Mental Health (Armed Forces Veterans)

Anne-Marie Trevelyan Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

Absolutely, and when we have more time, we might discuss specific projects looking at what normal is and that process. That is an important part of this.

I could inevitably speak all night on this issue, but I will not. In preparation for tonight, I stayed up most of last night and read as much as I could of a couple of books I have on my desk in my office here in Westminster. One is called “Aftershock” by Matthew Green and another is called “The Battle against Stigma” by Mark Neville. We have got better in this area as a nation over the last few years. I would ask however that before any of us enter into an exercise of back-slapping on how far we have come on mental health, we all read those two books and reflect on both what we ask of our servicemen and women and how we look after them when they come back.

[Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (Con)]

The issue in the north-east is that large numbers of young men go to war on our behalf and come back, but there is not the support for them. Many of them fought in Northern Ireland and 20 years on they have gone back to normal life and are struggling. There is just no support for them or their families. It is a particular crisis in my region because it has a large former military population.

[Johnny Mercer]

Mental health and the time lag involved is increasingly well publicised, and people are becoming more aware of it, but we have a long way to go on that and we see that on a daily basis.

Our British public have in the latter part of the last decade been the knight in shining armour flying over the horizon and rescuing some of our most war-scarred individuals. They have given millions upon millions of pounds, and donated time, effort, blood, sweat and tears to looking after our boys and girls. They are, quite simply, what makes Britain great, and what make us, when we are away, so proud, and fight so hard for the country we love.

Similarly, now this Government have for the first time been elected on a manifesto that explicitly stated a parity between mental and physical health—the first time in history that has occurred. Similarly, we now have waiting time target lists for mental health, again for the first time in history. This Government get it, and I am proud to be a part of it, and I thank the Minister personally for his valiant efforts in this regard. There is so much further to go, however, to win what I would call part of an internal “generational struggle” of ours in veterans care.

Finally tonight I wanted to guard against a misunderstanding of the problem. The vast majority of servicemen and women in this country make a stable and successful transition back to civilian life. They are cornerstones of our communities—directors of companies, nurses, doctors, shopkeepers, lawyers and manufacturers.

Our job in this place is to look after the 10%, those who through no fault of their own find life a daily struggle, those who with a bit of bad luck or a couple of poor decisions could be any one of us and, in particular tonight, that refers to those who have often given their best years in the service of the nation, but have found returning to a civilian life the hardest fight of all.