COMMENT: Report challenges mental health therapy

A BBC investigation has found that Armed Forces veterans struggling with mental health issues are being put at risk from a therapy used by a Welsh charity.

Full report HERE.




According to Public Health England, one in four people in the UK will suffer a mental health problem in the course of a year. The attendant cost to the economy in England has recently been estimated at £105 billion, and treatment costs are expected to double in the next 20 years.

Veterans Aid believes that veterans are no more susceptible to mental illness than anyone else. It deplores the fact that they are increasingly represented as vulnerable, dysfunctional victims and cautions strongly against the media tendency to over-ascribe PTSD and other conditions to military service.

COMMENT: 'The Times' Opinion

"This warrior nation welcome foreign fighters" is the headline of Robert Crampton's article in The Times; a thoughtful exploration of the UK's ambivalent relationship with the men from other countries who regularly augmented its armed forces. He recalls that:

 "In 1813, at the height of its wartime strength, one fifth of the British Army was made up of foreign-born volunteers. Fewer than half of the Duke of Wellington's troops at Waterloo 

were British born . . .

CASE NOTES: In detention for . . . ?

Soldier 'L' from Fiji still in detention at IRC Harmondsworth where a VA member visited him yesterday.
Given that this man has served honourably, has no criminal record and appears to pose no threat to anyone we are still wondering why UKBA felt it necessary to detain him . .. inquiries have failed to elicit a satisfactory answer.


Nigerian soldier 'B' and family meanwhile have been linked up with social services who are trying to find them accommodation.

 

COMMENT: Veterans' mental health - labels can be dangerous.

"What parent, employer, landlord or partner would welcome association with veterans or service personnel linked to a condition portrayed as leaving them violent, unstable, dysfunctional and without recourse to help?"

CASE NOTES : Foreign & Commonwealth issues

OCTOBER brings another  Foreign & Commonwealth veteran to our door. After leaving the Army Nigerian 'B', his pregnant wife and British-born daughter had nowhere to go. He ended up sleeping in a garage while they slept in a cupboard. VA immediately arranged hotel accommodation - at a cost of £800 per week - but it's a temporary solution and on the 21st they will become homeless.

"At last have spoken with Social Worker - the B’s case has been allocated to her.

Again made it clear that from Monday the family are homeless and that to date Mrs B has still not sought medical attention.

Mr B came to the office today, gave him a further £100 for food."

* * *

Just days later a letter arrives from the distraught father of a Fijian soldier 'L' - beset by a catalogue of misfortunes his application for Leave to Remain in the UK has foundered and he has been sent to an Immigration Removal Centre pending deportation. His father writes that he served for 10 years . . . .in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan (two tours) , Belize, Bosnia and the Falkland Islands.


" My son is desperate to stay in Britain after serving your country . . . three of our family members served in the British Army.

"With respect, he is not an 'asylum seeker'. It may be true that he is an 'overstayer' . . . what his lawyer should have done is inform my son of the closure of his law firm . . . "

* * *

Now here's an odd one: 'X' is a Kenyan 'overstayer' whose passport is being held by  UKBA. He has no official status or means of support  and has been told to return to his own country. . .  

COMMENT: "We told you so!"

The Telegraph: Reforms have left the Army in chaos.

Leaked MOD memo explores reasons for recruiting crisis  . . .

"One of the problems identified is a concern among potential recruits that their mental health could be compromised if they join."


Veterans Aid has been predicting this outcome for a long time. 'Bigging up' the numbers becoming dysfunctional because of PTSD is a trend that has generated consequences..

"I have lost count of the number of times I warned about the dangers of exaggerating this issue and predicted it would eventually impact recruiting.  It seems there are 379 service charities involved in dealing with PTSD and yet we rarely see it." -  CEO Dr Hugh Milroy