News

Veterans Outreach Support, in Portsmouth is recognised with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2017

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to local volunteer groups across the UK to recognise outstanding work in their communities. It is considered to be the MBE for volunteer groups. The award was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and winners are announced each year on 2 June– the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.

Veterans Outreach Support (VOS) is a community-based group of volunteers that provide on the spot welfare, peer mentoring and mental health support to ex-service personnel from all three services and the merchant marine and their families. VOS has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2017, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

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One man and his ferret raise over £1,000

Last month Charlie Hammerton, an RAF veteran and his pet ferret, Bandit made the journey from Nottinghamshire to Oosterbeck in Holland to complete an eight mile walk to raise money for Combat Stress.

Both Charlie and Bandit wore WW2 uniform for the walk from the original drop zones in Oosterbeck to Arnhem Bridge.

“I have been to the area a number of times before, I’ve done parachute jumps, cycled and run, but never walked. Bandit and I walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall together for Motor Neurone disease earlier this year, so I decided to bring him along too.

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Forces in Mind Trust sponsors Veterans’ Mental Health Conference 2018 – date for the diary

The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) is delighted to be sole sponsor of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research’s (KCMHR) annual ‘Veterans’ Mental Health Conference 2018, as part of a three-year award spanning each of 2017 to 2019 worth £15,000 per year.

The event will take place on 15th March 2018 at King’s College London. FiMT is again running a concessionary rate scheme which offers a limited number of half-price tickets on a first come first served basis, to encourage Cobseo Full and Associate members working within this sector to attend, particularly smaller charities who might not otherwise have been able to.

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Heritage Lottery Fund awards £21,800 to Combat Stress

Heritage Lottery Fund has granted £21,800 to veterans’ mental health charity, Combat Stress towards establishing its archives.

Combat Stress holds records, including meeting documents, photographs and objects dating back to 1919 when the charity was founded following the First World War. These materials not only represent the history of Combat Stress and the support it provided, but also reflect the changing attitudes over the years to mental health.

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The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity Greenwich Hospital Grant awards £40,000 to Combat Stress

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.

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UK team sets off to compete at the Invictus Games Toronto 2017

The 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.

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Ex-Service personnel, employment and mental health

Mental 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.

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Combat Stress announces new five-year strategy to improve veterans’ access to mental health treatment and support

Combat 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.

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Brief on the forthcoming NHS veterans’ mental health complex treatment service

NHS 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.

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The Mental Health of the UK Armed Forces – updated briefing note

This briefing note (updated July 2017) provides an outline of the current evidence on UK military mental health, including prevalence rates of mental health problems in serving regulars, serving reserves and those who have left service. Findings relating to suicide, help-seeking, risk-taking, violence, offending and
deployment mental health support are also addressed.

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Afghanistan support

In light of recent events in Afghanistan, please find information and support resources here