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from the Hull Daily Mail/East Riding Mail on Wednesday, September 24

Traumatised soldiers are being offered help by a service that specialises in helping those suffering from mental stress. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Humber Traumatic Stress Service has seen a fourfold rise in the number of soldiers seeking help to deal with frontline demons. Now, mental health chiefs are in talks with Catterick – Britain’s biggest Army garrison – to ensure soldiers get help straight away. Currently, the service only takes referrals from GPs once people have been discharged from the armed forces. But clinical psychologist Jennie Ormerod, who arrived at the service in 2002, said: “We want to be able to reach soldiers before they leave the Army. They should not have to wait.” According to figures obtained by the Mail, 150 service personnel are medically discharged each year on mental health grounds. But more could be suffering in silence, fearing being “downgraded” after a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The service has seen a fourfold increase in the number of people it has helped since 2003, from 10 to about 40 referrals. Mrs Ormerod said: “Two more staff members have joined the service. Most of our patients tend to be those who came out of the forces in their 20s.” The service is run by Humber Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust at its College House headquarters off Beverley Road, Willerby. Mrs Ormerod said: “Many patients had gone straight to Iraq after finishing training and have been exposed to severe trauma. “They have lived under constant threat from mortars or perhaps seen their friends killed. “Some of them joined the Army with the intention of making it their career. But their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan made them think twice and get out. “Not all soldiers are being medically discharged. They are leaving because careers are being affected. There is a sense there is not a lot being done for them.” Former Lance Corporal David Harrison, a patient at the service, witnessed three fellow soldiers being shot dead on a base in 2003. The father of two, of Beverley, quit the Army in September 2005, but not before he spent months suffering from PTSD. He sought help after advice from Sergeant Lee Clegg, who hit the headlines in 1990 after shooting dead two teenagers who sped through a West Belfast checkpoint in a stolen car. He had mistaken the teenagers for terrorists. Sgt Clegg was convicted of murder, but the conviction was later overturned. Mr Harrison said he owes his sanity to Sgt Clegg, who is serving as a medic on the frontline in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He said: “I was losing my temper and back-chatting Lee. He took me to one side and said he thought I was suffering from PTSD. He recognised the signs, because he’d been there himself.” A Military of Defence spokesman said: “We are encouraged by the increasing number of veterans who feel able to present their problems.”

Links Ministry of Defence www.mod.gov.uk Humber Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust www.humber.nhs.uk