Falklands veterans with PTSD must ask for help, says charity

VETERANS of the Falklands War suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are yet to come forward, four decades after the conflict began, a charity has warned.

Yesterday marked 40 years since Argentinian troops landed on the Falkland Islands in an attempt to conquer what the country claims as its territory and calls the Malvinas.

Britain responded with a naval task force that sailed 8,000 miles to the South Atlantic, landing ground forces on May 21 and liberating the islands within another three weeks.

The fight claimed the lives of 225 British servicemen and 649 Argentinians as well as three civilians.

The average age of British servicemen was 19, meaning that most veterans are likely yet to reach their sixties. Carol Betteridge, the head of clinical and medical services at Help for Heroes and a veteran of Afghanistan, said that some psychological issues take years and decades to emerge and that the anniversary could act as a “trigger”.

“[It] doesn’t matter if it was 40 years ago, or longer than that, it’s never too late to come forward and ask for that support,” she said.

Speaking at the relaunch of the London Imperial War Museum’s Falklands gallery on Friday, Hilary Roberts, a senior curator, said that the war marked a change in attitudes towards trauma.

“It was also a conflict in which people began to reassess the long-term legacy of trauma, and they realised that you didn’t need to go through a global war lasting years to be traumatised, you could go through a 74-day conflict, which ended inconclusively and still suffer long-term effects,” she said.

In the decades after, and accelerated by the Gulf War of 1990-91, there was a greater recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For many who served in the Falklands, however, that change came too late.

According to South Atlantic Medal Association veterans’ group, by 2002 the number of servicemen who had taken their own lives after the war exceeded the number killed during the conflict. The Ministry of Defence later released research that it said disproved that claim, saying the figure was 92.

Mike Carr, who fought in the Falklands with the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, said at the time there was a culture among servicemen of not seeking help. Being OK is “just a mask”, Mr Carr said.