The Contact Group is delighted to announce that, following a successful funding application, the Veterans’ Foundation has agreed to provide a grant to facilitate increased capacity and faster access to mental health treatment for veterans through a dedicated treatment fund aimed at addressing unmet demand. The funding will be disbursed to established charitable providers of veterans’ mental health treatment who are Contact members and participants in the Contact & Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quality Network for Veterans Mental Health Services (QNVMHS). Contact will provide coordination and advice on the distribution of funds based on estimates of current and future charity demand and capacity, and later on activity and outcomes data. The charity recipients of the first tranche of this targeted funding are: Combat Stress, Help for Heroes, Icarus Charity, PTSD Resolution and Walking With The Wounded. The veterans to benefit from this funding may be new or returning patients with these organisations who may otherwise not have been able to access treatment, or not have been able to access it in a timely way.
Dr Charles Winstanley, Independent Chair of Contact, said: “We are delighted that the Veterans’ Foundation has recognised the demand and capacity issues that are currently affecting many veterans being able to access quality mental health treatment in a timely way. We are looking forward to working with the Veterans’ Foundation and treatment-providing charity partners to ensure that this dedicated fund is appropriately targeted and effectively used to achieve its strategic aims and help veterans in need access the quality treatment they urgently require.”