Veterans’ Minister Visits Combat Stress
On Wednesday 22 February, we were delighted to welcome Johnny Mercer, Minister of State for Veterans’ Affairs, as well as Jessie Owen, Director of the Office for Veterans Affairs, to Tyrwhitt House. The Minister spoke to our clinical team about the work we do and how we develop our treatment in response to the needs of veterans, before he was guided through an insightful tour of our sensory modulation, art therapy and occupational therapy rooms.
The Minister met with the veterans currently residing at Tyrwhitt House for a short stay, as part of their longer year-long treatment under the VICTOR programme. This is our new intensive programme for complex PTSD, Veterans’ Intensive Complex Trauma Organised Recovery. This programme involves over a year of treatment and support, including Occupational Therapy, Art therapy, Individual and Group Psychotherapy.
We were also delighted to learn on the same day that two research projects have been funded by the Office for Veterans Affairs’ Health Innovation Fund.
Working in partnership with Swansea University and King’s College London, the Combat Stress research team are developing a smartphone-based app to reduce harmful gambling and PTSD symptoms among veterans.
Also with King’s College London, the team are adapting the DrinksRation App which was developed for male veterans to help women manage and reduce the amount of alcohol they drink. The original app focused on males as they represent nearly 90% of the UK armed forces but research has shown that female veterans report symptoms of drinking at a level which is harmful to their health.
Jeff Harrison, Chief Executive of Combat Stress, said: “We constantly strive to improve and evolve our treatment methods to give veterans the opportunity to live full and fulfilling lives and this is informed by research. We are delighted that we have received two grants to explore how we can help those veterans who may need support to manage their gambling and drinking.
"It was also a great opportunity for the Minister and his team to hear first hand from veterans themselves and we look forward to continuing to work closely together to ensure that all veterans with serious mental health issues who need it, will have access to the best possible care”.
We managed to catch up with Johnny before he left to ask him about Combat Stress and the work we do. You can watch the video below.