Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that former armed forces personnel are able to access metal health services.

Veterans on average have very similar mental health needs to the general population. Most services used by veterans are provided by mainstream NHS services, often without their veteran status being disclosed. However, additional bespoke services have been provided in England to meet service related needs.

In 2017 NHS England launched the Veterans Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service (TILs) which increases access and treatment to appropriate and timely mental health services for both armed forces serving personnel approaching discharge and veterans with mental health difficulties.

NHS England also launched the Veterans Mental Health Complex Treatment Service in April 2018, which builds on the launch of TILs and provides an enhanced service for veterans who have military-attributable complex mental health problems that have not been resolved earlier in the care/support pathway.