We have taken the work in relation to veterans' mental health quite some way over the last two years, or over the last four years, actually. But it's only over the last two that there has been real progress made. Any veteran will of course have access to the National Health Service mental health services in any event. They will have immediate access to that.
As for what we've done, Dr. Murrison, MP, produced a report in October 2010 called “Fighting Fit”. It's publicly available. It can just be googled.
The report made a number of recommendations around veterans' mental health, including such things as an online mental health provision, which we do in partnership with Big White Wall, and the creation of veterans' mental health teams around England. We've put in place 10 veterans' mental health teams around England. We've also put in an e-learning package for GPs, so that when somebody presents in front of them, they have that to refer to. We have a 24-hour helpline that we've put in place in partnership with Combat Stress, one of the leading veterans' mental health charities here.
We're in the process of producing something called the veterans information service. This will be a process whereby folk who have discharged from the armed forces will be contacted a year or so after discharge by e-mail, and by letter if needs be. Basically, they will just be asked how they are and whether they need help with certain mental health problems, but also with other issues, such as housing, welfare, benefits, etc.
We're working in collaboration with the Royal British Legion here to provide a one-stop shop to help with those problems. Obviously, depending on their problem, they may go on to statutory services or charity services.
We've also created the National Veterans' Mental Health Network, which brings together the devolved administrations of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and also brings in the service charities and the statutory services. The idea there is to bring together the learning as we're presenting these programs, and to bring the best of those programs together. We're now at the stage where we're looking beyond 2014 and 2015, if you like, to see how we actually embed these services into the NHS.
So have they been successful or a work in progress? Both. I think it's an 80:20 situation. We still have more to go.