Mental health services for veterans survey – deadline for responses 5pm 31 March 2016

We want our services to be easily accessible to veterans, to take account of their experiences, and to give them high-quality and sensitive care, treatment and support – regardless of when they leave the armed forces. So the NHS wants to hear from anyone who has opinions to offer.

The NHS provides 12 mental health services across England specifically for veterans. They enable specialist staff to care for veterans with mental health needs, direct them to the most appropriate service and give them effective treatment. Most of the contracts for these services are due to end in September 2016. So this gives us an opportunity to ask you what you think of them. The NHS wants to hear from anyone who has opinions to offer, and particularly from:

• people who have served in the armed forces (whether as a reservist or regular) and have used or are currently using NHS veterans’ mental health services

• family members and carers

• staff and organisations that are providing mental health care, treatment and support for veterans and their families. 

The NHS England engagement on mental health services for veterans  survey and supporting information can be accessed at: https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/veterans-mental-health-services The deadline for responses is 5pm on 31 March 2016. 

The survey includes sets of tailored questions for each of the above audiences, however, NHS England welcomes views from anyone who has an interest in veterans’ mental health and people can choose which section they wish to complete.

A hard copy engagement document including a detachable survey and free post envelope has been produced, along with a leaflet and poster.  A limited number of these are available and if you would like to place an order, please email ENGLAND.VMH-Engagementhub@nhs.net.

We have arranged for the engagement document to be translated in to Nepalese to enable the involvement of the ex-Gurkha community. Please download a Nepalese version here

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about the engagement, please email andreacollins1@nhs.net