Armed Forces Day 2020: Northampton mental health hospital’s reminder for veterans and serving personnel

A local mental health hospital is reminding current and former armed forces personnel that there is support available.

To mark Armed Forces Day 2020, St Andrew’s hospital is reassuring service men and women that their mental health is important and that there is medical support available to them.

The hospital has also marked the day by releasing a poem, which can be heard above, written by a former soldier who uses the Veterans Complex Treatment Service at St Andrew’s.

In the poem a Former Lance Corporal speaks about his past struggles with mental health, his recovery and his hopes for the future.

He describes his mental health journey as the Final Battle and speaks candidly about how he was too scared to speak up about the struggles he was enduring, but after years of not being heard.

Melanie Coxall, clinical psychologist for the Veterans Service at St Andrew’s, said: “This Armed Forces day I want to remind all those serving past and present, how important it is to take care of your mental health. By just taking a moment every day to pay attention to your body, your mood, your thoughts and your behaviour.

“Asking for help is often the bravest and most difficult thing we can do. But it can give you a way of making sense of what’s happening, and to help you find a way out of your pain.”

Dr Pete McAllister, who was a former army psychiatrist and now works at St Andrew’s, explained due to the nature of their job people in the armed forces will have been exposed to some really dangerous things, which ‘can have a cost on their mental health’.

He said: “There is a great deal of help out there you simply have to ask.

“If you’re now ex-forces, if you’re part of the Veterans community, let your GP know that you used to serve, that entitles you to additional care and special services just for you.”

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