Why are we asking these questions?

The Armed Forces community is unlike any other. The shared experiences, the camaraderie, life on camp, the language we use, the constant moves, time away on deployment, this is what connects many of us in a way that’s hard to explain from the outside. Even though every family’s story is different, there is a deep understanding that we are part of something unique.

At Scotty’s, we believe that belonging matters. Everyone deserves a safe, supportive space where they feel welcome, understood and free from judgement, whatever their individual connection to military life may be.

When someone in our community dies, that loss can bring challenges alongside grief. For some families, it may mean unexpectedly moving away from home and friends, or navigating complex systems like compensation schemes, pensions and inquests. For others, it means continuing to serve while grieving the loss of a loved one. Some may not have experienced much military life themselves but have still been deeply affected by the loss. Every experience is valid.

For 15 years, Scotty’s has built support for bereaved military children by listening to families and shaping what we provide around what was most needed. We are incredibly proud of that work, and now we are ready to take the next step to extend our support to the whole bereaved military community, while continuing everything we do for children.

Your experiences, ideas and voices will help shape this new service, so it truly reflects what families need. This is about growing what we do, not replacing what already exists.

You can skip any sections or questions that you do not feel comfortable answering, and you can choose to complete this survey anonymously, or you can share your contact details if you would like to hear more about how this work develops. Providing your details will allow us to keep you informed about our progress and, where appropriate, invite you to be more involved as the service takes shape. Some questions in this survey are optional, but the more you’re able to share, the better we can understand your experiences and fine-tune our support for families like yours.

We know this can be an upsetting section to complete.  Remember you can skip any individual questions, or this whole section.  This information will help us understand connections in our community, and how one death can affect many people.  It will also help us understand whether there are particular issues that our community may need us to provide support around (such as particular causes of death)

Please note that any information you share here will be strictly confidential.  If, at the end of the survey you ask us to keep your contact information so we can update you about any new services, please note that your answers here will not be linked to your contact record.  We are asking these questions to understand the need on a community level only.  Any answers shared here will help shape the services we develop for the community.  Please remember you can skip any questions you do not want to answer. 

Please rate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements...

We have asked you all these questions because over the next few years Scotty's is going to be opening new services to help more people.  The answers you gave today will help shape those services.  We want to build a new community: the military bereaved community.  We would love you to be part of that community.  We don't know exactly what those services will be (because we were waiting to hear what people said in this survey!) but we have some ideas. If you are interested in being part of the community please share your contact info below.  We promise we wont share your information with anyone.  And we won't bombard you with lots of messages.  But we can let you know when we launch services that you might be interested in. 

If possible, we would love to be able to contact you through emails, texts and by post, so please feel free to add all three!