Memorandum from Martin Deahl
I am a fellow of the Royal College of
Psychiatrists and for 25 years a Colonel in the Territorial Army.
I have served on many operations and Commanded the UK Medical
Group in Iraq. I would be most grateful if you could bring the
following to the committee's attention as you feel appropriate.
My colleagues and I have been making
efforts to improve access to mental health services and quality
of care for ex-servicemen and women and I would very much welcome
the Committee's support and lend its weight to this initiative
which is tackling a largely hidden but significant problem that
is only going to get worse over the coming years.
More than 100,000 servicemen (and women)
have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003 and we are likely
to continue (at least in Afghanistan) for a generation. As a result
more veterans are presenting to NHS Mental Health (MH) services
that are arguably ill-equipped to deal with their needs. Their
veteran status and its potential relationship to MH problems is
frequently overlooked, and when it is acknowledged the problem
is often mis-diagnosed as PTSD. In the Voluntary Sector, Combat
Stress provides care, however it is not "joined up"
with statutory services, has a lack of professional clinical imput,
and has limited ability to offer evidence-based treatments to
its service-users. The average time to presentation from leaving
the service to presenting to Combat Stress is currently 13 years!
My Trust (South Staffs and Shropshire
Mental Health Foundation NHS Trust) has become a Pilot site (funded
by the Veterans Agency) to tackle this: we have appointed the
UK's first Community Veterans Mental Health Therapist (CVMHT)
and we are establishing academic and clinical networks between
Combat Stress, defence medicine and ourselves. This project will
be independently evaluated by the Health and Social Care Advisory
Service (HASCAS) after 2 years and (assuming there is the political
will) rolled out across the UK if health outcomes are demonstrably
improved.
My aim is to provide a system of seamless
integrated care to servicemen and women from in-service to veteran
status. There is a potential gain to other service users as expertise
and experience gained will improve the management of adjustment
and other "neurotic" disorders. Finally, I hope the
service will become a model for joint working with the voluntary
sector and Government interdepartmental working. Louis Appelby
the Mental Health "Tsar" and the DoH are aware of developments
and we have their blessing.
The pilot is making good progress and
I do believe the Committee should at least be aware of our initiative.
21 November 2007
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