Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure veterans have swift and comprehensive access to mental health treatment.

Veteran’s mental health needs are very often no different to those of the general population. Data in England has shown that most patients suffer from common mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety and readily make use of the mainstream mental health services.

For veterans who do need specialist support this government is fully committed to providing high quality evidence-based services. The National Health Service in England has set up two dedicated veterans mental health services, the Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service and the Complex Treatment Service. The recently launched Veterans’ Mental Health High Intensity Service provides crisis care and therapeutic inpatient support for those who need urgent and emergency care. Together, these three services provide a complete mental health care pathway for veterans.