New global wellbeing role for Veterans Aid CEO
CEO of Veterans Aid Dr Hugh Milroy (UK) has been appointed to a new post at the World Veterans Federation. In his unique role as Head of the organisation's Wellbeing Division he will advise members on the development of veteran-centred wellbeing worldwide
As part of a strategic re-focusing Dr Milroy will hand over his role as Vice-President of the WVF's Standing Committee on European Affairs (SCEA) to Gen. Andrej Kocbek (Slovenia) and step back from his role as a Vice President of the WVF Executive Board.
Dr Milroy said: "The Board wanted to capitalise on the energy generated at the WVF's Belgrade Congress earlier this year by introducing a dedicated 'wellbeing' element. To this end a policy statement was crafted setting out the WVF's position on the holistic nature of veteran care. There was clearly support for this approach at the Belgrade Congress and I am honoured to take up the role of first 'Wellbeing Champion' for this prestigious international organisation."
The new division replaces and subsumes all elements of the WVF's former Health and Welfare Division in acknowledgement of the much wider and more relevant concept of holistic care implicit in 'wellbeing'.
In March 2023, on behalf of the UK charity Veterans Aid (VA) that he continues to lead, Dr Milroy accepted the WVF's special Rehabilitation Award in recognition of the success of his Welfare to Wellbeing© model and VA's application of it to transform the lives of veterans in crisis.
WVF Secretary General Mr Dan Viggo Bergtun (Norway) added: "Traditional approaches to creating a better life for veterans after service are becoming outdated. We need to re-think and introduce new, more relevant and effective methods like the model introduced by Veterans Aid.”
The WVF is an international, non-profit, non-governmental umbrella organisation representing more than 60 million veterans worldwide. Its current president is Dr El Mostafa El Ktiri (Morocco).
Dr Hugh Milroy has been with Veterans Aid, where he created the highly successful Welfare to Wellbeing© model, for nearly 30 years. He is an Honorary Professor in Social Work at the University of East Anglia and for many years has been a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London. He has been actively involved lecturing students at both establishments.
