We take the mental health of our personnel and veterans very seriously, and the Government has invested £7.4 million to improve the mental health services available and ensure help is available for everyone who needs it. The Government has implemented all of the recommendations of the \u2018Fighting Fit' report, written by the now Minister for International Security Strategy the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, (Dr Murrison). These include structured mental health assessments at routine and discharge medicals; access to military Departments of Community Mental Health for six months after discharge; tailored NHS mental health services; funding for the Combat Stress 24 hour Mental Health Helpline; and the introduction of the Big White Wall, providing mental health wellbeing services to serving personnel, their families and veterans.
The Veterans Information Service makes contact with recent service leavers to make them aware of mental health and other support available in the community.
For serving personnel, the Defence Medical Services (DMS) have introduced a range of measures to identify issues at the earliest possible opportunity. These include pre-and post-deployment briefing and the availability of support, assessment and (if required) treatment, both during and after deployments, as well as peer-group mentoring through Trauma Risk Management. Away from deployed operations, our mental health services are configured to provide community-based mental healthcare in line with national best practice, through both unit-based primary health centres and our network of 16 military Departments of Community Mental Health across the UK (plus centres overseas). Inpatient care, when required, is available through a contract with a group of eight specialist NHS Trusts across the UK. The DMS does not allocate a specific budget for mental healthcare, but provides appropriate care and treatment for all those who require it.<\/p>
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