Mental Health (Armed Forces Veterans)

Debate between Kit Malthouse and Lisa Cameron

Wednesday 14th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Dr Cameron]

I thank my hon. Friend for a very well-made point. I certainly urge the Minister to commit himself to research on that issue.

In the context of referral and assessment, it has been suggested that there are still problems caused by a lack of understanding and awareness among many mainstream health care professionals of how to deal with the issues that veterans present. There is a tendency to rely on prescribing medication, and, according to Combat Stress, there is a problem of low rates of referral to its service by GPs and community mental health teams. The British Medical Association has drawn attention to the chronic undermanning of Defence Medical Services, which is reported to have had a detrimental effect on morale, motivation, and the retention of doctors. The association says that adequate resources are a key factor in ensuring the best quality and consistency of mental health care in the long term. It believes that the issue should be addressed as a matter of urgency, given the need for appropriate and sustained long-term funding.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has highlighted the need for better trauma-related treatment from the NHS. It reports that many veterans rely on small charitable providers that sometimes do not have the resources to be trained in evidence-based therapies, which should be consistent with the current evidence-based practice. The Royal College has also raised the need to evaluate the effectiveness of current follow-up service. The Murrison report recommended a telephone or face-to-face check on how someone was doing a year after they had left service. Currently, however, all that happens is that a letter is sent to the last known address of the service leaver, telling them that they can phone or see their GP if they have an issue. It is suggested that there may be a need for investigation into the uptake of this service and whether this correspondence is in fact being received.

The Government therefore need to address issues of help-seeking, stigma, referral processes, assessments and availability of appropriate treatments. There are also issues of co-morbidity and the requirement for integrated approaches across services including health, criminal justice, forces and social care. There is, in addition, a reported lack of service provision for partners and children of service personnel, who may also suffer mental health issues owing to the nature of their family member’s job. I am pleased that the Scottish Government have put in place a veterans commissioner for Scotland to begin to address some of these issues, but I would like to see similar credence given across the rest of the UK.

[Kit Malthouse (North West Hampshire) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this debate on such an important subject. I have Army headquarters in my constituency and strong services links in Hampshire. So desperate were a group of veterans in my constituency that they started their own organisation, Veterans in Action, who have just this month launched PTSD awareness month. I am wearing their little badge, which looks not dissimilar to an SNP badge, I have been told. The hon. Lady put her finger on the problem earlier in her speech when she said that there is not enough awareness out there about these issues, particularly among medical staff. I hope, therefore, that she might support an initiative such as awareness month in the future.