Give ex-troops more help with PTSD, pleads soldier’s widow
THE widow of a former soldier who killed himself while suffering from PTSD has demanded that the Government tackles the growing mental health crisis among military veterans.
Dave Jukes, 49, committed suicide at his Birmingham home earlier this month. He had battled for years with acute depression triggered by service in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia.
Just three weeks earlier, the former lance-corporal had written to specialist NHS veterans’ mental health services warning he needed “to be put away” or he would kill himself. Despite his pleas, he was never sectioned.
Mr Jukes is believed to be the 48th former or serving serviceman or woman to take their own life this year.
His wife, Jo Jukes, 47, has written to Jackie Doyle-Price, the new suicide prevention minister, urging her to take action to address the failings in mental health services for veterans.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, she said: “My husband was asked to serve his country but was abandoned and repeatedly let down. How many times does someone need to ask to be sectioned before something is done?
“I don’t think the NHS understands the symptoms of combat PTSD, which can result in them appearing resistant to treatment, at times due to their ingrained military persona which can appear aggressive and erratic.”
Her letter catalogues how she and her two daughters struggled to cope with a “Jekyll and Hyde” suffering nightmares and paranoid episodes.
She wrote: “It is absurd that we as a society can create killers then dump them without the correct support.”
Mrs Jukes warned how the mental health “crisis” facing veterans was out of control, adding: “It is the prime responsibility of the Government to get a grip on this and lead from the front.”
In an email to the NHS’s Veterans’ Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service (TILS) weeks before his death, Mr Jukes wrote: “I think I need to be put away for a time before I lose it and do something I don’t mean to.
“And it will give the ones I love a break … I’ve never had to fight myself this much before and it’s hurting me. All I want to do is never wake up and let them be happy.”
When Mrs Jukes followed up that email because her husband was clearly suicidal she was advised by the unit to call 111, an NHS line for non-threatening emergencies.
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, which runs the TILS service assigned to Mr Jukes, said it would “investigate all of the circumstances”.
While Mrs Jukes accepts her husband was “very difficult” to cope with, she says his problems stemmed from guilt and memories from his service. “When ill, he was not the man I married eight years ago,” she added.
Stephen James, of All Call Signs, which helps veterans with mental issues, said they were dealing with similar cases “time and time again”.
He added: “Until the Government takes responsibility and provides a single point of contact for veterans seeking help, we’re going to keep losing our nation’s heroes to hidden wounds.”
Mrs Jukes and All Call Signs want the Government to make coroners keep a record of veterans who kill themselves to monitor the scale of the problem.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said it had provided an extra £22.5million since 2010 to treat veterans’ mental and physical health needs, with an extra £9million injected for early treatment.
‘I don’t think the NHS understands symptoms of combat PTSD, which can result in them appearing resistant to treatment’