Operation Courage - The Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Service
We provide free mental health services to ex-serving members of the UK Armed Forces and service personnel, including those who are making the transition to civilian life and reservists.
We work with veterans and service leavers living in, or registered with a GP in, East Sussex, West Sussex, Brighton & Hove. You can self-refer by completing our referral form, or you can contact us to discuss your referral. We also accept referrals from any professional or agency working with a veteran.
The Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Service includes:
Transition Intervention and Liaison Service
The Transition Intervention and Liaison Service works with people who have served in the Armed Forces who may need mental health and wellbeing support.
We'll carry out an assessment to look at the difficulties you may be experiencing and discuss your mental health and other problems e.g. money, employment, housing. We'll try to help by making a diagnosis of your mental health and create a shared understanding of how different problems link together, why they are happening, how they developed and what can be done about them.
Complex Treatment Service
The Complex Treatment Service is a local community-based service for ex-service personnel who have military-related complex mental health problems that have not improved with earlier care and treatment.
The service provides intensive care and treatment including support for drug and alcohol misuse, physical health, employment, housing, relationships and finances, as well as occupational and trauma-focused therapies.
High Intensity Service
The High Intensity Service is a specialist mental health service for military veterans and their families that will support veterans, and families, who are experiencing a crisis or who are at risk of a crisis. The service works in collaboration with other services and will also help people who struggle to engage with services.
As a UK military veteran or family of a veteran facing mental health crisis, you can self-refer.
Call us on 023 9438 7924 or email snhs.
You can refer yourself directly to us for help. We know that it can be hard taking the first step into treatment yourself, for that reason you can also be referred by any professional working with veterans from any organisation.
The more background information you can give the better our assessment will be, but as a minimum we need you to provide:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Contact details
- GP details
- Brief reason for referral
- If the client is aware of the referral (if making the referral on behalf of a veteran)
You can either complete this form and email it to cim-tr.
All referrals must be accompanied by a signed 'Consent to Release Service and Medical Information' form which is included in the referral form.
We aim to respond to all referrals within 48 hours.
A team in London manages all referrals before passing referals to us.
You can refer by letter, or by sending your completed form to:
Veterans' Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service
St Pancras Hospital
4th Floor, West Wing
4 St Pancras Way
London
NW1 0PE
If you'd like to discuss a referral please contact us on: 020 3317 6818.
We understand that caring for or being a family member of a veteran with mental health problems can be difficult and that partners and families of veterans' face specific challenges.
We welcome you to accompany your partner or family member to an appointment to discuss any problems that you are having. As part of this we may assess your own needs.
We also recommend Ripple Pond, the organisation that provides group support for families of veterans.
You can find out more in our information leaflet for carers and families.
This video shows what some of the veterans who have used our services think about it:
Locations
Wentworth House
Wentworth House
Crawley Hospital
West Green Drive
Crawley
West Sussex
RH11 7DH