PTSD Resolution UK Forces' Veterans Mental Healthcare. The charity provides treatment through a UK network of 200 therapists. Treatment is free to Veterans, prompt, with verified results.

1. PTSD RESOLUTION
Colonel Tony Gauvain (Retired)
Chairman

2. The Hidden Injury
 The dead - remember
 The visibly injured - repair and support
 The invisibly injured – ignore and forget

3. Invisibly injured – the challenge
 Numbers
 5 million Veterans, + 20,000 each year
 20% with MH problems = 1 million cases
 + Reservists and families = another million?
 Time “ticking bomb” – ‘late onset’ – 2030….?

4. Why invisible?
 Ignorance – “I thought there was something wrong
but I didn’t know what”
 Denial – “There’s nothing wrong with me”
 Avoidance – “I’ll run away, hide, lock myself up…”
 Guilt – “Why did I survive and not him?”
 Stigma/shame – “I’m not meant to be like this”

5. The Journey
Diagnosis
Treatment
Compensation
Event
Carry on
Sleep problems
Alcohol
Job problems
Relationship
The Law
Trauma resolution
PTSD status

6. What’s wrong with the present
‘system’?
 Diagnosis is hard to get – time, distance
 Symptoms pathologised separately
 GPs often prescribe meds for anxiety etc
 Psychiatrists often prescribe meds and/or in-
reach
 IAPTs, Combat Stress - delays, distance,
poor results
 Families lost in the NHS, not acknowledged

7. Non diagnosis
 Deterioration of emotional control – anger
 Damage to relationships at work and home
 Co-morbidity not treated – one symptom at a
time
 Increasing despair and distress
 Self medication on drink and drugs
 Resort to crime for funds, anger, revenge
 Courts, prison

8. Self diagnosis and referral
 Self awareness
 Family awareness
 Employer awareness
 Early intervention
 Self referral

9. What’s needed?
 One number to ring or address to email
 Immediate and intelligent response
 Early therapeutic engagement
 Local to home
 As few sessions as possible
 Privacy, no referrals required
 Humane, no re-living or re-telling
 Cheap, or free to those who cannot afford
 All symptoms dealt with incl drink

10. What’s needed? (Contd)
 Hope
 Psycho-education
 Involvement of Families
 Involvement of work colleagues if necessary
 Better understanding in the judicial system
 Recognition that PTS changes people and
should be taken into account when
sentencing

11. Sample PTSD Resolution data
 1212 Cases since 2009, 7 per week
 150 sample cases evaluated
 CORE10 and IES-E measures both used
 4 females, 146 males
 Mean age 43, range 23 - 85
 Mean no. of treatment sessions between 5
and 6

12. PTSD Resolution evidence of
effectiveness - snapshot
 Using the IES-E scores:
• 131 cases had a valid pre-treatment score
• 122 had a valid post-treatment score (93% data
capture)
• For these 122 cases, pre-treatment average score was
54 and post-treatment average score was 24
• 79 of these 122 cases were above 50 pre-treatment
• 66 of these 79 (83%) were below 50 post-treatment
• 59 of these 79 cases (75%) had improved by 20 points
or more

13. Call to Action
 One number 0300 302 0551
 200 therapists UK wide
 Sustainable funds NEEDED for therapists
 Trauma Awareness OFFERED
 for employers
 for families
 Charity Support needed– volunteers, trustees
 www.ptsdresolution.org
 Thank you 