The UK Government will today announce measures to help Armed Forces' veterans recover from mental health problems caused by their active service.
The move comes just weeks after a review of mental health among the military, which showed veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were suffering a mounting toll of post-traumatic stress, alcoholism and family breakdown.
Derek Twigg, the Veterans Minister, is due to announce six pilot community health schemes, one in Scotland, tailored specifically to help veterans. They will run for two years and, if successful, will be rolled out across the UK.
A Ministry of Defence source told The Herald that the plan was to "beef up" mental health provision for veterans, and added: "We are trying to make sure we give them the treatment and care they need."
Conditions that will be targeted and which exacerbate mental health conditions include anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug abuse as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Alan Johnson, Westminster's Health Secretary, is due to announce an extension of NHS "priority treatment" to all veterans whose ill health is related to their Armed Forces service. At present, priority care is given to veterans where their need is deemed the same as a civilian.
To access such a priority service, the veteran has to have a war pension. However, Mr Johnson is due to say that the priority service will be extended to those veterans who, for whatever reason, do not have a war pension.
Two weeks ago, the UK Government announced it would put forward a white paper on the welfare and personal support to Britain's Armed Forces. These new measures are regarded as part of the drive to improve the nation's duty of care to those who serve on its behalf.
"We are trying to improve the care for veterans across government departments to give a comprehensive package of support. We are aware we have a duty of care and we are determined to deliver on it," added the source.
In August, the mental health study by King's College, London, of 5500 personnel focused on the 20% deployed for more than 13 months over a three-year period between 2001 and 2006.
It found those who were in this category were more likely to have had symptoms of PTSD and problems at home during and after deployment.
One in four had "severe" alcohol problems compared with one in 10 of those deployed for less than five months.
PTSD was found in 5.2% of those deployed above the 13-month limit, compared with 3% of those who spent less than five months in conflict zones.
The report was published in the context of claims of overstretch in the Armed Forces and found almost nine out of 10 of those who had been deployed in the previous three years had spent time in Iraq.
At the time, Mr Twigg accepted the Armed Forces were stretched but denied they were overstretched.
He noted: "We recognise mental illness as a serious and disabling condition and we want to ensure that our people have the best possible mental health support."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article