Armed forces facing 'explosion' of mental illness

Armed forces facing 'explosion' of mental illness
Britain is facing an "explosion" of psychiatric disorders amongst serving and former members of the armed forces.

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 10:33AM BST 05 Oct 2008

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that ex-servicemen's charities have seen a 53% increase in the number of veterans seeking help since 2005, a rate which threatens to "swamp" them within a few years.

The Ministry of Defence's own figures show that up to 2000 members of the armed services are being diagnosed every year with a psychiatric condition after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Former service personnel who fought in earlier campaigns stretching back to the Second World War are also coming forward for treatment after psychological problems have emerged years, sometimes decades, later.

Those problems include post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), manic depression, mood swings, and drug and alcohol dependency. It has also emerged that up to seven service personnel have committed suicide either during or after active duty in Iraq.

Details of the size of the problem were revealed by a senior MoD official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said: "We are facing an explosion of psychiatric problems not just from serving military personnel but also from those who served in campaigns dating all the way back to the Second World War. It is a huge problem and something which requires a cross-governmental solution."

The official's comments were supported by Combat Stress, the ex-services mental welfare charity, which has seen an increase in the number of referrals of veterans rise by 53 per cent since 2005.

In 2000, the charity saw just 300 new patients who had an average age of 70. So far this year, the charity has seen 1,160 veterans, with an average age of 43. Of those, 217 saw service in Iraq and 38 fought in Afghanistan. The youngest veteran being cared for by the charity is just 20.

Robert Marsh, the director of fund raising for Combat Stress, said his organisation was working at full capacity.

He said: "There is a strong possibility that we face being swamped by new veterans seeking our help. There has been a 53 per cent increase in the number of veterans seeking our help in just three years. Lord knows what we are going to be faced with in five or 10 years time. We need to develop more capacity for the future because we are already creaking."

The charity, which has three regional treatment centres in the UK - in Surrey, Shropshire and Ayrshire - has 8,490 ex-service personnel on its books of whom around 4000 are currently receiving treatment.

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