Trauma Awareness Training for Employers to boost Employment of Forces’ Veterans

In an initiative to support the employment of veterans of the armed forces, services charity PTSD Resolution is providing Trauma Awareness Training for Employers.

TATE helps line managers in industry to identify symptoms of PTSD in staff and then fast-track effective treatment, which is free to veterans and reservists - www.ptsdresolution.org

Left untreated, the symptoms of trauma can result in extended sick-leave and potential legal liability for an employer, says PTSD Resolution: “An estimated 20 per cent of ex-servicemen and women have psychological problems from war zone deployment, according to research in the USA. Overall, mental health disorders account for one in five of all work days lost and cost UK employers £25bn each year, as reported by NICE,” says Patrick Rea, campaign director.

PTSD Resolution is a charity (No. 1133188) that offers free treatment to UK Armed Forces veterans and reservists, with an 83 per cent success rate, according to a pilot study with the Falklands Veterans Association.

The charity also now provides training for line managers and HR professionals to meet employers’ statutory obligations and to help avoid the commercial impact and personal cost to the employee of trauma. Training is suited to CIPD professional human resource managers and line managers in the banking, security, close protection, counter terrorism and related sectors – as well as retail managers and staff who may be exposed to trauma.

According to Patrick Rea: “ With the correct training, managers can recognise post-traumatic symptoms and understand the effects of trauma on staff behaviour. They can then engage with traumatised people to identify practical options and find a clear route to resolving workplace difficulties caused by trauma.”

Discounts are available for members of the CIPD and Institute of Directors.

Key Facts on PTSD Resolution

• 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

ends…

For further information on training for employers and free mental health support for armed forces veterans and reservists: www.ptsdresolution.org telephone 0845 021 7873

Tags: