Veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress has received a £40,000 grant from The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity and their strategic partner, Greenwich Hospital.
This generous grant has been awarded to go towards core treatment and support costs for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines veterans that come to the charity. Combat Stress provides specialist treatment at its treatment centres, practical and clinical support in the Community and a free 24-hour Helpline.
Read moreWorthing-based charity, The Queen Alexandra Hospital Home (QAHH) has received a grant of £50,000 from ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.
The extremely generous donation will go towards the cost of providing rehabilitation services to disabled Army veterans and their dependents who live at QAHH, over the next 12 months.
QAHH has been caring for disabled veterans since it was first established in 1919, and with no regular government funding, the charity must raise over £1.3 million each year to maintain its nursing and rehabilitation services for ex-Service personnel.
Read moreThe team will join 16 other nations at the international event for wounded, injured and sick military personnel and veterans.
A 90-strong team of wounded, injured and sick (WIS) military personnel have departed from London Heathrow for Toronto, Canada to represent the UK in the third Invictus Games.
The eight-day sporting event will see 550 individuals from 17 nations compete across 12 sports including athletics, wheelchair basketball, swimming and a new sport for 2017, golf. The event will begin with an opening ceremony on 23 September at the Air Canada Centre, featuring Canadian singers Sarah McLachlan and Alessia Cara, and will finish with a closing ceremony on 30 September with performances from Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams.
Read moreMental health awareness has improved vastly in recent years. However, there is a great need for research in the field of veterans’ mental health.
Forces in Mind Trust’s Mental Health Research Programme is seeking high quality research in this area.
A highlight notice was issued six weeks ago, to encourage applications that propose innovative ways to identify, evaluate and/or propose new methods of improving employment/under-employment in former Service personnel with mental ill-health.
Read moreCare at The Royal Star & Garter Home in Solihull has been rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Only one per cent of care homes achieve this rating.
The Solihull Home, which was inspected by the CQC in July, cares for 60 veterans and their partners who live with disability or dementia, in state-of-the-art surroundings. The nursing, therapeutic and dementia care provided, together with a varied and engaging programme of activities, enable residents to remain independent and enjoy life.
Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, who has visited the Charity’s Surbiton Home, remarked on the result: “The quality of care which our inspectors found here was exceptional and I am very pleased that we can celebrate the service’s achievements. An outstanding service is the result of a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment. I would like to thank and congratulate everyone involved.”
Read moreCombat Stress has announced a new five-year strategic plan to improve veterans’ recovery experience and enable the charity to raise the money needed to fund its life-changing work.
The plans are in response to the continued growth in demand for the charity’s support, with a 143% increase in referrals over the last decade. In the last year alone Combat Stress received more than 10,000 calls to their Helpline, and more than 2,400 new veterans were referred for treatment.
Following an 18-month period of discussion with veterans, employees, military charities and healthcare professionals, the new strategy has been designed to offer greater flexibility and accessibility to treatment so veterans can be supported more quickly.
Read moreNHS England is in the process of procuring a veterans’ mental health complex treatment service (VMH CTS) that will launch on 1 April 2018.
The purpose of the VMH CTS, which builds on the recent launch of the NHS veterans’ mental health transition, liaison and intervention service (VMH TIL service), is to provide an enhanced service for veterans who have military attributable complex mental health problems, many of whom will have experienced trauma, which have not been resolved earlier in the care/support pathway.
The service will focus on veterans who will benefit from the intensive provision of a range of mental health and social interventions. This may include (but is not limited to) substance misuse, occupational therapy, physical health, employment, accommodation, relationships, finances and trauma focused therapy.
Read moreYOU ARE INVITED to attend a very special free event at 7.00pm-8.30pm on Thursday 28th September 2017 at STOLL Veterans Community Hall in Fulham.
Another chance to see this award winning short film, “INSIDE PEACE”, which portrays the transformation of 4 convicts, tracking their journey from inside prison through to lasting freedom on the outside.
Read moreFormer Senior Aircraftsman Matt Neve has been selected to represent the United Kingdom in the archery event at the Invictus Games in Toronto.
Matt, who lives in Swansea, will join 90 other wounded, injured and sick UK military personnel and veterans as they compete in the third Invictus Games competition, following the inaugural event in London in 2014.
Matt, now 32, joined the Royal Air Force as a driver in 2001 at just 16-years-old.
Read moreAn RAF Regiment veteran, who will take part in this year’s Invictus Games, has spoken out about how sport helped turn his life around when an accident left him with life-changing injuries.
Michael Mellon, of Cardenden, was just 17 when he joined the RAF in 1997 following his father, sister and brother into military service.
In 2001, while playing in a RAF Rugby match, Mike fractured his tibia and fibula bones which resulted in compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is a painful and potentially serious condition caused by bleeding or swelling within an enclosed bundle of muscles – known as a muscle “compartment”.
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Afghanistan support
In light of recent events in Afghanistan, please find information and support resources here
