We need to tell the whole story about what life is like for our veterans

This week saw a renewed focus on the number of Armed Forces veterans suffering with mental health problems.

The figures from Combat Stress – one of the organisations doing invaluable work for our veterans – are quite alarming, with a 57% increase in the number of veterans from Afghanistan seeking mental health support from 2012-13. That’s a total of 358 new referrals, taking Combat Stress’ caseload of Afghanistan Veterans to over 660 and of course there are veterans receiving treatment or support through other organisations too.

The Armed Forces themselves, alongside Forces charities, veterans and serving personnel, have worked hard to create a culture where it is now more acceptable to seek help for mental ill-health or injury. Our Armed Forces, past and present, have never been held in higher esteem, and their service and sacrifice for our country is acknowledged by people through Britain.

But we need to be careful that we see the whole picture. Through my own discussions with individual veterans and organisations working with them, the message often hear is that they don’t want military personnel to be presented as either heroes or hopeless, and nothing in between. Veterans appreciate recognition of their service and achievements, but they don’t want you to think they’re either super humans or broken humans.

Around 20,000 people leave our armed forces every year. For most of them service has been a positive experience which lends itself well to a new life outside of the military. Veterans and charities in the military sector are clear that they don’t want the public to think that signing up to the armed forces is a one way ticket to unemployment, unhappiness or mental health problems. It is not. The skills, experience and expertise gained by service in the Armed Forces mean that many service leavers are quickly snapped up by employers. Labour’s Veterans’ Interview Programme, adopted by the government, helps get them in front of an interview panel so that businesses can see for themselves just how much those who have served have got to offer.

That is not to say that we should be complacent, and Labour is clear that the Armed Forces Covenant means those who have served and have either a physical injury or mental health issue because of their service should receive every help they need to get well again. And in most cases that means specialist services. So to ensure our policies and approach are based on evidence, we should commission long term research so that we can better understand the impact of deployment, combat, and return, over an extended period of time. That also means assessing existing provision to see what is working, and the government should ensure that it continually monitors the performance of its mental health services provided to current and former members of the Armed Forces.

Mental health services are a vital source of support and advice for our service men and women, but not all of our veterans require them. We have a duty to help those in need, who have suffered because of their service. We also have a responsibility to those whose lives have been improved enormously by being in the Armed Forces. We need to talk about them both to tell the full story of what life is like for our veterans.

Gemma Doyle MP is Shadow Veterans Minister