Alarm over surge in Army suicides

THERE has been a recent cluster of suicides among former British soldiers who foug ht i n A fg h a n i sta n , according to a report.

Some 14 former and serving army personnel are thought to have killed themselves in the past two months.

It is reported that “a high proportion are veterans of a particular grouping involved in Operation Herrick, Britain’s combat mission in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014”.

MP Johnny Mercer, the minister for veterans, told reporters he was particularly concerned about recent deaths involving “a specific unit that served at a specific ti me in Afghanistan... the bloodiest time”.

Mr Mercer, 38, said the spate of suicides would bring forward government plans for new mental health treatments for veterans, which are due to begin next month and complement NHS programmes on issues like PTSD, addiction, and debt.

Last year, the government said it would give funding to a study examining risk factors in the year leading up to veterans’ suicides.

It also said the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) veterans study would be extended to include recent service leavers and would be “updated on an ongoing basis to provide real-time monitoring of suicides”.

“Combined, these studies will provide increasingly robust data in order to understand whether suicide in the ex-forces community is disproportionate compared to the rest of the UK general population and will identify potential interventions in order to prevent suicide”, the Government has said.

“I want to understand at exactly what stage we could or should have intervened i n that process,” Mr Mercer said.

The MoD said Mr Mercer had given the interview in a private capacity.

Johnny Mercer