One million veterans suffering with mental health

24 September 2012

Up to one million former members of the armed forces could be suffering from mental health problems, with many facing a postcode lottery when it comes to treatment, a former MoD head of defence clinical psychology has warned.

Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes reportedly said there was a growing problem in the varying quality in treatment.

"There is a postcode lottery as to what service a veteran gets," he said, according to the Press Association.

"There are lots of excellent services for veterans but not everyone has access to them. There are large areas of the country where they are no specialist mental health provisions.

"Some might get a very good secondary mental health service, they might get a very good primary service, they might get a service called Veterans' First Point or they might get a service from Combat Stress or they might get nothing."