Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to improve support for ex-military personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In addition to mainstream mental health services, NHS England commissions two bespoke services for veterans experiencing mental health difficulties.

The first is the Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service (TILS) which supports serving personnel who need additional support as they are leaving the armed forces and veterans who have mental health issues. The TILS is also the entry point to the Complex Treatment Service (CTS), the second service commissioned by NHS England. The CTS is able to provide a range of more intensive care and treatment for veterans with military related complex mental health difficulties, many of whom will have experienced trauma. Veterans can often access bespoke and quicker referral pathways such as TILS, which is commissioned to provide an initial assessment within two weeks.

In December last year, NHS England also announced an extra £10 million to expand the already established Veterans’ Mental Health TILS and the Veterans’ Mental Health CTS, as well as seeking to close the gaps in current mental health provision to capture those individuals that are nearing crisis.