Research Community

Jess is a PhD student at Swansea University. Her PhD focuses on understanding the lived experience of Service personnel, Veterans, and affected others coping with harm from gambling. The research aims to explore how external factors to the military may be linked to the veteran gambling population, to help identify how individuals may be at risk before they join the military but also during and after their service due to these external factors. More specifically it aims to understand what influence the family has on gambling behaviours. 

Kate Salem is a Senior Researcher at the Westminster Centre for Research in Veterans. She has experience conducting mixed-methods research and has led on multiple research projects related to health and well-being in the Armed Forces Community. Kate is also the wife of an Army veteran and is completing her PhD which explores the impact of Veterans' mental health experiences upon their partners, with the aim of highlighting the needs of the military partner population.

Katie is a third-year Trainee Clinical Psychologist at Coventry University/University of Warwick. She currently works clinically in the NHS alongside completing her thesis. Her thesis aims to explore the experiences of problematic eating and exercise behaviours in United Kingdom (UK) male veterans. These behaviours may include but are not restricted to, fasting (not for religious or cultural reasons), binge-eating/over-eating, laxative use, purging and excessive exercise.

The King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) is the leading civilian UK centre of excellence for military health research providing much-needed evidence on the health and well-being of Serving and ex-Serving personnel and their families. KCMHR’s research relates to conflict and health, occupational psychiatry, personnel issues and social policy. Their research is conducted in four key areas, Serving personnel, ex-Serving personnel, military families (including those of ex-Serving personnel) and interventions.

Laura Grover is undertaking a mixed-methods PhD as part of the ADVANCE study at King's College London. Her project is centred around social support in the ADVANCE cohort: a longitudinal study investigating psychosocial outcomes of military personnel who obtained a combat injury during the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts. She is interested in exploring the prevalence of social support among injured and uninjured personnel, the role of different sources of support and the relationship between social support and mental health outcomes. 

Laura Waddams is currently a second year Doctorate in Clinical Psychology student at the University of Essex. Laura has research interests in male and Veteran mental health, anxiety disorders, and the connection between mental health and physical health. Laura’s prior research has included a systematic review on the experience of depression in older men, and a narrative analysis on recovery memoirs. Laura is currently working on her thesis project, which is a qualitative exploration of body modification practices in UK male military Veterans who have an injury, disability, illness, and/or mental health condition.