What does it mean to transition back to civilian life?
Transitioning back to civilian life is the process when someone who has served in the armed forces leaves and returns to everyday life outside of the military.
This can involve career adjustments, as well as social changes as you adapt to life beyond the military community. Your integration into civilian society also comes with person responsibilities like managing your own finances, and changes in healthcare and housing compared to military service.
What Challenges Might be Faced and How to Overcome Them
The transition involves a complete shift in lifestyle. Going from the structured military environment to adjusting to independence in the civilian world can come with various challenges. These can vary from battles with mental health, family issues, financial struggles, and difficulty navigating new social situations.
Mental Health
Mental wellbeing is challenging when transitioning into civilian life as the change comes with a loss of identity and change in support networks. These can cause feelings of loneliness, lowering a person’s mood.
When it comes to mental wellbeing, exercise is a great way to improve sleep, help you manage stress, and improve your overall mood. In some cases, it can even help you to socialise. Our Resource hub has a guide on how movement can benefit your mental health.
We also offer self-help guides to support veterans with their mental health after service. These include topics such as mind, mood and body and low mood and depression. You can work through these guides at your own pace.
If the struggle with your mental wellbeing persists, it is important to get help. Our team are on hand to help you. You can submit a form or phone our helpline on 0300 303 9888.
Wellbeing
As well as mental health challenges, people can also struggle with other general wellbeing challenges when transitioning into civilian life.
At Help for Heroes, we offer a Wellness Action Plan which is great for helping you monitor your wellbeing and identify help specific to you . The plan can help you review your progress in your wellbeing journey and help you to make positive changes to improve your overall wellbeing.
Finances
Another challenge that is often faced when transitioning to civilian life is regarding finances, including financial responsibility as well as debt and benefits.
There are various resources available to help you with your finances. You can get direct support from charities and organisations, and you can also seek financial support independently through self-help guides.
The Defence Transition Services (DTS) help people with various challenges with the transition to civilian life, including financial struggles. There are two ways to make a referral, either through an in-service referral or you can complete a self-referral form (PDF).
To get on top of your finances online, our financial wellbeing basics course is great for helping you to build a foundation.
We also offer a course run through Microsoft Teams called ‘Financial wellbeing: taking back control’. Find out more about ways you can improve your own financial situation, by visiting our self help guide on financial wellbeing.
Family support
The transition from military life to civilian life doesn’t just affect the person going through the transition, but also the person’s family and friends.
For both children and partners, it can often be unfamiliar having someone physically more present in their lives, which can cause tension around the house. Partners also often struggle with the pressures that come with being someone’s support system during such a lifechanging experience.
We can provide family support to you and your family by creating a personalised plan to help improve your lives overall. This support includes veterans’ partners, carers and children who are aged 18 and over. We can offer advice on a range of challenges such as home, health, developing life skills and more.
If you have younger family members, we can also help you find services available to ensure they get the support they need. Do you think you or your family could benefit from family support? Submit a form or phone our helpline on 0300 303 9888.
Challenges faced by ex-servicewomen
As well as the above challenges, ex-servicewomen have unique barriers to overcome when transitioning from the military to civilian life.
Some ex-servicewomen have been known to leave the armed forces early due to a combination of reasons including discrimination, a lack of accommodation to women’s needs and family demands, to name a few. Leaving the military abruptly can make the transition to civilian life even harder due to the lack of preparation and the quick change in lifestyle.
When it comes to the struggle around identity in life after service, ex-servicewomen face additional challenges as they try to maintain their military identity in a society which has different expectations of femininity.
Ex-servicewomen can also face a lack of recognition in their military service compared to ex-servicemen. This lack of recognition stems into healthcare, housing and community services, where women are often misunderstood and links to their military service are overlooked.
The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) are working closely with the Ministry of Defence on the barriers that ex-servicewomen face in particular, aiming to improve their transition.
Our team are also here to support you in your transition to civilian life. Visit our Get Help page to find out more about how we can help.
Support available for transitioning to civilian life
Support for transitioning to civilian life can come in many forms, including advice, self-help guides, grants and other services.
Career Transition Partnership (CTP)
The Career Transition Partnership is an official resettlement service for the Armed Forces, and they provide various support and resources in relation to the challenges that are faced when transitioning into civilisation.
Their main aim is helping people to reintegrate into civilian life through new employment, re-entering education or retirement.
The type of resettlement support depends on length of service, as well as personal circumstances. Visit the government website on the career transition partnership to find out more about how they can help you.
Defence Transition Services (DTS)
The Defence Transition Services can also help with a range of challenges. When using their services, they will identify your needs and help you to get support from the right provider – whether that’s signposting you to a better-suited organisation or working with you directly on a casework basis.
You can read all about how to get help from DTS on the government website.
Other support
There are various charities that can help you with transitioning to civilian life, including ourselves.
To speak to one of our team, please phone our helpline on 0300 303 9888 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm). Alternatively, you can submit a form.
You can also make use of our self-help guides. These can help you to get started on various aspects of life, including taking control and moving forward with life after service.