Service Life and Beyond – Institution or Culture?

Transition From the Military Into Civilian Life

“…The habitus of the past is dysfunctional, the habitus of the future is unestablished, and the support required to establish a new ''civilian'' habitus may well be inadequate. 20 One result of this discontinuity can be a sense of disillusionment or ''alienation'' in civilian life as has been well documented in the literature on service personnel and transition (e.g., Bergman et al, 2014;Demers, 2011;Walker, 2012).…”

“…They are also less likely to be in employment 6 months after leaving the Forces, with 52% of ESLs employed compared with 82-85% of those leavers eligible for the full package of resettlement support provided by the MoD (Ashcroft, 2014). While the reasons behind ESLs' transition struggles are unknown (there has been very little research), Bergman et al (2014) postulate that ESLs face their discharge before they have fully adjusted to the demands of military life; ''Already culturally disorientated from commencing the process of becoming a soldier, they now have to face returning to a civilian world which already regards them as 'different''' (p. 65) and with the added burden of ''failure'' weighing on them. For junior ranks and ESLs, perceptions of support for transition have also been rated as poorer and as less effective than those of their senior, more established military colleagues, who potentially have developed more or better capital resources (Ashcroft, 2014).…”

“…Following World War II, Schutz (1945) evoked this tension in ''The Homecomer,'' describing the emotions of being ''in the wilderness'' when returning to what should be intimate and familiar, yet now appears strange and different. More recently, Bergman, Burdett, and Greenberg (2014) pointed toward this tension by employing a model of ''reverse culture shock'' to describe the unexpected difficulties that some personnel experience in transition. These authors suggest that ''a comprehensive understanding of the issues involved in transition is essential to the provision of appropriate support to personnel leaving the Armed Forces'' (p. 60).…”

Military lives: coaching transitions

“…Retirement from the military is a very different experience from retirement from conventional civilian life and even to those well prepared, the cultural difference can come as a surprise as leaving military service can be felt as a severance from a deeply engrained way of being (Dryburgh, 2012;. This is a challenging life transition that impacts on personal identify and undermines a personal sense of meaning and life purpose with 27% of leavers saying re-entry was difficult for them (Bergman, et al, 2014) and acknowledge a feeling of 'loss' Walker, 2012).…”

Long-Term Mental Health Outcomes of Military Service

“…The stress of cultural readjustment which is an intrinsic concomitant of recruit training 21 will inevitably cause some of these problems to become manifest, often resulting in early discharge. It is therefore plausible that latent or concealed mental health problems will be overrepresented among ESL.…”