Sheffield report reveals recommendation to mental health services for veterans

Sheffield report reveals recommendation to mental health services for veterans. Mental health services for armed forces veterans suffering from a variety of mental health conditions should be staffed by people with knowledge and understanding of the Armed Forces, a University of Sheffield report has recommended. The report outlines the results of a study of six pilot sites, which were launched by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in collaboration with the UK´s Health Departments in a bid to develop culturally aware, community-based services led by the NHS, which veterans are comfortable to access and use. Experts at the University´s Centre for Psychological Services Research, led by Professor Michael Barkham, evaluated and compared the results of the pilot studies, which each trialled new ways of providing mental health services to veterans. The new methods allowed veterans to self –refer, focused on accurate assessment and diagnosis and provided access to a choice of mental health interventions, including mainstream local NHS treatments, more specialist NHS treatment and support from specialist organisations such as Combat Stress. Another important feature of the pilots was the development of a complementary network from a variety of statutory and third sector organisations, which provided veterans with wider social support and advice on housing, employment, training, volunteering, debt and benefits. The findings showed that while the NHS can and does successfully engage with and treat veterans with mental health problems if services are configured with their needs in mind, it would be beneficial for veterans to be able to self-refer themselves to a service.