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Double your Donation with Matched Funding to Relieve UK Military PTSD on December 6, 7 and 8 from 10:00am

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The #BigGive - a national scheme to encourage charitable giving at Christmas - can match on-line donations to PTSD Resolution and double the value of contributions to relieve the trauma of armed forces veterans, on December 6, 7, 8 from 10:00am each day. Donations can be made on-line to PTSD Resolution (reg. charity No. 1133188) via the link www.ptsdgive.co.uk

PTSD Resolution has a network of 200 counsellors nationwide to provide support to resolve military trauma, with a success rate of 8 out of 10 cases for veterans who complete the programme (Source: PTSD report 2012). The scheme helps soldiers, sailors and aircrew - and the charity works with other forces' charities, the prison service, NHS and other organisations.  

Symptoms of military trauma include flashbacks, nightmares and depression. Without appropriate help the result can be family breakdown, homelessness, criminality and even suicide.

According to PTSD Resolution chairman Colonel Tony Gauvain (retired): “PTSD Resolution offers fast help, with an average of just five counselling sessions required on an outpatient basis. No referrals are needed. PTSD Resolution is a very lean organisations: there are no salaried staff or premises: funds are used for therapy and to provide support and information on the help available”.

For further information: PTSD Resolution www.ptsdgive.co.uk.

Note to Editor:

  • PTSD Resolution is a charity (No. 1133188) that offers counselling with an 78% success rate to UK armed forces’ veterans, TA, reservists and dependants, to relieve mental health problems resulting from military service, to ease reintegration into a normal work & family life.
  • The PTSD Resolution national outreach programme has over 200 therapists.  It is private, confidential, local, and one-to-one. There is no referral needed, thus reducing any sense of stigma. Counselling is brief and effective – an average of five one-hour sessions.
  • PTSD 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 counsellors are trained in Human Givens Therapy (HGT)(refernce 1 below), which includes a form of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TFCBT), consistent with the guidelines of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
  • Veterans are not required to talk about the traumatic events. 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 TFCBT, similar to Imagery Re-scripting and Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT). (2)
  • The Resolution network was launched in February 2010, following a three-year pilot programme, which included a project with the Falklands Veterans Foundation (www.fvf.org.uk ) that helped ex-services personnel recover from symptoms which had lasted 25 years in some cases.
  • The programme has an 78% success rate (3) across the 157 UK veterans treated over a two year period. 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% reached a significant and sustained improvement after an average of 3.6 treatment sessions (4).
  • Counselling 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.
  • Counsellors 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 is absent from 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) Outcomes for ex-service personnel who received counselling by PTSD Resolution over two years. Of 157 who completed the programme, 78 per cent had symptoms reduced to below the clinical level, in an average of five sessions (2012).

www.ptsdresolution.org

PTSD Resolution
Meadow Cottage
Poundfield Road
Chalvington
Sussex
BN27 3TH

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ptsd PTSD Resolution military ptsd UK veterans biggive Human Givens Therapy PTSD Resolution national trauma awareness training

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