Referrals for veteran mental health treatment increasing

More servicemen and women are seeking help to combat stress following time spent in the forces. According to Combat Stress, the Veterans' Mental Health Charity, 2015 saw an increase of six per cent in the number of referrals it received for military veterans.

The charity believes that the rise in referrals could be due to continued increase in the number of veterans who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts looking for help combating stress. 

It seems that, on average, veterans wait for 12 years after leaving the services before contacting the charity for help dealing with their mental health. Those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are bucking this trend, seeking health within four and two years respectively. 

Seeking advice sooner could better help to manage mental health issues that could arise as a result of serving in conflicts, allowing ex-servicemen and women to better adapt to civilian life.

Sue Freeth, chief executive of Combat Stress, said: "As we continue to deal with the legacy of recent conflicts, we are seeing more than 2,000 new referrals every year. This is a significant demand so we are developing our range of treatment programmes and services to ensure veterans across the UK continue to receive the best support from us.”

The charity helps to treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which can be incredibly debilitating. Combat Stress offers a number of free services to help veterans deal with their trauma, with 278 ex-servicemen and women undertaking the charity's PTSD Intensive Treatment Programme in 2015/16 and 94 per cent completing it. 

According to a study released by BMJ Open last year, veterans who underwent and completed similar training between 2012 and 2014 had a better chance of overcoming their symptoms, with 87 per cent seeing improvements.

Combat Stress is urging veterans and their families to contact the charity if they feel that they need help when leaving the armed forces.

A freephone 24-hour helpline is in operation at 0800 138 1619