ALMOST 500 Armed Forces personnel have sought help from a fast-track mental health service set up in the region last year.

As the nation prepares to mark Remembrance Sunday, when attention falls on those who have given their lives in conflicts around the world, charities said the sheer scale of the response at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, showed the need to also remember those who had survived tours of duty, but were experiencing the aftereffects.

NHS officials last night revealed that since the Vulnerable Veterans and Adult Dependents (VVADS) service was launched at Catterick Garrison, it has dealt with 480 referrals from four surgeries.

So far, the specially-trained therapists providing the service have had contact with 2,000 patients and provided 1,300 hours of therapy.

VVADS was set up to help people suffering from common mental health difficulties including anxiety, depression or more complex conditions such as post-traumatic stress.

Unusually, the service employs therapists who are veterans themselves or are experienced in working within military communities.

The new service – which allows people to be seen within weeks rather than years – has now been shortlisted for a national Ministry of Defence award.

Programme manager Andy Wright said: “Since its start, VVADS has become an integral part of Catterick Garrison and has helped transform primary care mental health services locally. We look to intervene at the earliest opportunity.

"Cognitive behavioural therapy is the main treatment used by clinicians at the garrison, which allows veterans and the dependants of service personnel to talk through their problems.”

A service-user satisfaction questionnaire used by the VVADS showed that 81 per cent of patients were very satisfied and 19 per cent satisfied with the treatment they received.

A total of 88 per cent stated the problem they had been referred for had been mostly, or completely resolved.

Garreth Murrell, a former Bosnia and Northern Ireland veteran who conquered posttraumatic stress disorder by using an approach known as neuro-linguistic programming, now runs a charity called Veterans of Ease from an office in Spennymoor, County Durham.

Mr Murrell, 42, said: “The numbers seen by this service don’t surprise me at all. I have seen estimates that there may be more than a million veterans in the UK who are dealing with combat-related posttraumatic stress alone.”

Mr Murrell said he believed there was much more needed to be done to meet the demand from veterans and their families for mental health services.

Andrew Drake, manager of the North-East branch of the British Legion, said: “The numbers really show how much this is needed. It has been extremely beneficial and is a very worthwhile project.”

The VVADS scheme is part of the Government’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for Veterans programme.