In Service Mental Health
 

Some of you may know that The Mail On Sunday has launched a campaign for better provision of mental health service for SERVING military personnel, in the form of a confidential helpline. It is backed by the likes of Generals Dannatt, Jackson & Shaw, & MPs Dan Jarvis & Johnny Mercer to name but a few.

There are quite a few articles on line. Some info here To let soldiers suffer in silence is a dereliction of duty | Daily Mail Online

Since I wrote my own contribution, I have been contacted by a couple of serving types expressing their support because of their own personal situation. I would be interested to hear from any serving or recently retired personnel who were/are affected by this issue. Needless to say, you can PM me in total confidence.
John Nichol

An excellent move. Having read quite a bit about the pioneering work of Captain W.H.R.Rivers at Craiglockhart during WW1 in treating what was then still called "shell shock", it is disappointing that 100 years later there is still a tendency for psychological harm to take a back seat to more obvious physical injuries when it comes to funding.

The military mental health system isn’t really a resourced system at all. The linked article above points at the limited days and working hours that the system is actually staffed, but the problems are more deep-rooted.

There is no functioning acute mental health response system. Even though one of my chaps had his crisis during the working day there was zero response as he lived off base - the system is reliant on the patient coming to them. Nor is there any rapid response if the service person does subsequently come on to base (in this example, signing-out his pistol and taking it home).

Military mental health departments are also few and far between, expecting patients to travel large distances, even from main operating bases. If service transport is made available the distressed patient gains zero priority and can find themselves sharing vehicles and being driven around the country with the routine airport/pool drill/simulator/HQ run (all genuine examples).

Arguably the biggest barrier that prevents individuals from coming forward are the career implications. It can take a number of years to fully recover from service-attributable mental health issue yet the Service is usually not that accommodating, preferring a medical discharge. Inexcusably a medical discharge can be set in motion before a course of treatment has concluded or, in some cases, before mental health treatment has even started.

Service mental health issues are common and usually treatable. Sadly the MoD has never really grasped those two simple facts.

31 January 2018

For Immediate Release:


The Defence Committee has today decided to hold an inquiry into armed forces personnel and veterans mental health.

The Committee will first examine the extent of mental health issues across both serving armed forces personnel and veterans and address the following questions:

· To what extent do current statistics accurately reflect the level of mental health issues in serving armed forces personnel and veterans, including PTSD?
· What are the challenges to accurately assessing the extent of mental health issues in serving armed forces personnel and veterans and how could government improve its understanding of those issues?
· How does the level of mental health issues, services and outcomes in serving armed forces personnel and veterans:

· What proportion of mental health issues in veterans is attributable to service in the Armed Forces and how well is this measured and understood?
· To what extent does the military environment for serving armed forces personnel mitigate against the development of mental health issues?

Subject to the Committee's findings on the extent of mental health issues, it will then examine the provision of mental health care across the UK to serving armed forces personnel and veterans.

Written submissions for this inquiry should be submitted via the inquiry page on the Defence Committee website. The deadline for written submissions is Tuesday 6 March 2018.

The daughter of a very close friend of mine is in the process of being medically discharged due to Mental Health issues. Her husband is also going through similar. They both worked in the medical field (he was RN, she RAF) and both suffered PTSD as a result of numerous tours in the sand at the height of operations. 2 others in their peer group have taken their own lives.
The treatment they have had is nothing short of disgusting. No continuity, little specialist input and disgusting admin support.
This is a very dark underbelly of service life. I hope it is exposed and some heads roll.

Thanks for the replies and the PMs. They are much appreciated.
Tuc - thanks for this info. It is good news & hopefully might offer some solutions in the future.

Wyler - I know a number of medics who are similarly affected. Would you PM me so we can discuss this further in private?

I left the RAF about 2 years ago after more than 2 decades of service. The job I left for fell through, so I moved overseas with my family. It was very costly and used up all our savings - I even had to take a loan out to pay for the move. Because I was overseas, I could not access the usual Mental Health services / charities via your civilian GP or other groups in the UK. A private counsellor out here would charge 100 pounds an hour to discuss my money worries! Thanks for that. That is when I found out about Help For Heroes Hidden Wounds. helpforheroes.org.uk/get-support/mental-health-and-wellbeing/hidden-wounds-service/

I cannot rate them highly enough. They offered counselling via Skype so it was free of charge. Thank God! They even offer the service to spouses who are having to put up with all the cr@p you put them through. When Skype went down, they even phoned us internationally to keep the appointments. I didn't think counselling would work but within 2-3 months we were all sorted and that part of my life is now a dim and distant memory.

If anyone out there thinks they need a bit of a hand dealing with a few things 'Hidden Wounds' are incredible. Drop them a line. I'm glad I did.

Military mental health troubles are not confined to flying. A close relative, serving in Royal Navy submarines, tells me that at least one crew member, and sometimes more, goes 'wibble' ( as he calls it) on most deployments. And easy direct contact with the outside world (and thus help) is not usually allowed or even practically possible from a submarine. Violence and suicide on board are not unknown. (eg the shooting of the first lieutenant on HMS AMBUSH)

John - well done for engaging and pushing this as much as you are; I think your efforts are appreciated by far more people than you may imagine.

On the contrary, I remember being told by an AvMed Doc that aircrew have a lower percentage of PTSD cases in comparison to other branches/trades. Not sure why, dislocation from the end effects perhaps?

I’ve often wondered about mental health and those service personnel in some of our more sensitive areas requiring enhanced clearances. How do they handle the issue? I would hope that it would be seen in the same light as declaring an illness, and as well as being treated they wouldn’t face the prospect of losing their clearances and livelihoods. However, I remain to be convinced that such personnel aren’t still viewed as a security risk and quietly shuffled off - I know of at least 2 in that boat. But failure to be treated surely represents a risk in itself in these cases. Does the system recognise this?

Here's an idea, given the increasing number of service pers that no longer practice religion, how about we replace a number of Padres across the armed services with trained professionals that are there to provide mental support as a primary function. I know that padres do more than just give mass, but they are becoming increasingly irrelevant and a large part of what they do could be done by trained mental health professionals that we genuinely need.

Padres are already an invaluable resource for mental health. I'm not remotely religious, but found having a padre to talk to at times was a real help and comfort. They're there for pastoral care and to listen, and often seemed to be more attuned to things than a 'professional' therapist. Effectively I found the padres to be exactly what you're suggesting!

Not sure what they could be replaced by that would provide more benefit. More CPNs would be sat on an appointment-only basis at the med centre. The current setup, whereby you can access a bit of help through a padre who can work wonders to get you in front of the correct MH professional seems good to me.

Many thanks for all of your input and PMs. I think I have replied to all PMs.

One correspondent who mentioned his/her serving relatives has suggested he/she has contacted me by other means but I am unaware of any further input?

I’ve never known a DV clearance or above be withdrawn as a result of mental health issues alone. One of the more commendable things that Defence has done is to clear a selected few mental health practitioners to the highest security levels so that those from more specialist areas can speak more freely about their experiences.

Many companies offer free, confidential counselling. The counselling can be by phone or face to face and is not vetted by the company at all.
The mechanisms and model are in place.

Interestingly it’s still a question asked by the vetting authorities though.

In glancing quickly through this Thread, I saw no reference to COMBAT STRESS, which surprises me.

I have tried to support their work for a number of years and whilst having no first hand involvement, believe they make a significant contribution to helping those in need.

Old Duffer

No surprise needed as Combat Stress is an external charity and the thread was primarily focused on in-service mental health care. Although the need to rely on charities whilst still serving does paint a picture of its own.

A debatable point. I was tasked to a be Visiting Officer many moons ago interestingly given the author of this thread, to one of the Gulf War widows who was much in the news at the time

It was my first such experience as a JO and being a stoppy ****er I asked the Stn Cdr whose office I was in...

Why the **** me? Don't we have padres for this sort of thing?

The staish (who by repute was both religious and very straightlaced, but imho a first rate bloke, with tremendous integrity) replied...(words to the effect of)

"half of all RAF padres are just alcoholic wasters" ...in any event it appears such duties are no longer in their terms of reference."

Being a fervent atheist I tended to give padres a wide berth, but once I had occasion to ask a padre a question which was a. bothering me b. important to me. His glib, facetious answer damn near earned him a smack in the mouth.

Some year later his name popped on the beeb (I checked to make sure it was the same dude...it was) and in the tabloids, seems he became a bit part player in a somewhat sordid political episode. I read a quote or two of his...same mealy mouth music as he gave me, many years previously.

I agree with the poster above. Get these dudes trained/involved and give them the job...or replace them with competent professionals. And as for sending totally untrained individuals like me to the house of a widow, mainly to get them to fall into line with the MODs wishes...are you fkn kidding me. I would hope that has already stopped!!!!

Lest this be seen as simply an ax-grind, I will point out that there are many excellent padres in the RAF and I'm sure those ones wonder why they don't have these tasks within their remit already.