidified between NHS mental health services and the Veterans Garden—a relationship that has proven to be massively beneficial. That funding has also allowed Alcohol & Drugs Support South West Scotland to work with the Veterans Garden and to have a drop-in service for everyone. I thank the chief executive of NHS Dumfries and Galloway, Jeff Ace, and Mark Harper, the veteran who runs the garden, for their work. Mark Harper won the volunteer of the year award at the Scottish veterans awards. I ask the cabinet secretary to join me in congratulating Mark on the success of Dumfries veterans garden and invite him to visit it when his diary allows.

I also pay tribute to Robin Hood, who is a former veteran in Dumfries who has been instrumental in supporting SWS RnR and Nithcree heavy goods vehicle training. Graeme Dey will know what I am talking about, because he visited a couple of years ago, when he was the veterans minister. Nithcree Training, with funding from the Scottish Government, supports veterans to train to obtain their HGV licence and security licences. The charity has supported and funded more than 187 veterans not only to achieve their HGV licence but to enter into further employment. It is a great example of how local initiatives can be hugely successful in supporting our local veterans.

I welcome the steps that the Scottish Government is taking to support our veterans, especially in addressing stigma. It seems that, in every mental health debate, we discuss the need to tackle stigma. I realise how important the issue is and have raised it in a number of debates.

I encourage the Government to continue to support the third sector, and I support the Government’s motion.