Big Give Initiative to double donations to Military PTSD Charity

The Big Give - a national scheme to encourage charitable giving at Christmas - will double the value of donations made to armed forces’ charity PTSD Resolution during the week commencing Monday December 5th 2011. To make a donation, the Big Give web site is at:- www.ptsdgive.co.uk

PTSD Resolution (reg. charity No. 1133188) provides free treatment to resolve military trauma. Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares and depression. Without appropriate help the result can be family breakdown, homelessness, criminality and even suicide.

PTSD Resolution has an 83 per cent success rate in resolving military trauma through the 200 therapists in its national network, the charity says.

According to chairman of trustees Tony Gauvain: “ We offer fast help, with no waiting lists and between three to five one-hour sessions required on an outpatient basis. Access is free for veterans and reservists and no referrals are needed. PTSD Resolution is a very lean organisations: there are no salaried staff or premises: all funds are used for therapy and to provide information on the therapy available”.

For further information: PTSD Resolution www.ptsdgive.co.uk. Tel 0845 021 7873. e-mail sb@ptsdresolution.org

Note to Edtors:

• PTSD Resolution (registered charity No. 1133188) provides treatment  to UK armed forces’ veterans, TA and reservists to relieve mental health problems resulting from military service, so as to ease reintegration into a normal work & family life.

• The PTSD Resolution national outreach programme has over 200 therapists. Treatment is on an outpatient basis, to support family and work routines. It is free, confidential, local, on a one-to-one basis, with no waiting lists and no referral is needed. Therapy is brief and effective – generally within three to five one-hour sessions treatment is ended by mutual agreement. It is unusual for further support to be needed subsequently.

• Resolution offers employers Trauma Awareness Training to support the successful integration of veterans and TA in the workplace.  The half-day modular courses enable line managers and HR staff  to recognise potential symptoms of trauma and identify a clear route to resolving any workplace difficulties

• Resolution therapists are trained in Human Givens Therapy (HGT)  (1).  Used in psychological trauma as a form of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), this treatment for PTSD is consistent  with the guidelines of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

• Patients are not required to talk about the events that may have caused the traumatic memory. The programme policy is that re-exposure is better done in the client’s visual imagination and while in a relaxed state, protecting confidentiality and reducing distress. This is a relatively new development of trauma-focussed CBT, similar to Imagery Re-scripting and Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT). (2)

• The Resolution network was launched in February 2010. This followed a three-year pilot programme, which included a project with the Falklands Veterans Foundation (www.fvf.org.uk ) that helped ex-services personnel recover successfully after experiencing the symptoms of PTSD for 25 years in some cases.

• Overall the programme has had a better than 83 per cent success rate (3) in resolving the condition for the 150 UK veterans of the armed services treated to date. This is similar to the recovery rate in the recent study of 599 stress-related cases from the general population who were treated using HGT: over 70 per cent reached a significant and sustained improvement after an average of 3.6 treatment sessions (4).

• Treatment is complementary to the work of other armed forces charities, because it can resolve the immediate mental health issues that may be barriers to successful help under reintegration and resettlement programmes.

• Therapists work in prisons, and there is an active programme of engagement with the prison service nationally. The patron of the charity is Lord Ramsbotham, former Inspector of Prisons. There are an estimated 8,500 veterans in prison with 3,000 on parole (5). NAPO estimates that half this number suffer from PTSD and related disorders. 

• Resolution provides a service that has been missing in the national provision for veterans’ mental health; of those veterans that access treatment through other channels, research suggests that the majority approach their GP and just receive medication, without dealing with the trauma.  One study of vulnerable veterans found that only 4% of those seeking treatment had been offered evidence-based therapeutic help (6).

References:-

(1) What is Human Givens Therapy:  See www.hgi.org.uk

(2) Holmes, E. A., et al., 2007. Imagery rescripting in cognitive behaviour therapy.  Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

(3) Bishop, P., O’Callaghan, B., 2010. Effectiveness of HG Therapy for war veterans [online]. Available at: http://abstracts.bps.org.uk/index.cfm?&ResultsType=Abstracts&ResultSet_ID=5713&FormDisplayMode=view&frmShowSelected=true&localAction=details

(4) Andrews, W.P. et al., 2011.  Piloting a practice research network: A 12-month

evaluation of the Human Givens approach in primary care at a general medical practice. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice

(5) Ex-Armed Forces Personnel and the Criminal Justice System: NAPO Report, August 2008

(6) Iverson, A., van Staden, L., Hughes, J., Browne, T., Hull, I., Hall, J., et al. (2009) The prevalence of common mental disorders and PTSD in the UK military: using data from a clinical interview-based study. BMC Psychiatry. 9:68

www.ptsdresolution.org. Tel 0845 021 7873. e-mail sb@ptsdresolution.org.  - Facebook: http://is.gd/4RPUV

Tags: