Our Association is welfare-focused, providing our members, both former and serving, with a discreet and trusted network of support for themselves and their immediate families.
Welfare and social activities.
ICARUS is a veteran-led mental health treatment charity. We provide therapy, counselling and help for the range of difficulties and problems which often evolve from trauma, PTSD or other commonly related conditions, such as anger-management, excessive alcohol use and drug abuse. We are open to all the uniformed services, whether in the Army, Navy or the Air Force.
Treatment for veterans is FREE of charge, regardless of rank, unit, service record or age. We also treat serving personnel.
At ICARUS we have developed a flexible and sympathetic treatment model which recognises the unique nature of military service and the military mindset and explored and adopted new concepts and treatment protocols, working on the basis that no ‘one size fits all’. Effective treatment has to be tailored to the individual and their personal circumstances. Reintegration back into civilian life often causes additional complications along with employment issues and drug and alcohol abuse. Even managing practical matters can impact on a veteran’s mental health. We try to offer veterans as much support and time as they require, to enable them to lead normal, well-adjusted lives.
All calls and enquiries are conducted in complete privacy. We understand the immediacy. You will be contacted and seen within 24 hours. All our sessions are online, using applications such as Zoom or Skype. Virtual treatment allows us to be more flexible with times and availability.
The majority of our team at ICARUS are connected to the armed forces – veterans themselves, married to veterans or closely associated with serving personnel. This veteran-to-veteran approach has been absolutely integral to the success of the charity, allowing an immediate understanding of the problems being faced, providing reassurance and support. Shared personal experience is a critical factor in dealing with the major crises that affect many of our veterans.
Aiming to increase community cohesion and tackle social isolation by connecting people. Through the VC Gallery, we work to create meaningful engagement, combat and support poor mental health and social care amongst the Veteran and local communities.
We offer a positive support network, a creative space to help people re-connect through art, workshops, local events and opportunities within the area. We provide a diverse support network to empower and help develop a united, positive and safe environment. We provide weekly art sessions, outreach workshops within schools, memory cafes, retirement homes and for third sector organisations.
We offer a breakfast club once a week and help with housing issues, benefit problems and employment support.
We offer peer mentor help, guidance and expertise with all veteran affairs.
We have excellent referral pathways with national organisations and our local Authority, keeping a close connection with the individual we work with a holistic approach to achieve the best outcome at all times.
Our expertise is offering a vibrant, creative space where people can socialise and expressive themselves through art, that can be at our art workshops, or volunteering at memory cafes, schools and residential homes.
Togetherall is a multi-award winning digital mental health service, active in the UK, New Zealand and the USA. It delivers personalised support and recovery pathways to improve mental health and related conditions via a safe and engaging collaborative platform of peers and professionals.
Togetherall is free to all UK serving personnel (including reservists), veterans/ex-serving, and their families aged 16+, thanks to the support of Help for Heroes, the Ministry of Defence and NHS England.
Togetherall has reached thousands of members since its launch in 2007, and is available online 24/7. Togetherall works with the NHS, the armed forces, employers, and universities. The fact that it is anonymous and easily accessible online helps reach those who may not otherwise access support.
Togetherall was one of the first five services to be endorsed by the NHS in the NHS Mental Health Apps Library (NHS Choices), and is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It is supported by NHS England and the Ministry of Defence to provide free, 24/7 mental health support to the Armed Forces community.
It offers:
– Safe, anonymous support online 24/7
– Trained counsellors online at all times to moderate and facilitate the service
– Specialist online self-help courses for the armed forces community on a variety of mental health topics
– Peer support
– Tools, tests and helpful information
– A safe space to express yourself
All available free at www.Togetherall.com
Tom Harrison House is a Liverpool-based addiction recovery centre for military veterans, reservists, emergency services personnel, and their families. The abstinence-based, 12-week recovery programme provides support via a bespoke model which aims to treat addiction within the context of those who have a history of military service – with emphasis placed on the role of co-occurring trauma, safety, confidentiality, and camaraderie, as well as reintegration into “civilian” communities.
The project is framed as a community of veterans who possess shared experiences, perspectives, resources and potential blocks to recovery, and who also share the ability to overcome their issues through a highly structured and intensive programme, and with the mutual support of the group. We work to help our veteran clients to make strides toward improving their mental, physical and emotional health, and to regain the sense of community and camaraderie that they had previously experienced during their active service.
The project is framed as a community of veterans who possess shared experiences, perspectives, resources and potential blocks to recovery, and who also share the ability to overcome their issues through a highly structured and intensive programme, and with the mutual support of the group.
Programme elements are diverse and are designed to best reflect the needs of ex-military personnel – the weekly timetable includes physical training sessions, nutrition groups, equine therapy, 5-a-side football, motivational speaker sessions, family sessions, and an art/choir group. Alongside these activities are more traditional elements such as group therapy and personal assignment work. The programme also includes Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) and Seeking Safety groups each week – evidence-based methods that are found to be effective in veteran-specific rehabilitation centres in the USA.
Accommodation is provided for the duration of the programme. Support staff can also assist clients with associated issues, which may include medical issues, move-on housing, benefit entitlements, etc.
To increase the mental health fitness levels by delivering 1:1 specialist psychotherapy to serving members of the Armed forces, Veterans and their immediate family members.
All of our therapists come from the men and women we help who go on to train as NLP Psychotherapists. We work within the ethical guidelines of the UKCP.
The Veterans Orthopaedic Service currently provides unique care for both serving and ex-service personnel from every military background, air, sea and land – regardless of their length of service. The service is based at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJAH) in Oswestry, North Shropshire, a renowned specialist centre for the treatment of orthopaedics and all musculoskeletal conditions.
Our aim is to provide world class facilities that are tailored to suit military Veterans to give the best possible care we can, as our Veterans so richly deserve.
The service was set up in 2013 by Lt Col Carl Meyer who is a consultant military orthopaedic surgeon. Lt Col Carl Meyer has served as a Medical Officer in both the Gulf War and more recently in Afghanistan, where he was involved in treating local civilians, as well as injured troops. He has special clinical interests in hip and knee replacement and in trauma; his military work has informed his practice and driven his understanding of the experiences and expectation of veteran patients.
Col Meyer is supported by a team of highly skilled clinical colleagues with a passion for veterans’ medicine. A dedicated centre for the treatment of patients has recently been approved following a fundraising campaign. The building is set to be opened in the early part of 2022.
Based in the South West, Veterans Outdoors is a unique charity offering support, friendship, and outdoor wellbeing activities. We understand the therapeutic benefits of working with horticulture, nature and animals or simply just being outdoors walking, kayaking, learning rural craft skills or just sitting around the fire drinking tea. We do all this and more – and our activities are open to anyone who has served in the Armed Forces, is still serving or who has a spousal connection. We also have unique ‘women only veterans’ projects too.
Whether you want a new or different experience, to learn a new skill, try a new hobby or just be part of something and meet new friends, we’d love to hear from you. For those that need it, our programmes are proven to build confidence, help reconnections with family and friends and improve physical and mental wellbeing. If you’d like to find out more about what we’re up to and become part of our growing family of veterans contact us on 07760 729080 or via the email and website below.
Veterans Outreach Support provides welcoming and relaxed places where UK veterans and family members can come for confidential social or psychological support, or simply to meet for a chat and a cuppa. Former members of British Armed Forces and Reserves, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the Merchant Navy are all welcome. Drop In centres are normally open once a month, follow the link to their website for more details.
We Are With You (formerly Addaction) is one of the UK’s leading mental health, drug and alcohol charities. We work with adults and young people, in community settings, in prisons, in residential rehab and through outreach. In 2017 we supported 140,000 people.
We believe that everyone can change and we support them to do it.
Our services include support around Mental Health, and Alcohol and Drugs, for a range of groups and populations including adults, young people, friends and family, veterans, people involved with the criminal justice system, and older people.
Since 2014, We Are With You (formerly Addaction) has supported over 500 veterans with problems related to drugs and alcohol through our pioneering Right Turn programme.
Right Turn is a veteran-specific substance misuse recovery model that acknowledges the specific experiences of people in the armed forces community and focuses on re-directing the comradeship that underpins military life towards supporting recovery. Amongst a range of opportunities, support comes in the form of specialist one-to-one sessions, peer-support groups, access/referral to prescribing services, and pathways to other veteran services.
Support for veterans with substance or alcohol misuse problems is available at any We Are With You service.
Afghanistan support
In light of recent events in Afghanistan, please find information and support resources here